Recently some users have posted comments challenging the identity other board users or the veracity of their posts. While I understand the basis for their suspicions or assumptions I have a different view, based on other information which is not public, and goes back more than fifteen years.

In regard to this most recent case I have had a number of non-public conversations with the people involved, and based on those private conversations I know a lot more about them than the average user. However whatever your personal suspicions might be, they are not grounds for publicly attacking somebody else's credibility without some hard evidence. And by Hard Evidence I don't mean assumptions drawn from inferences. That's especially true on this board. If you have a problem with a user refer it to the moderator and move on.

The purpose of this message board is to encourage and support people who wear thongs in public. For the most part people on this message board don't use their real names. Many of them worry about their family or workmates were not that they wear thongs. This board allows a degree of anonymity that allows open discussion without repercussions.

While most men are not intentionally internet stalkers, with over 30,000 members, if only one in a hundred is a stalker it is still way too many. Over the years we have had a real problem with men Internet stalking the women on this message board, and often not even realizing that the activity is a form of stalking:

For example men attempting to "verify" the sex, identity or thonging locations of women. OR men sending unsolicited private messages that they think are harmless, but which make the women feel uncomfortable, for one reason or another. A number of women have stopped posting on the message board because of these problems. As the moderate I get to hear from them directly: Sometimes to ask what to do about private messages from users, sometimes it's about being inappropriately approached when at the beach or pool by somebody from this message board. Sometimes it's just to say goodbye.

Some men on this board have used the information in posts to figure out who the women is and where they live. While you many have verified the person is real it is still stalking. Even minor first steps, like trying to determine if they are men or women, or if they live in that location, or visited that beach is still the first steps in internet stalking. It is WRONG.  

Some women wish to keep their identities, personal and professional lives, separated. I don’t blame them. Considering the number of men on this board who think casual internet stalking, or  speculation about identity and location is acceptable. To this end they sometimes deliberately post vague information on where and when they thong. So if women are vague about a location, or give deliberately misleading information intended to confuse the inevitable male stalkers, I fully understand.

Over the years a number of the women who have the courage to post here have been accused of being fake or being men in disguise. Meany have been driven off the board. Turns out one of them is now a real life beach friend who I did not know at the time, but I now know in real life.

Careless and thoughtless attacks on credibility is something which really annoys me. Although I am not a women it is something with which I can personally identify. A number of years ago, soon after this board was started, people accuse me of being fake, of not running down the beach in a thong, or making up stories. People said "You did not do that", or "I was at the beach and did not see you." I can’t tell you how many people demanded I prove my identity or prove I actually thonged on the beach. (That was before Aimoo allowed picture albums in personal profiles, or at least before I posted a few pictures others had taken of me at, or around the beach.)
Now that we have had Sun-Splash going for a number of years where the more adventurous board members have met me, or others have met me on the beach in real life, scepticism on this board about my own identify has died out. However I still get this sort of disbelief on Facebook, where, for example people don’t believe I was at an exotic party unless I personally appear in the photos.

As Moderator, and with this sort of prior personal experience, I see ad hominem attacks on other users as being particularly rude. I've had a number of private messages and conversations with women who take great offense when men challenge their credibility. I notice that for the most part it is only men challenging women's credibility, I rarely see men challenging other men's credibility or sex.

There is no basis, and no legitimate point, for anyone on this board interrogating others as to their identity or veracity. The lack of self-awareness by many men is troubling. They tell me they are just trying to determine if the poster is in fact a woman, or some man's alter ego.  When you think about it, that's an attempt to inspect somebody's genitals via the Internet. Not only would it be an obvious imposition in real life. It is nobody else's business. The only reason for wanting or needing to know about what sort of genitals somebody has is if you are sexually interested in them. This gets back to casual stalking.

As a man you should appreciate that it doesn't take many words to make you feel uncomfortable or insulted.  If you're on the beach and somebody walks up to you and to your face calls you a fag, a queer, a pervert, or a sissy boy you're going to feel uncomfortable and annoyed. The same is true when on the Internet, if you write a post challenging or insulting someone’s identity. I

It seems to me that for some men, their personal self doubt and insecurity about their own body or thonging in public, spills over into doubting other people and events.  It is a sign of intellectual immaturity or fundamentalist thinking to base one's opinion about an idea on the credibility of the person who is speaking rather than the merits of the argument.

This is the Internet. Identities of people on our message board are not verified. This is not a dating site. Everyone on this message board has a made-up username, and nobody on this message board has verified identities. Therefore you're going to have to take what they say at face value, or, if you find their posts not credible,  just ignore them.

Unless somebody is posting in the contacts section of the board, activilly asking to meet others, there is absolutely no reason their real identity, or even their sex, should be of any concern to you.

If you'd don't believe somebody's postings then just ignore them. Don't gang up with other men to harass or belittle the few women brave enough to post on this board.

The Internet already has a large number of forums where women are disrespected, from gamers communities onward. That's not going to happen on this message board, where the underlying philosophy is that we should be treating the sexes equally. When women can wear thongs men should be able to as well, and where men can go topless women should be able to as well.

This board is not set up for gay or lonely men to hate on women. In the same way that I would expect people in real life to treat everybody with a modicum of respect, I expect the same from members of this message board.

I have had a few instances when people have contacted me to tell me person x or person y must be fake. When this happens I do look into it, and if there is a major problem I will take care of it.

However I find it somewhat amusing, and rather annoying,when I know person x or y personally. Some from real life, others through third parties and/or years of private emails. This history makes me a little skeptical of new hunches and guess about others. God is not real. Comic Book super-heros are not real. However in my experience most of the people on this message board are very real. There is no money changing hands, and for the most part no real life contact, so there is very little reason to be fake.

As moderator of this message board I steer away from dick picks, and attempt to keep the conversations somewhat family orientated so that women and younger thongers feel comfortable here. With so many men talking about wearing so little cloths it is already a little difficult to keep this from becoming a virtual gay bath house. Therefore I will clamp down on anyone who is directly or indirectly creating a hostile environment for women or teens.

You may have a boring life, and be thong or body shy, and have little to post about. But don’t knock those of us who have more confidence, have more interesting lives, who have more to post about, or who start interesting discussions. We don’t owe you any favors. We  don’t have to “prove” ourselves to anyone.

In real life, if you think the women at the bar is a transvestite just move on. It is not your job to start a fight and make a scene, or be rude by saying sarcastic things. In the same way that you dislike it when people jump to the conclusion that you must be a gay pervert just because you wear a thong, don't jump to conclusions about others based on only the evidence you can see. And if you do jump to an unfavorable conclusion, be polite and keep it to yourself. Lead your own life, don’t waist time getting into other peoples pants.

If you don’t believe these people or their stories just ignore them. Don’t post speculations or sarcastic comments challenging the identity of other people, especially if the member is a women. Don’t be a troll.