Inerestingly enough, I do give a damn, but I'll be damned if I can explain exactly why. Perhaps it's just natural curiosity, but I find a strong need to ascertain the gender of the person I'm communicating with. After all, with conversation - whether direct or by telephone - we can usually tell the gender of the speaker by the sound of his/her voice. With written correspondence, unless we know the person, we use cues such as the name to suggest gender, and I must admit to being uncomfortable with the "Dear Sir/Madam" scenario in the case of doubt. Being a bit slow picking up clues to gender from expressions of opinion, I find that I resort, mostly sub-consciously, to making assumptions about gender from people's noms de plume, sometimes incorrectly to my subsequent surprise. Sometimes I'll check people's details, sometimes not.
Which raises an interesting thought that has been in the back of my mind for some time? How much of the "real" person do we see behind the personae on our board? Could someone get away with a completely different character from his/her own? Could someone we know actually be several of our well-known contributors at the same time, even exchanging barbs or witticisms with him-herself?? I suspect it's a rare, perhaps non-existent, phenomenon, and I hope that by raising it I haven't detracted from the whole experience. It may even add some mystery for some....
