I guess these two postings summarize my puzzlement over the issue. If someone has something to say, why not stand up and say it?
In other fora, I have been viciously attacked … anonymously. Didn’t bother me - I don’t take “poison pen” postings on the web any more seriously than I would than if they were slid under my front door.
Given the tenor of the postings here, I guess that fear of the psycho-nutbar is a major theme … but I must admit, I don’t get it. Should these (very few) people really have such an influence?
My screen name is (obviously) not my legal name – but it is in one small sense part of my “real” name – in that it is the name of my patron saint, which I took as a part of my identity at my confirmation. I think that posting under a screenname (username, nick, pseudonym) preserves a small amount of anonymity. Were it not for James I. Hymas having appended his full name as a part of his .sig line, I would not have any idea how to address Mr. Hymas (or would it be Ms. Hymas?) from the username jiHymas as I would Andros or Libertarian, whom I consider as personal friends of long standing, though we have never met offline.
However, those who care to know are as acquainted as they choose to be with my “real” name and location – and, I’d venture to say, much more about who “the real me” is than if I posted using it but shared nothing of the thoughts, feelings, and experiences that have shaped me. The anonymity gives me the freedom to choose to do that, or not, as circumstances dictate. I know that SisterCoyote recalls clearly a great deal about me, just from our acquaintance on this board, that even my clergypeople and the majority of people I associate with in real life are not aware of – and that says a lot more about who I really am than knowing that my middle name is Gerald, after my father.
Well, that’s the thing, though. My name on here IS “Captain Amazing”…it’s the only name I’ve ever used on here, and its the only name I ever will use on here, and I stand by the things I say. Just because it’s not the same name I have on my birth certificate doesn’t mean it’s any less me.
I use a shortened version of my real name and accurate info posted in my profile; anyone who wants to find me can easily do so. I have no problem with what I say being associated with me IRL.
But, that is exactly why I sometimes see the advantage to a fictitious identity. I maintain the same persona that I would keep in a real public forum. I am NOT going to reveal information about my sexual habits or feel free to flame post as an identifiable real person anymore than I would to a group of people in a coffee shop. This is my public persona, not my private one. A fictional persona, a mask, frees up people to expose those bits that they would never otherwise reveal IRL. It may be that, sometimes, (as poly has stated) we know the real poster more with the mask on as a result. (then again, we could just know a fantasy version of that person.)
I don’t have my handle for privacy’s sake - my eddress, which I have not blocked, contains my real name (well, my first initial and last name). I just like my handle.
Just like what Captain Amazing said.
I’ve been Ender for over 17 months now. While I hate pointing out my post count, I think it’s a fairly obvious indication that I’ve said a thing or two on these boards.
That I hide my real name doesn’t mean my opinion is any less worthy to be considered and debated. My ability to take someone seriously on these forums has nothing to do with whether I can find their house.
It’s not even the psycho stalker standard either. If someone were really interested, I’ve provided WAY more than enough clues for someone to find out exactly who I am.
That I chose not to give you my blood type and social security number means nothing. This is who I am online. I’m not hiding anything.
Quite. Who cares what my real name is anyway? How does that help you in any way?
Your name is whatever you introduce yourself by. On this board kabbes IS my real name. And I consistently use it on other message boards too - Fathom, the UnaBoard, the Darwin Awards Forum, Snopes etc.
All in all there are thousands of posts under this name. I can’t hide from my words, since the words are kabbes.
What information do I gain out of knowing that you are called James Hymas in real life? Nothing. What information do others gain out of knowing that it is kabbes writing this post? A hell of a lot.
It’s not anonymous in any way. I’m entirely consistent within the web based community.
There is an extra bonus that I make it more difficult for someone to track me down. Not impossible by a long shot, I just don’t broadcast my whereabouts. And if you criticise the wisdom of this, I can only say that I presumably am more internet-friendly than you or have used it for a longer time since I know more than a couple of people who have been tracked down and/or stalked via the internet.
Further to all the reasons above mentioned, a pseudonym enables you to give voice to opinions that could potentially, for some be difficult to marry with offline life. Say that your profession is something like judge or that you are a public person of some level of renown. In this case there are simply things, no matter how close to your heart they are held that you just cannot say in a public space the way you might like to. Is this hiding something? Well in a way I guess, but I’d prefer to call it protecting your integrity.
For the record my pseudonym is a nickname derived from my real name that a few close friends sometimes use offline. When I registered at SDMB a couple of days ago I did so only to put my two cents into one thread that I stumbled upon by reading Cecil’s column. Had I known that I would potentially be compelled to hang around for a while I would have chosen something more obscure and a little more attractive. As it is I guess I’m stuck with Sparculees.
And if this post has set you wondering; you probably wouldn’t know who I am, even if I did use my real name.
There I disagree. When I sign my name, I am putting my integrity on the line. I can be held to account for my views in “real life”; my accounts of my experiences are verifiable by my family and friends, which should add to the credence with which they are read by an Australian.
So? I was “stalked” once, by a woman who met me at work (not to the point where it was worth getting the police involved, but after 3 years it became rather annoying). Didn’t stop me from going to work.
