I don’t want people knowing my identity because I have an expensive hobby. I’ve had parts stolen, been trailed places(including home), hunted down by a guy who isn’t such a good fellow because he traced my car at a body shop(owner told me to steer clear of the guy when I asked who in the world was he), etc. This all without plastering my details on the internet. I really don’t see how it would benefit me to put myself on front street. The handle names allow you to determine if you trust the persons information when you read their posts. That’s enough for anyone to navigate a site about cars.

You can also be more candid about a given thing when direct retribution isn’t as huge of a threat. I’m sure some hacker coding whiz can still track me down, but this weeds out at least more than a few possibilities. People are absolutely nuts out there and it’s simple not worth gifting them info because they disagree about a car topic.

I’ve made friends off line with people over PM here and elsewhere and that works well.