Daniel Peterson wrote:To get serious, for just a moment:
I don't typically ask that people refer to me as "Dr. Peterson." Certainly not on message boards. I have done so on a small handful of occasions, but only, as I recall, when they have been going out of their way to try to indicate contempt for me by using demeaning or disrespectful titles or by pretending that I'm not a legitimate academic and that I don't, in fact, have the academic degree (from the same very respected university where Tarski earned his) that, in fact, I do have.
There are quite a number of people on this board who refer to me, both on the board and in personal messages, as "Dan," and I don't believe that I have ever corrected them. I'm perfectly fine with it. (They can, if they're so inclined, vouch for me on this point.)
For that matter, more than a few of my students refer to me as "Dan." We're not big on formality in the BYU Arabic program, where the professors are very often known to their students as "Dan," "Dil," "Kirk," "Jim," "Arnie," "Donna Lee," "Bill," and the like.
The notion that I pompously insist that everyone always address me as "Dr. Peterson" simply isn't true.
So does this means then the 'Danites' can keep their name because 'Dr Petersonites' just does not have the same ring?
Yours truly in prostration.
By the way I figure that what ever a person uses for his screen name is a good indication of what he/she wants me to call him/her.