The following appears in the personal blogsite of San Pablo City's very own locally under-rated, internationally reknown comic book writer and artist - Gerry Alanguilan. He discourages anonymous comments on his blogsite for very good reasons - respect and decency.

Before You Post

This blog discourages anonymous comments. I am hoping that visitors to this site (and by extension, my home) offer some respect to me and everyone else by telling us who you are. It’s the human and decent thing to do.

If you believe in your opinion, you validate it by standing by it with your real name, and real email address.

Lively and intelligent discussion is encouraged, but I believe that this is only worthwhile when everyone treat each other with honesty and respect. I would hate not to post well thought out and intelligent messages because you didn’t give your identity.

Additionally, I believe much more can be achieved, and your message can be more appreciated if you are offer your opinion nicely. So be nice.

If you post anonymously and or if I think you’re being a little too nasty, it will not be posted. Your understanding is much appreciated.

If this meets with your disapproval, the Internet is a democratic place. Please feel free to set up your own place elsewhere and write in any manner you may please.

I have written a much more extensive article on why I discourage anonymous writers, and what my criteria is for “anonymous” in the link below:

COMMENTARY ON ANONYMOUS WRITERS
http://alanguilan.com/sanpablo/2006/02/commentary-on-anonymous-writers.html

I totally agree with his request and I'm copying it here in the hopes that maybe we can build this site and forum on the same basis. Let us respect each other's opinions no matter how right we think we are and how wrong everybody else is. Let us also be civil and decent in our messages and be responsible enough to know that the image we project in this site and in the forums will be the image that potential visitors and tourists will see.

His commentary on anonymous writers above expounds on the merits of properly identifying ourselves when we post messages or make statements, be it online or in the real world.  We should all put our best foot forward, stand up and be recognized if we are going to promote San Pablo City to the rest of the world.

At the moment, there are many sections in the forums, particularly in the General Chat area,  that are open to ANONYMOUS posters.  They just have to provide a temporary username and copy a security-code (for anti-spam) and publish their forum messages.  We will eventually limit those areas that are "open to anonymous people" when we get enough registered users.

James Tan