Seriously, I really hope you have made an offer to her. Her postings are just as insightful and reasoned as Greenwald's. Heck, if Salon hires Digby I'd have to pony up and subscribe.

I don't know if the person I'm talking to is a man or a woman, or the color of their skin or their sexual preference (okay, you can't tell that even in person, most of the time) or if they are fat or thin or tall or short or... anything. I judge people, and people judge me, by what is written.

It is a bit sad that very few people thought Digby could be a woman, but not surprising. Most bloggers are somewhat geeky, and most geeks are men. It's not entirely sexist to assume that a blogger is male unless there are specific indications that they aren't.

A display of feminist solidarity in super-cool blogland! At least, it's for another blogger and not a politician.

Joan: do you think before the election there will be an authentic discussion of how being a female effects Hillary's candidacy?

As for Dowd, the problem is that 80 per cent of what she writes is incoherent--the rest is just plain nasty. Those guys at the TIMES--they know how to pick 'em. I think you and Digby should send in your resumes and then tell the tale. (It works for Michael Moore.)

Some problems with such anecdotes:

1) you were unconsciously learning throughout your posting history, so you may simply have gotten better.

2) you changed your gender ID with a notional bias it might have effect, which can lead to a placebo effect.

3) you may have also changed your "tone" consciously or unconsciously based on gender stereotypes, to be more in keeping with your new gender ID and "meaty" issues.

Point being, anecdotes such as the one you have tend to reinforce one's own pre-existing beliefs, which is why such things are better studied in controlled research.

I know plenty of gals who are assertive/scientific in traditionally "male archetype" ways, especially those trained in a hard science and technical fields. And I know plenty of guys who are very "female archetype" especially those in the arts and social services.

Dear Salon Editor (s):

Just wanted to echo the sentiments expressed by other readers here. Please replace Camille Paglia's pablum with Digby. Please. I would renew my Premium Account again if you did.

No personal attack, just explaining you. I hope someday you manage to find something you like.

And thanks for crediting me with 15,000 times as many friends as have heard of Digby.

Lots of things make a difference. But you don't. Now paste that up somewhere.

I hear there's going to be a line of clothes called Digby and South Dakota is seriously giving thought to renaming itself too.

The wonderful thing about the blogerati is that it's a self contained environment. It's a few backslappers congratulating themselves on how witty and bright they are as they cross post and blog roll one another. They even give each other awards. It's the world's greatest self gratifying feedback loop.

One would think at its core that someone so influential as the Great and Tewwible Digby would have the professional wherewithal to at least not be anonymous. But I guess paranoia is as paranoia does.

Now was there some other long boring personal attack you wanted to level at me or must you run off and blog about it to your 9 friends?

Just ignore him. He's just stated that only .0006 of a person has ever heard of Digby.

He's a nihilist. Hates just about anything and likes to argue for the sake of arguing. Doesn't like liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans or independants. Doesn't care for men, women, the elderly, the young, the middle aged. Will rant about how horrible just about anything in the world is and how you're stupid for giving a damn about just about anything.

He's so bitter and full of hopelessness that I pity him. Or her if that's the case. I can only hope for his sake that he's a diehard conservative that takes the positions he does here in order to dishearten liberals. Sadly, I think he's just a poor, frightened man who is very aware of his own lack of power and comes here to vent his belief that we're all doomed and nothing we can do makes any difference.

Fortunately, he's very wrong.

I have to admit that I never gave Digby's gender much thought. I will say that that was one hell of a good speech she gave.

What's the big woop anyway? What is Digby but yet another cutpaster slapping up obscure news articles about what assholes your leaders are. It's like Fark without the humor.

What I find surprising is that people are surprised.

I have known for sometime....and didn't know it was a secret...open or otherwise.

Still it is worrisome that even today, folks assume that great writing is done by a man, even evidence to the contrary abounds.

Several years ago, I was a regular participant on Utne Reader's Cafe message board. I had started participating as my actual, female self, and I was having a hard time reliably starting the meaty conversations I wanted.

I can't remember what made me do it, but one day, I created a new identity as a male participant. I pretty much changed only my name and the gender on my profile. My male persona used exactly the same posting style, posted on the same message boards, discussed the same topics, and made the same points as my female persona. The only difference I allowed was that I made less effort to correct minor typos in my male posts; it wasn't really me, so I didn't care much that it was a bit sloppy. I never used both persona in one discussion at the same time; I would choose one persona per discussion, and stick with it.

I was astonished at the difference it made. My male persona's posts were significantly more likely to draw responses--especially from the men in the message-board community. All responses to my posts, from both men and women, were much more likely to deal with the main point in my post than with side issues or observations--people actually understood me better when a male name was attached to the post!

I admire Digby: my participation in the message-board world finally just tapered off. I had higher-quality discussions as a man, but they weren't as satisfying because the falsehood created an emotional distance, for me, from the other posters. I didn't feel that I 'belonged' as a part of the message-board community anymore.