In addition to the reasons stated above, I use my online monicker because my real-life name is boring. Thousands of people share my same combination of first name and surname; I get a lot of confused phone calls. I don’t want to have to say, “no, I never lived in Montana”, “no, I don’t write grants for a living”, “no, I didn’t go to high school there”, “no, I didn’t play an alien on that series” any more than I have to.
Besides which, I don’t really think my real life name suits me too well. I would have preferred to be a David, or a Ben. But online, I get to be MrVisible, and that suits me just fine.
Seriously, the reason why I selected a pseudonym is that my real name was taken in my attempts to register on the Straight Dope Message Board. I don’t necessarily have a compelling need to keep my identity a secret, but I do like the fact that a pseudonym affords me some privacy.
The way this particular message board is set up you can’t post “Anonymously”. Only one user name per customer. So if I say something really stupid, everyone is going to remember that time that Lemur866 said something really stupid. I can’t run away and hide except by leaving the boards.
If someone decides to ditch their old user name and sneak in with a new one they might not get caught. But they are going to have to keep a low profile or they are very likely to give themselves away, which would lead to their banishment. If you can’t post your opinions for fear of being outed and banned then what good are the boards? I suppose you could turn into a lurker.
Using a pseudonym is really no different than using a nickname in daily life. Really, everyone here has to give an email address, and with a little detective work most of their identities could be discovered. But what would that prove? People here are judged by their reputation AS POSTERS. For instance, we have a poster named Anthracite who claims to work on coal power plants. How do we know? Because every time she says something about coal power plants she’s always right. How would knowing her first and last names make any difference? Her credentials aren’t important, her knowledge is. But how can we judge that knowledge if we aren’t also coal experts? By her reputation here on these boards.
Yes, a newly subscribed poster might not know anything about her, and wouldn’t know whether to trust her or not. But why would giving a name increase that trust? Just because someone gives their real name doesn’t mean that they tell the truth about other things. Just because we know your real name doesn’t mean we know anything about you. Really, all we know about you is what you write here. No one is going to bother to take the time to look you up in the phone book and track down your college transcripts to find out if you really are, say, a nuclear physicist or a diamond merchant.
Oh yes. But the price of anonymity is too high. It’s quite bad enough to allow oneself to be intimidated by some punk; to live in fear of some punk who might not even exist … well, I just don’t understand.
If she was using her real name, she would be exposing herself to the ridicule of her peers by making an incorrect statement, or by being too sure of an unverified hypothesis. I would also be able to look her up in “Coal Miner’s Weekly” (or whatever) to verify at least some part of her statements of fact. Knowing that this could be done would be incentive to her to stay on the straight and narrow and be careful to differentiate between fact and opinion.
No offense intended towards Anthracite, of course - this example is applicable to all.
People on this board are judged not on the basis of their behavior or status external to the board but on the basis of their posts. After reading only a little of what they post, you come to know whether someone is an intelligent, compassionate individual or a judgmental sphincter. Jester, for example, revealed his real age (late teens) by coincidence in a post about a year after I’d decided that he was a mature, thoughtful individual whose contributions were well worth reading. I see no reason to change that evaluation on the basis of his chronological age.
Obviously you’re looking for something other than what most people here are willing to provide. I’m not sure what, but peer-reviewed Web publications spring to mind.
I use my real name because I’m not afraid to stand behind what I write, but I can understand the concerns of folks who want to use “handles” to avoid being bothered by nutcases.
It’s folks who choose to be completely anonymous (not allowed on the SDMB, but on some other forums I’ve visited) that annoy me.
I’m not sure where I fall on your continuum, James, as the name I use is not the name on my birth certificate, but is the name I use in all sorts of ritual situations (I’m pagan) as well as on-line. For all intents and purposes, SisterCoyote is as much me as Jo (which can be found by clicking the link in my .sig, when I remember to post it). In fact, in some ways I can be more me as SisterCoyote, because there are fewer expectations tied to that name than to Jo.
And just as Polycarp says, there are things about me that the folks on this board (and a couple of others) know that no one I interact with outside the web knows. And if I fuck up here and say something phenomenally stupid, everyone’s going to know it’s me - and I’m sure to hear about it at the next DopeFest!
“What’s in a name?”
I have the feeling that most of us who use nicknames are not doing so to hide, or be less honest, or be different people than we are in face-to-face conversations. On the contrary, I find that it is easier to be completely myself online, without people making presuppositions about who I am based on my appearance / age / sex / race. Here I am free to always voice my opinions, whereas at my work I cannot walk up to my boss and say “I find your political views to be repulsive”, or whatever.
I am not as afraid of people stalking me, although privacy is a concern, as I am of someone in my “real life” stumbling across this site and it causing me problems because of their reactions. For example, if I need to start a pit thread about, say, my father-in-law, I don’t need to worry that he will actually read it and cause great family distress. While I do not say anything here that I would not be willing to back up, neither would I prefer to explain to my superiors why I think they are sexist jerks. See? While I realize this possiblilty is remote, it is freeing to me to not have to worry about it at all. If all it takes is to use a nickname, I don’t think I am sacrificing anything, since telling you all my given name wouldn’t tell you a single thing about me anyway.
