The title says it all. Does anyone else use his or her real name when writing to oen of the boards?
I do.
Part of it! Hey, I’m shy, what can I say?
Not me, obviously.
I used to, usually, and still will on very targeted, obscure boards where I want to be known to fellow enthusiasts or merchants if/when we should meet. (I have some very obscure motorcycles, as one example)
Back in pre-WWW days, we had usenet. There was a group, rec.crafts.metalworking that had a very obnoxious and persistent troll who called himself “Altavoz” It pretty quickly became a point of pride that EVERYONE else in that group posted under their RL name, in the idea that if you weren’t willing to sign your name to your post, you aught not to be posting.
These days, privacy issues aside, some boards (I don’t know about SDMB) have a culture
that actively discourages the use of RL names. There are liability reasons for this, and if a lot of people do it, it produces peer pressure that all should do it. Another problem is that my RL name is not quite John Smith common, but more than common enough in the US to arouse suspicion that it is a fake, and it is even more common in Australia. On several occasions (one of which gave rise to my first use of Kevbo) my first-last name have already been in use as a user name when I tried to register.
I still subscribe to the notion that anything I post, I should be willing to put my name to though. Thus I use a single (or variant if Kevbo is already used) screen name on every board to which I post. I don’t try to be different people on different boards. Also makes it easier to recall my account name.
Employers do Google searches of potential employees. Although the SDMB is not directly indexed by Google, other web sites might (and do) reference posters here and threads they participate in.
One could lose a job opportunity by arguing against a position your potential boss holds, among other risks. It’s much better to be relatively anonymous.
Bryan Ekers.
John W. Kennedy
Mine is my last name.
I’m not shy about using my first name, but there are only 24 people in the state with my surname and I can get street addresses for all of us using the internet white pages. Doesn’t seem smart to use my last name in that case.
Mine is my first name.
So, your first name is elf? 
[sub]samclem, who uses his real name, but abbreviated[/sub]
Not on message boards, but on my professional lists I use my real name. It’s part of the culture there to use your real name as much as it is to be anonymous elsewhere. We have a few people who use nicks – at least one because of some vaguely alluded-to stalker problem (although she has mentioned her real name on a few occasions and in fact part of it makes up her e-mail address (!)) – but they are very much the exception.
I use an amalgam of first initial/middle initial/part of my last name as a login where it doesn’t matter for security purposes, and it used to be my e-mail username, but now my main e-mail address is firstname@mydomain.com, forever and ever. Considering that the initial/name combo is pretty much unpronounceable, this is a vast improvement.
My name is unique within the U.K.; I believe that my full name is globally unique.
I used to post regularly to UseNet under my real name. I never got in any flame wars or posted to dodgy newsgroups, though. I used to use my initials as my ID here but that caused issues with searching.
I currently try and use Quartz or some variation thereof as my moniker on boards that I use for leisure. However, when using a messageboard on a professional basis, I use my real name.
I’m not trying to hide under a pseudonym, but reading and posting are leisure activities for me, and I don’t want to be Googled under my real name and have stuff come up wherein I might relate a work anecdote or be telling about the time I was SO sick stuff was coming out from all orifices or my secret sexual fantasy is…
I am Googleable under my real name as regards to my work (I’m listed on the company website with my name, work email and direct phone line) so I want “my” webtime to be distinct.
An online handle is one of the few times we get to pick our own names and try on a slightly different persona, too, which is why I think a lot of people do it.
I’m not ashamed by anything I post or write, even the smut, but it’s separate from my workday world.
My username is based on the name I use with friends and aquaintances who aren’t Korean, but it’s my Korean name that’s on anything formal/official, so … I guess technically I’ve never used my “real” name here on the message boards - or anywhere else on the Internet, for that matter.
The only boards where I use my real name are genealogically related. I see no reason to take the risk. I liken it to locking my doors at night, or not leaving my car keys in the ignition switch, if someone is determined to break into my house, or steal my car, they probably do it, but why make it tempting for them. I think most people are honest, but I also know that there are some who aren’t and I’m not going to make it easy for the bad ones to choose me for a target.
Besides, it’s kind of fun to have an alter ego.
I just use my first name. My last name is pretty unusual so I don’t use it. Like others, I like a bit of anonimity.
I know more than a few people think (or have thought) that I’m using mine.
…he said, sheepishly.
And of course people like you or A.R. Canewho use things that look like real names but aren’t, contribute to the situation where one might look at a name like Ronald C. Semone and think “Hmm, I wonder if that’s his real name. Nah, who names their kid Ronald these days?”
We also have posters who use screen names that aren’t their real names, but reveal enough information about themselves that someone who really wanted to figure out the person’s real identity probably could. Colibri falls into this category. As does RealityChuck, who often has a link in his sig to something with his full name on it.
Personally, I like the feeling of anonymity that using a screen name gives me. Because my screen name is a college nickname, provided by people who were fond of “repronouncing” things, the actual amount of added anonymity of being Eureka and not _____ is negligable.
I used to use my real name a long time ago, under the misguided idea that I should never write something that I wouldn’t be willing to have my name attached to. Over the years, I’ve decided that that’s a really bad idea, for several reasons:
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There have been cases of ‘internet stalkers’ or harassers who track people down in real life and make their lives miserable. I’ve seen people threaten to call others’ employers and tell them about admissions of past drug use, or that they appeared to post on company time.
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While I’m personally fine with my lifestyle and choices, I recognize that a potential employer might not be. I really don’t want to make it easy for someone to dredge up every little detail of my life and gain an advantage over me in an interview or decide they don’t want to hire me because they don’t like my hobbies, or politics, or recreation.
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Occasionally I might use an example of something a friend, co-worker, or family member did that I thought was stupid, or cast them in a bad light. Never in a way that would identify them so long as people don’t know who I am. If they know who I am, there’s a chance that a friend of a friend might put 2 and 2 together and figure out who I’m talking about, and that wouldn’t be good.
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I’d rather not have old girlfriends or other people from my distant past following my life when I don’t know about it.
It’s important to remember that what you say on the internet is not just public, but may be around for a long, long time. You children may be looking you up 40 years from now. I have no idea how long my words will last out on the net, and it’s not in my control. So, I either say what I want to say under a pseudoymn, or I use my real name only in places where I talk about purely technical issues or specific hobbies and such. On a general message board like this where I might bare my soul on occasion? No way.
I think as time goes on we’re going to be seeing more and more people get bit in the ass by something they said on the internet a long time ago. If anyone from the SDMB enters politics, you can bet that the opposition will be trying to dredge up everything they said on the net to use against them. Anything from an admission of smoking pot in college to an embarassing episode on a date will wind up getting thrown back in their face. Fifty years from now, biographies of then-famous people will include postings they made on the internet when they were young.