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The Firewall in the Mind (Slide 36)
Webheads' faces and voices: gaining trust

It's important to show that this community has many faces and voices. The people in it are not disembodied talking heads. We all have our web pages, where personality emerges in writing, and many in the community have sent pictures, which is an important and obvious step toward putting a face on your community members.

Gaining trust online is not a given. One of the webheads told me the other day that she is not one to project her personality on the Internet. Felix was that way at first. When we first met him he called himself Bahia, and at one point he told us he was purposely withholding his name. But as he has come to know us, he's revealed not only his name but sent us pictures of his house and environs and invited us to come and visit him there. At first it was hard to get Webheads to reveal details about themselves, but once several had done it, then others followed less hesitatingly.