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Since this thread has been split off, I no longer feel I need to restrain myself from additional comment.
Why are we using avatars to mask our identities in the first place if not to maintain at least an illusion of privacy? Certainly in a book-related forum we are for the most part exchanging only the most innocuous of opinions, why are we hiding behind avatars?
Why was the complementary poll asking for demographic information planned to be private from the start? Why should one's age, level of education, nationality be assumed to be private information? After all, we're mostly not using real names. Yet the privacy interest there is respected. Why the pushback on wanting privacy when it comes to opinion questions?
There seems to be an assumption that people who vote in a poll will also have commented in the thread the poll is a part of. But certainly it does not require much imagination to realize that people who don't comment might still decide to vote anonymously.
BearMountainBooks mentioned control. Maybe that's the key. We all of us have to give up so much privacy these days just to live in the modern world. So when I can exert even a little bit of control, or make it even a tiny bit harder for personal information to be collected, I do it.
Privacy should be the default. The burden should always be on those who seek to erode privacy, not on those who wish to maintain it. I don't need a reason to want privacy; you need a reason to take it away from me.
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