[Z]

I think it's an attention thing and partly a fantasy thing. I've long maintained that all users of internet chat sites have one thing in common - we all, at the time of signing up, feel like we lack something. This depends entirely on your age, stage of life and a variety of factors, but it boils down to this basic thing. Taking our community as an example, we all signed up to talk about Big Brother. Presumably we did this because we couldn't talk about it to friends we have in real life, or because we couldn't talk about it in the detail we wanted to, or because we just don't have any friends. Maybe those of us who stick around in off season, again only to begin with, did so because it's better than sitting around feeling lonely in our real lives. I personally have a wide circle of friends - but back when I was 13 I felt like the loneliest person in the world and this place was a wonderful escape for me. So I think, going back to the OP's question, some people would choose to lie about their gender to give themselves a bit of mystery. Sometimes it really sucks having to be who you really are in the real world. Maybe you don't like yourself very much and you want to play a role. Of course, most people get found out because it's hard to keep up such a lie if you start to get to know people - and the more you get to know people, the more betrayed they feel when they find out you were lying. So it's never a good idea but I think I understand some of the reasons why people do it.