Hey everyone,

just a quick intro, I'm Antonio, almost 31, American, moved here from Baltimore (I guess I'm an honorary Marylander), but lived in ZH for 7 years as a teen. I've poked my head in here a couple of times.

I've been back in CH for almost 2 years now, in Uetikon am See (Hello MathNut and DB)
I work at a software company doing the English translation of the product, and English support, correspondence, etc. (in addition to a lot of German support). I'm a total Mac nut at heart. I love to cook, and I love photography. (And luckily, I'm pretty good at both.)

Cheers!
Antonio

Eh up!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome!

I spent several years living in Baltimore (but I miss CH much more than I do MD).

P.S. Sorry about the names thing, I've been getting entangled in the unwritten rules of this forum.

Yeah? I feel the other way around; I really miss it. CH just drives me nuts!

No worries... read some of my posts, and you'll understand why I want to remain anonymous...

I'd gladly make the sacrifice of taking your place whenever you're ready to return!

I just don't enjoy getting nastygrams from moderators. I'd be happy to follow posted rules, but the terms of service here didn't say anything about names.

Most of them mean well. They're just trying to watch out for folks. I wouldn't take it too personally.

Placeholder to meet the 10 character minimum.

I've been a forum admin for years, I totally understand the goals, etc. But one of the things I learned was the importance of actually setting expectations. You can't expect new members to read your minds, to know undocumented rules and customs, etc.

Not putting people's real names online is a pretty universal custom, though, isn't it?

It's all sorted now, though, so never mind. Onward and upward!

Welcome to the Forum. Sorry you've had a bad start. I appreciate that it isn't explicitly written anywhere that 'real names' are not to be used, but I would have thought the very fact that everyone uses a pseudonym on here would be a clue.
I'm afraid that if you think that this
Reason for Edit: Real names don't belong in here! yours is your problem, but PLEASE not other peoples' is a nastygram then you'll have to grow a thicker skin if you intend to post on here very often. I'm one of the harmless ones I assure you.

Have fun, enjoy the Forum and maybe sometime we'll tidy up the Rules and put them somewhere sensible so that new members can find them.

__________________
Longbyt

Mac nut and you love to cook? I approve and welcome you to both clubs. A warm welcome back to Switzerland too. =)

Well, um, actually, no. On the Mac forums I used to administer, we were on a public first-name basis with many members. Without in any way insinuating that one way or the other is better, I am simply not accustomed to forums where strict anonymity is the norm.

But that presupposes that you've been a member long enough to notice!

Yours wasn't the "nastygram" that made me angry (though I hardly think of my own name being public as a "problem").

That would be most appreciated. Since being hinted in the right direction (the nested Support forum) I found the real list of rules. Thank you.

I think the "nasty gram" you got is an automatic message. It's short, to the point, not very warm but I wouldn't say nasty.

ETA: Oh, sorry! I came by to say "Hey & Welcome" then got distracted.... So anyway, Hey! Welcome back to CH & to the forum. I also love mac's & cooking.

The reply to my inquiry about it, however, was. (Not longbyt, it was another issue.)

There's an enormous difference between a technical forum with a membership that is likely global in nature, and an expat forum where the vast majority of members live locally and might even know each other in real life.

To use my own situation as an example: On the English Forum there is a bloke called Dougal's Breakfast. He's an opinionated gobshite with a politically incorrect thing to say on almost every subject under the sun, with a particular interest in those most inflammatory of topics, Balkan history and politics (the Balkans, in this case, stretching as far as the borders of Jordan and the Caucasus mountains), Islam and language.

Meanwhile, in real life, there is a bloke called *****. He is also a bit of a gobshite when he's down the pub, but he also has a job at a school where it is very possible that some of the members of the English Forum send their children. It probably wouldn't be the end of the world if these parents were to link Dougal's Breakfast with Mr ********, but it could make life very uncomfortable, and would probably result in Dougal's Breakfast ceasing to exist, with ***** setting up a new account under a different name by which he might maintain anonymity.

Some members of this forum work for big banks and insurance companies. They also have strong opinions - sometimes even about their employers - and it is only the anonymity that is provided by the use of usernames and avatars that enables people to speak freely without fear of unpleasant collisions between the real world and their online life.

But it's all sorted now, so let's all smile and dance in the fields, daisy chains in our hair and ecstatic grins on our faces.




(Oh, and don't upset Longbyt. Her bite is way worse than her bark... )

Welcome Antonio! Welcome back to Switzerland!!

I suppose. I've never been one to have a separate online persona -- my online and real-world me are one and the same, so I've never worried about anonymity.

Thanks! It's great to be… wait a sec! I miss USA! (If only it weren't financial suicide…)