Quote Originally Posted by Ranai
Somehow I have been under the impression that the custom of using titles in gatherings of non-professionals preceded the internet age...
The practice of calling oneself Master this or Lord that didn't really take a foothold in BDSM until after AOL chat rooms became popular in the 1990s. Before then, most BDSM meetings were in real life and everyone just went by their names. Or at the least, if a person didn't want their identity revealed in a BDSM society, that person would wear a mask and use an alias.