microscophile

Sorry that wasn't clear. I am in Sydney & I'm Australian but I intend to be a dual national. When I said my country I was referring to my background. Any association with drug culture would guarantee the dual nationality plan (and possibly even future visits) denied. Hence my security concerns. That aside, Australia is relatively strict too; we have a very broad list of banned substances and drug policing is very effective here compared to many other countries (just look at street prices). Though we don't have brutal punishments, that would not be my concern. The slightest infraction will have significant ramifications for the average working man in Australia, especially as regards travel, and though I know very little about the relevance of online habits and the use of online behavior as evidence, I'm inclined to take precautions rather than fly blind. If my laptop were stolen, for example, [shit happens all the time in the area I live] and I hadn't covered my tracks as regards internet usage, it'd take only a moderately tech savvy bastard to dig up my usage habits and blackmail me / or just share my secrets for the fuck of it. Inconsequential for him, huge problems for me. I've been reminded that there is no such thing as security on the net, which is a pretty sound reason for the 'no self incrimination' rule here. To the extent that it can be followed, it helps everyone, but realistically sites like this are obviously controversial and not something you'd want your real identity associated with. Despite deciding to use TOR I will be following the rule to a T, out of respect for a great website and because regardless of security measures, they are only ever precautions.

Thanks psylodread. I checked that out. I think I'll just roll with tor

* I meant I don't intend to explicitly discuss illegal behavior. I do intend to share information about plants that are illegal once harvested or if you intend to extract active compounds, and this is a problem. We know we tread a fine line regarding legality. Often, despite the 'keep it legal' rule though, discussion pertains to activities that are clearly illegal, whether explicitly stated or not. Call me paranoid, I just want help so that I can participate comfortably. Why is no-one offering helpful answers?

Thanks for the info re. the PM's being saved & necessity for deletion. The rest didn't really help with my inquiry though. A significant number of the discussions here include subjects which obviously cover methods for procuring banned substances, and much of the discussion centers on the use of illegal drugs, and for that reason I'd like to be anonymous. I don't intend to discuss obviously illegal behavior, but to say that police are more preoccupied with harder drugs is inadequate. There are very good reasons for being anonymous. Help would be appreciated. edited for clarity

Hello people, I've been lurking the shaman forums for a while and done a ton of quality reading, but I've only just registered. I'm concerned about potential security issues involved with participating on the site. Basically, my country has very strict drugs laws and I'd prefer there was no association whatsoever between my shaman profile and my real IP address & identity. Can anyone who uses TOR or proxies advise me as to whether these will function ok with this site, and whether these are the best utilities to protect myself? [i'm aware TOR users are banned immediately if they dick around / annoy people] Do people take precautions like scrubbing metadata from images they post? And finally, is the PM system secure? i.e. if I message someone will the conversation be archived? Thanks in advance. I look forward to contributing some of my own awesomeness to the forums