"Layers of trust" is such a great phrase, and it's true, it's what everyone does. I should have been more specific in my OP. I was only referring to what makes me most comfortable regarding my forum posts, which can be read by anyone who ever visits LPSG. Most of the time that I come here, I see the list of users online, and at any given time there are 2000 people here! I can't help but think, "Wow! That's so many more people than ever visited my blog, yet, look what happened." There have been a few times when someone has been grave digging here on LPSG and they pull up a 10 year old thread, and then it dawns on me that my posts could be here 10 years from now, 20 years from now... The great thing about my blog was that I was able to take it down when I wanted to do it. Now only a few posts exist online, but not hundreds of journal posts for anyone to read any time in the future. I've gotten quite close with a few of the members here whom I truly do believe are trustworthy or else I wouldn't have trusted them with private details about my life, but I have no desire for my entire life to be laid bare for anyone who ever visits this website. That's just creepy.
Trusting some people more than others and having one's secrets is normal. It would be a very odd world if people didn't do that. Can you imagine a world where you told everyone everything, without any kind of selectivity at all? You arrived at work on Monday morning and a co-worker you hardly ever talk to called out, "Hey! How was the weekend? How's your wife's problem with alcoholism? Did she stay sober?" Your boss says, "Is your erectile dysfunction getting any better? Have you been giving your wife orgasms? She isn't still thinking about leaving you, is she?" Oh, even weirder, if you could say those thing TO your boss because there was no limitation to how personal or private he was about what he revealed to you... Yeah, that would be really weird.
Since creating this thread, there have been a few people who have contacted me to tell me their personal stories of having their identities discovered. They didn't want to reveal their stories in this thread, but they wanted to share with me their own experiences. I hadn't expected that, and I appreciate it. Many of them have had to deal with the fallout of having their identities discovered by bosses and co-workers or friends or family and have had to deal with the problems caused by that. They've warned me to be careful, and praised my caution, based upon their own negative experiences.