Being invisible goes in with my own explanation of how I read more than I post nowadays, similar to how Martyr put it; like Wolfpup as well, I don't like having a lot of people around me.

In my time as an un-anonymous user, I never got a PM from anyone asking why I didn't post in a thread.. just as I don't remember what made me go anonymous to begin with, I don't remember when I started to either. After clicking the option for whatever reason it was, it just became part of my logging in routine over time to do so.

I feel like you are giving people too much credit, I really doubt anyone pays that much attention or puts that much thought into it let alone cares if you respond or not.

Hiding from the wife

You'd be surprised. People do.

Do people actually voice it, though? I could see people paying attention to an admin or developer but I really doubt people would care what any other user is doing on the forums. I could be wrong though.

Not that I particularly care either way that the anonymous feature is offered, I just find the justification that people are going to expect you to reply or infer that you thought their thread was stupid to be somewhat silly.

Did you not just see Pseron Wyrd's post up there?

Back when I was more into keeping up with hardware and offered my advice helping people troubleshoot their PC/recommending hardware I had people ask why I didn't reply after seeing me in the "tech/hardware" thread. Sometimes I would read the post, just as I was going out, and figured I'd answer when I got back kinda thing. I'd find a PM or remark in the thread about them seeing me and me not posting. Some people even begging in all caps to help because they know I am there.

That's how it started, but I then just came to like being anonymous in general. I now do it on all forums I can. (This was my first forum so it holds special meaning for me. )

I did not.

I guess I can see its utility for general users as well, I suppose I am just not popular enough to need it .

The devs always make themselves known with those bright red, or yellow names.

Big brother is watching...

We do it to annoy you.

I personally started doing back in the RP boards. That way people aren't expecting a post whenever they see your name, and what not.

CARL! Knock it off! (Carl is my big brother )

I log on anonymous all the time. I have a feeling that, if a dev does want to read the forum, they do so as well. For past games, the poor devs that weren't invisible on the forum had their in-boxes flooded by questions they couldn't answer even if they had wanted to.

Cuts down on the "Hey look! Mr. Dev is reading the thread about rainbow ponies!!!!!! RAINBOW PONIES CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" stuff that used to go on. I tend to do it because some posters will actually manage to restrain themselves if they see a mod reading in the thread they were about to post a flame in. If I'm anonymous, they won't, and I get to quote the forum rules again, and do a lot of logging of the warning, the complaint about the warning, and the ban of the alt account made to bypass the suspension from the warning.

At times I signed in as Anonymous to see how my topic or post is doing. Other than that, it's sometimes a novel thing to see what it feels like to be a lurker.

I tried signing in as anonymous, but the "eye cursor" kept staring at me wide open. I svck at stealth

Sometimes I log in anonymously because I want privacy when browsing the forum.

So tell us about those rainbow ponies.

Anonymous users are basically heroes who need no credit, these are the acctual terms you agree to when you sign in as anonymous:

"Trolls gather, and now my lurking begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher in the threads. I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the rules of forums. I pledge my life and honor to the Anonymous users, for this forum and all the forums to come"

I like this! The terms are exceptionally easy to follow.

Not a dev, not an employee, and so have no idea. I work at a community college in the library. Afaik they could be adding rainbow pooping flying guars.

I just remember what happened every time someone noticed a dev reading a thread pre-oblivion. So many questions, demands for minute details, and justification to the poster's satisfaction for everything. I wasn't surprised that the devs posted less and less. It wasn't worth the hassle they got over things they couldn't answer.