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 am by nature a curious person which means i like to ask questions. Commenting anonymously is a phenomenon that I don’t understand. Why do people do it? In fact, why do YOU do it?

I find the idea of commenting anonymously at the least peculiar but at most annoying. Why leave a comment on somebody’s blog then sign it anonymous? If I believe in one thing enough to comment on, I’d put my name on it, declaring I stood by what I believe in. If I comment “cute babe”, “fabulous hair”, etc., I’d sign with my name to show that the admiration or appreciation came from me, and not from someone unknown to the blog owner.

Oh, okay so maybe there are times that we accidentally tripped the comment anonymously checkmark; yes, it could happen. But that isn’t what I’m talking about. I’m talking about deliberate, thought-about-beforehand commenting anonymously.

I can think of only ONE reason why people comment anonymously:

• obviously they would like to keep their identities secret (chances are they are probably someone you know)

But why keep your identity a secret? Is it to avoid having an unpopular opinion associated with you (and quite possibly avoiding losing subscribers to your blog as a result)? Or is it have the license to use bad language and drop the niceties of common courtesy? Or both?

Silverwhisper has something to say about this. Quote: I won’t go as far as to assume that all who comment anonymously are cowards, as they are described over at slashdot (the precise term over there is “anonymous coward”, or simply AC), because it assumes a certain degree of bad faith on the part of people who do post anonymously, and as i said, i don’t understand it so making such assumptions seems, at the very least, premature and prejudicial. Unquote.

That being said: OK, so maybe it’s just me. I’m curious and I got my opinions. Granted I gave out particularly unpleasant reasons, but I did say I didn’t understand it. So if you do comment anonymously, can you share your reasons for doing so?