Anonymous reviews also don't get their email addresses harvested by spambots.

is there any reason you can't use an pseud? The objection from me is to "a reader from...."

As far as I know, your only options are the full name Amazon knows you by or "a reader from...". I could be wrong.

I'm piling up a shocking number of pseuds. "peaches" the fangirl, "chicating" for fanfic, and "Angela Frandina"(which I guess I could use on Amazon...and get even more e-mail saying "You don't really DO that, do you?" No. Hence the irony. Get it?

Betsy, I have at least two obvious pseuds who have posted reviews of Weaver at Amazon; one good, one so-so. I have no problem with a pseud; I might even search and see what else they've reviewed.

I don't want thousands of strangers knowing my address either. But if I'm going to go to the trouble of writing and posting a review, it's presumably because I have a strong opinion about the work in question. And "a reader from a city in which there are eight million other readers and you'll never know who I am, neener" really does strike me as p/a. Why post the opinion in the first place? I don't understand the split in the mindset between "I have strong opinions and want the world to know about them" and "I don't want anyone to know who I am."

What's the difference between "A Reader From Seattle, Washington" and "Samantha Rodriguez From Seattle, Washington"? What value does "Samantha Rodriguez" add to the review?

Katie, it's not a question of the value of a review; I take all of them, good and bad, and look them over equally.

My problem, as I'll say again, would be the same if it was a review of a movie or an art show or anything else. The internet has given people a forum in which they can be heard, and I think that's a damned good thing.

My cutoff is not being able to understand why a human being wants the world to read their 150-word opinion of something that obviously moved said human to taking the trouble, if said human doesn't want anyone to know whose opinion it is.

Not sure I can be clearer than that. I'm a bit fuzzy today.

my pseud on Amazon - connects to my wishlist. I'd go by bethb or my pseud if people had to search for more info about me...but you don't.

When I use amazon reviews first i look at the reviews and see how they are split. if the are 50/50 very high and very low -- I know the book has contraversey which means most of the reviews are based on how someone feels about an issue - rather than weather or not the book was well done.

For fiction - I read the reviews- if someone spends time giving a detailed summary of the book - i dismiss it - I think the person is just writing to here themselves talk. If they have read every book written by author -- most of the time they are way too flattering or way to harsh. I look for something that tells me something about the book that I can't get from the the blurbs. blurbs from pw or other proffessional reviews often miss the gut reaction. Since 70% of what I read is genre fiction - it is what I looking for . I can get a good feel for that from amazon reviews.

I think the person is just writing to here themselves talk

Yup. And there's my question again: if they're going to that level of trouble - hey! look at me I have an OPINION! - what on earth is the point of not wanting people to know who it is they're supposed to be listening to? I'm perfectly willing to read any opinion at all, but I find it really difficult to care if the writer is bound and determined to remain invisible.

Boy, I'm getting fuzzy and repetitive. This what happens when I switch between fiction (writing in another browser) and opinion....

Yup. And there's my question again: if they're going to that levl of trouble - hey! look at me I have an OPINION! - what on earth is the point of not wanting people to know who it is they're supposed to be lsitening to?

Well, from my point of view they don't know that anyway. If I wanted to build, I don't know, a brand name of reviewing - look, I reviewed ten books, if you agreed with my opinions about those you might agree with my opinions about the eleventh - then, yeah, it makes sense that you need to have a name attached to those reviews.

I don't read reviews that way, though; I honestly couldn't care less whether someone puts their name on them. I don't even look at the names. *shrug*

not wanting people to know who it is they're supposed to be listening to

Who is Naomi Forrest? Or capoeira_girl? Or ita myreallastname?

The only people that care are those that know me. That's some teeny fragment of the readers of the review. It's not verifiable or very usable information.