i greatly appreciate hearing the various points of view in this thread.

i fall into the group who hate dishonesty in others and myself. sometimes i sense lies early on, sometimes they become apparent only after time... how annoying to waste time with someone who does not live up to my expectations of honesty.

as far as i'm concerned, i tend to be too candid, as i'm honestly seeking to learn; revealing aspects of my self facilitates this. but that makes me vulnerable... so i have to be careful...

also, age is more likely to mean experience and wisdom, so why hide this? particularly for a Dom/me.
...and exposing physical and mental "imperfections" makes a person real to me. i'm more likely to trust them. especially when motivations are clear from the start...

my thanks to all the posters for sharing their opinions, and cookiecat for asking the questions in the first place