[Bells]

I can certainly think of a few people on forums etc. who do act in ways they would most likely not act in real life.

For me personally, I tend to behave on forums pretty much exactly the way I would in real life. I respond to threads with my true views (sometimes in a lot of depth!) In terms of talking in an informal manner to others on the net, I am normally friendly and hold a conversation the way I normally would. I do think though that there are some elements people can't see - body-language being a major one - and there are often things you perhaps do in real life that people online couldn't see. For me, what I enjoy most about forums rather than simply chatting is the fact that I actually get the opportunity to voice my views on serious issues. In everyday life, such topics of discussion would perhaps not arise, and wouldn't be thought about.