When writing a trip report- namely one long (necessitating lots of self-reference) and otherwise devoid of incriminating terms or descriptions- is it still necessary or advisable to replace *all* instances of the first-person singular pronoun with "SWIM", or would such a substitution be redundant? Is there a hard-and-fast rule or is this more of a personal choice? What does the community prefer?

Personally, I think the SWIM thing is so annoying.

If I see a page full of SWIM I usually just click the back button on my browser.

I used to use SWIM and if I felt I'd write a "page full of SWIM" I would preface the report with

This is SWIM's trip report
"I took x mg blah blah"

Really there are dozens of drug/psychedelic forums that discourage SWIM use claiming use and abuse of meth, cocaine and heroin blatently.
I just write without SWIM at all now... my choice though

I used to be super annoyed with the SWIM thing, but I've come to ignore it...

I can't see how the use of SWIM can be considered annoying.
I prefer to use SWIM just because I'd rather be safe than sorry.
Appearantly Authorities need less and less reasons everyday to persecute psychedelic peoples.
In most countries personal use of drugs or admitting personal use of drugs are not persecuted, but this may change at any time.

I suppose you could say "Here's my Dream Character friend's LSD-experience report" and then continue in the first person to avoid using SWIM 100s of times.
Let's just never forget our position and allways be carefull and thoughtfull.

Would writing SWIM really be a defense in a court though? so is it actually a safety thing. I see it as pointless. I always wonder when I see people write it, I can't see a judge or jury saying oh it was someone who wasn't you your free to go.

I have never heard of any case at all where they used posting in a forum as the main evidence to convict a drug user. Did anybody? Whenever there is some story of someone getting caught, its related to selling drugs, neighbours ratting out, traffic light stop and being searched and found with something, long ongoing investigations, etc.

If forum posts were ever used in court SWIM would most definitely not help you whatsoever. SWIM is an archaic term carried over from the long gone hive forums.

I know of someone here in new zealand who was convicted of cannabis cultivation from photo's of grow's posted in a forum, one and only time I ever herd of it. And I don't think saying this is SWIM'S plant's would of worked as a defense for him.

Do you have any more info on this case? Were the pictures the first/main evidence to be used? How did the investigation start? How big was the grow? Was the person also admitting to selling online?

It was 6 or 7 years ago so can't recall all the details, Photo's were the main evidence and was for charges relating to previous grows in the preceding couple of year's before he was caught. I'm not sure how it came about if his house was searched and they checked his computer or if it started by the photo's being posted, Also it was a new zealand based forum he posted on and here police even watch hydroponic supply shop's to record who goes in and out of them, regularly raid them and try force them to keep records of customers.

swim- someone who IS me.

SWIM does nothing to keep you out of trouble in the court room. If someone wanted to bust you, the SWIM thing is not going to be on their mind when they have already read all your posts. They know its you.

People talk all kinds of stupid crap online. Christ, places like /b/ have people talking about raping minors at knifepoint for laughs. The local PD aren't setting up a taskforce to track down and apprehend btards. Nor could they give two shits about what drugs you claim to be taking.

However I imagine they would be quite pleased that you're making every sentence of your drug forum postings unreadable by interjecting that completely futile and annoying acronym.

Besides being a mild annoyance, the use of SWIM will in no way benefit you in a court of law, infact they might laugh at you.

I find it very distracting when like every second word is SWIM makes a lot of posts hard to read. But guess it makes some people feel safe.

And if all they have as evidence is what you wrote on a forum, you could simply say that you made it all up because you had nothing better to do. How could they prove the contrary?

Yes you could. It's more the use of SWIM than just saying you made it up. Writing I you could still say you made it up there no point in using SWIM IMO.

I hate SWIM. He killed my dog.

Plus I dont' trust him. Please see my signature line.

Anyone who claims to be SWIM is in fact guilty of killing my dog......