I dont disagree with you LM, but for me it is more than that. Not knowing that you are being judged is one thing, but not what the judgement criteria is and that criteria itself is not knowable and itself hinges on a poster being 'known' is off. It implies a hierarchical system that says that if a poster maintains their posting ID then they can be validly judged on the basis of the 'friends' they have made and the 'quality of thier posts'.
As I have said, i do not decide to use MN in that way for my own reasons. Does that put me to the bottom of the 'judgement' heap?
Actually, now i think about it, i suppose many of us feel that we have been MNs for a long time or a short time and it truly felt like Judgement Day came and were not given the opportuntiy to account for ourselves. Espescially those who have had others advocate of their behalf, for the verdict to be and not be told: " No, thou shalt not arise to Mouldies. Thou shalt remain a MN. Thou ist not (yet) worthy". And to push that analogy further, many of those in Mouldies are their by virtue of 'breaking bread' with certain others and not straying too far from the accepted path.
Hey I luuuurve MN and all that, and not giving Mouldies God-like status, but d'you know what i mean?
Oh and i forgot to say earlier that i actually used to enjoy threads that said: "Has anyone seen Blah Blah poster?" And then the thread would ascend into an update about what the person was doing and get all nostaligic in parts. I never (obviously) had such a thread about myself, but i found it really warming to know that MNs cared about each other in that way. Dont think such threads will be taken in the way that they were at the moment. It almost feels like people have a kind of fear about asking for other people, in case they are on the 'other site'. Shame.