I hear you, and I agree with you.
I choose how I take part very specifically here, as I too do not want to post pictures of myself, my family, or any specific identifiers. So I have chosen to remain fairly vague in my personal details. I have my own excellent reasons for this, and they are very personal. They are the same reasons I refuse to participate in social media anywhere else. And my own reasons and why they exist are a giant trigger for me.
Those reasons are why I was ecstatic to learn about Hive.
There are several communities that I don't take part in because of this. Some require posters to share on social media, so those communities are off limits for me. Some require photo verification. I even tried to wear sunglasses and use the sun to hide my details in one community that I very much wanted to take part in. That wasn't enough for them, and they wanted video verification 🤯 so I left that group. It's sad, because there are several communities that I feel would inspire more of my ability to write and to come out of my shell. But I can't cross that boundary.
I can tell you that there are many communities that won't ask these things of you. Each community is like it's own little social club, each with different rules. I would feel exceptionally put-off if I had received the response you did, and I wish it wasn't a thing. Tagging, muting, downvoting; all of these make me very anxious as well. I haven't found that many people that are willing to admit the same.
I hope that you can find it in you to continue on, to find communities that don't make these ridiculous requirements. You are exactly the kind of writer that I personally hope can fill this space.
I'm not a techie, or a social media cryptopreacher; I'm an average middle-aged human with lots of personal issues and trauma that hopes to find community and has taken a last ditch effort to look here with optimism. Maybe we should form our own annonymous community? 😊🦋