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While sincerity is a necessary taken-for-granted element of face-toface communication, its status in CMC is more likely to be a ponderable (or arguable). In fact, the anonymity of CMC, facilitating and facilitated by concealment in self-presentation, allows distortions to be made through omission of information as well as through selective presentation. To understand the characteristics of this process, we analyzed the message contents of men and women participating in asynchronous online discussion. Recent research indicated men and women differed in their fidelity of message concealment. Level of concealment did not significantly predict expected relationships between identity and attributes of online message style. Findings regarding concealment and message style led to a consideration of communicator status and gender identity needs. A new message style variable, openness, was also examined. Research findings indicated that gender identity and communicator status were strongly related to message openness.