When I first found this board, I was hesitant to post because I saw people identified themselves by name and posted their email addresses.

That violated every principle I had in regard to protecting my privacy online and avoiding SPAM. Over time I became comfortable with it and I post frequently always using my real name and a real email address.

This has not created any problems for me, and the email address that I post here receives 0 Spam, while other email addresses I use receive 10-20 SPAM messages/day.

You've identified yourself and I see nothing wrong with your using an alias that is in fact identified, but you must realize that in doing so there are people who will not take you seriously especially those who come along and have not seen this post where you identify yourself.

I for one would have hard time addressing you in an email or a post by your alias. "Dear Opossum" just strikes me as a silly way to start a letter at least since I graduated from college (I had a roommate named "Zeus" who I can't even remember his real name and a very close friend who most people only knew as "Muppet").

Yes we acknowledge that someone could use an alias that seemed like a real name and most of us would not think twice about dealing with that person, until they slipped up and we found out.