I hear you, and I agree with you.
I choose how I take part very specifically here, as I too do not want to post pictures of myself, my family, or any specific identifiers. So I have chosen to remain fairly vague in my personal details. I have my own excellent reasons for this, and they are very personal. They are the same reasons I refuse to participate in social media anywhere else. And my own reasons and why they exist are a giant trigger for me.
Those reasons are why I was ecstatic to learn about Hive.
There are several communities that I don't take part in because of this. Some require posters to share on social media, so those communities are off limits for me. Some require photo verification. I even tried to wear sunglasses and use the sun to hide my details in one community that I very much wanted to take part in. That wasn't enough for them, and they wanted video verification 🤯 so I left that group. It's sad, because there are several communities that I feel would inspire more of my ability to write and to come out of my shell. But I can't cross that boundary.
I can tell you that there are many communities that won't ask these things of you. Each community is like it's own little social club, each with different rules. I would feel exceptionally put-off if I had received the response you did, and I wish it wasn't a thing. Tagging, muting, downvoting; all of these make me very anxious as well. I haven't found that many people that are willing to admit the same.
I hope that you can find it in you to continue on, to find communities that don't make these ridiculous requirements. You are exactly the kind of writer that I personally hope can fill this space.
I'm not a techie, or a social media cryptopreacher; I'm an average middle-aged human with lots of personal issues and trauma that hopes to find community and has taken a last ditch effort to look here with optimism. Maybe we should form our own annonymous community? 😊🦋
PS: I don't know if you read my #introduceyourself post, but here is what I did to remain mostly anonymous while still providing info about myself: My Intro Post. Maybe a post similar would be enough for verification? I've never seen that photos or specific identifiers are required. There's got to be a work-around!
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Unfortunately, people have done that for millennia, we are just expanding into a virtual realm, I'm afraid. A safe space can only exist in a closed group and we have no closed groups on the blockchain.
I absolutely understand your anxieties, I've lived with them all my life. Sadly if you want to put yourself out there in any way, in our case through writing, you have to either develop a thick skin or find ways to deal with the things that knock your confidence. For me it helps trying to see the other side and understand where they are coming from. Most of the time these are good people trying to deal with things and advise on correct tag or community usage. Once I've gotten over the initial shock of being told I've done the wrong thing then I rationalise and ask for further advice. The majority of the time the conversation ends in a good way.
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