Am I the only person who uses my real name when writing to one of the boards?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Indeed. As I mentioned in another thread recently, I’ve found posts that I posted on Usenet from 17 years ago. All of these posts were under my real name. I even had a signature block with my name, e-mail address, department, and university, along with a clever quote.

At the time, most Usenet posters had their internet connections via universities, the government, or the corporate world. To post, you had to have an e-mail address, and most people’s e-mail addresses were based on their real name. For this reason, it was common in those days for most people to use their real name for their username.

I was certainly aware of this fact when I posted. Far from baring my soul, I did not post anything that had the potential of getting me in trouble with my university. In fact, at that time, you had to get special permission to be allowed to post onto Usenet. Posting privileges could be lost for “inappropriate” use.

It was not until several years later, around the mid-1990s, that commercial internet service providers became common and user-friendly enough to use that people generally had more anonymous e-mail addresses and usernames.

22

Not entirely. If you came around my town and asked for a girl known as JJ who was my age you’d find me, but I am not really using my real name. Most people don’t know me as JJ anymore and my clients at work CERTAINLY don’t know that.

I am comfortable with telling Dopers my real name (first name at least) in email or PM.

I’ve been doing this Internet thing so long that ZipperJJ is me everywhere - I feel like it’s my second name. But you’ll probably never find my real full name and ZipperJJ in the same place.

23

So, Who are you?

24

I am Cyn.

25

Precisely.

26

Bingo. I used to moderate a message board as part of a job I had; it was an awful situation, as the board had been completely without moderation of any kind for about two years before I got Shanghaied into taking over.

Anyway, I used my real name, first and last, as my username; what the hell, it was for work, and I thought, in my idealism, that my display of honesty and forthrightness would inspire others to act like grownups. Damn, was I ever wrong.

I hardly have to tell you what happened: I banned an insane and persistent troll. He Googled me, got hold of my home address, sent me vituperative letters via both e- and snail-mail, called me incessantly at work, and at least once drove to my house. (I know that last bit because he included a description of it in one of his letters.)

I talked to the in-house attorney at work, who had only the dimmest idea of what a “message board” was, and got a weak and noncommittal response. I talked to the cops, who said I needed to call the FBI. I talked to the FBI, but they said the guy had to be actually threatening me in his letters, which he wasn’t; he spewed constantly about what a horrible and pathetic person I was, but never actually threatened me, except when he said he was bringing a First Amendment lawsuit against us. “I know lawyers!” was his motto.

Apparently, he thought this behavior would get him readmitted to the board. Eventually I solved the problem by posting a public announcement that I was retiring as moderator and a new guy was taking over; the new guy would be known only by his username, and would use a nice and anonymous gmail account for contact.

The new guy was me, of course, but no one knew that.

Long story short (I know, too late): No, I won’t ever use my real name on a message board.

27

Well, I usually go by my real name, but one time on Earth, I had a little trouble, and told people in a boarding house my name was Carpenter…

28

AJ Raymond. No fear.

DevNull is so much 1337er.

29

I use my real name on game industry message boards. The industry is small enough that it’s not difficult to put two and two together and figure out who someone is if you really want to. Posting under my own name is a reminder that the apparent anonymity of a pseudonym is an illusion.

I post under a pseudonym here because it seemed like what most people were doing when I joined. I link to a website that contains my real name, so it’s not hard to find it.

30

I use my real name on programming news groups - in the ones I use it is considered a courtesy.

FRDE is actually my real name, or rather a contraction and linguistic variation that amuses me.

I’m not overly worried about being tracked down, out of non-malign interest I’ve traced people using the net - it just requires persistence.

Here, and a few other places, my nick seems more appropriate.

31

I have a globally unique name, it’s not something I’d use on a message board or on Usenet because I don’t want people Googling it. Of course, I have a variety of other usernames that I’ve used in the past, it’s either that or you believe that my name really is Ms Faerie.

32

But are you really Scarey? :eek:

33

Let’s just say that I don’t leave pictures of myself lying around, they frighten animals and small children.

34

I don’t even use my rl name for my email if I can help it. The full legal form is 8 words long! I’m also sure that it’s worldwide unique and wouldn’t care about some relative doing a vanity search for the (quite unique) first lastname and finding me. Specially since the relatives most likely to run that kind of search are the most obnoxious ones.

35

I would, but my surname is cunt :frowning:

36

Tip:

  • wouldn’t care about means: ‘Don’t give a toss if’

  • as in: I wouldn’t care about that if I were you

  • wouldn’t care for means ‘detest the idea of’

  • better: ‘wouldn’t like it if’

Your English is extremely good, and this might be a British/American contra meaning.

37

I use my real name.

38

I got my last name, my B-day and my obsession with ALW songs all in two words.

39

I do, too. (Just not this one) :slight_smile:

VCNJ~

40

I do. I don’t post my surname because I don’t think I need to give 10,000 people (including, inevitably, a number of complete whackjobs) my full name. But I think a dedicated stalker with decent Googlefu and a detailed knowledge of my posting history could probably suss out who I am. Fortunately, no one cares enough to work that hard, so far as I know.

I signed up by my first name when I joined because I was too clueless about the newfangled WWW to understand that you could pick out a psuedonym. I later thought about changing it but couldn’t be bothered.