I used to be part of a fanfic/social email group. Everybody was an original character and we interacted in-character, as well as writing stories with whatever characters we wanted. Some of us had sub-characters as well. We also would sometimes chat on IRC. I used to chat as myself and my male sub-character at the same time. I tried to bring in another character sometimes, but that was too hard to do in real time.
I’ve done it a couple of times since, but never to fool people. I could probably pull it off still, but I’m not sure why I’d bother.
Never felt the need. Different strokes, I guess, but I’ve never found the- yes, easy -manipulation of online interactions to be entertaining, and it honestly screams ‘attention whore’ to me. In a pretty big way.
Prior to the Straight Dope, I was a long-time poster on a message board related to writing and I had met several people from that board who had become real life friends. At the time, I was working as a reader for a literary and talent agency in San Diego.
One guy who I had become friends with and frequently hung out with asked me to read some of his work that he had posted online. I immediately told him that I did not read and critique friends’ work because I felt it conflicted with my professional role as a reader. But curiosity got the best of me and I ended up reading his stuff anyway. It was God. Awful. Some of the worst writing I had ever seen.
So now I was even more conflicted about what to tell my friend. I needed advice! So I created a new account with a male username (I am female) and posted a thread describing my dilemma with some of the details changed. I only used this persona in this thread, and to the best of my knowledge neither my friend nor anybody else ever found me out. (I ended up pretending that I had never read his work.)
I would say you weren’t pretending to be two different people. You were simply obscuring your identity for the purposes of a question. What the OP describes requires maintaining two completely different personas.
I’d gladly do the former if the question called for it, assuming it wasn’t against the rules. Doing the latter, even as a joke, is a form of trolling.
We have a poster on S.D.M.B who crops up regulary pretending to be a Brit.
He gives himself away by his use of language, I’ve called him on it a couple of times but he still keeps trying.
Also I recall that on an A.O.L. mb devoted to Ireland it was quite common for Irish Republican supporters to pretend to be Brits or Americans, (And in one case pretending to be a N.I. Protestant) while espousing the terrorists cause.
The ones who pretended to be Brits gave themselves away by their incredible ignorance of life in Britain, British attitudes and of history.
Also even a minor criticism of terrorist murders would bring forth an angry tirade from the supposed “Brits” and “Americans”
On an AOL board dedicated to the Royal family there were some real loony tunes who were devoted to Lady Diana, and whop osted under multiple user names in one of the unhealthiest, hate campaigns against Prince Charles or for that fact, anyone, I personally have ever encountered.
The ironic thing was that who these individuals were in real life, was quite well known.
(Though of course noone ever alluded to their identities on the board)
So I would say that its not uncommon, but to my mind a little bizarre.
When ICQ was still mostly shiny and new, I had a circle of chat friends and we had normal, mundane conversations about life and stuff. I decided to create an account for someone unlike me to see if I could be more daring and exciting with this different identity. It didn’t last long.
First off, I found myself getting insulted by the way some people responded to my fake self - in one story arc, “I” got hurt doing one of my daring adventures and ended up hospitalized, and the person I was talking to blew that off and started suggesting other things I should try. How insane that I should be bothered by this fiction, but I was.
The other thing was the seemingly endless number of folks who just wanted to talk dirty, and they seemed to come out of the woodwork for the younger adventurer that I created. That’s when I decided the internet was a silly waste of time and I should just live my real life. So I left and never returned. Ever.
OK, my fake self left. My real self spent a lot of time typing “I don’t do dirty chat” before giving up on ICQ altogether. Now I’m just me, and it seems to be fine. The whole secret identity thing is a lot of work - I don’t know how Clark Kent manages it…
I don’t really get the point. Sure, I guess I could make people believe I was someone else, but I’m just some random stranger on the internet already, nobody cares. Why go to the trouble of being some different random stranger no one cares about?
The closest I’ve come is playing multiple char’s in online games. When I first started I would occasionally use the wrong keyboard to continue a conversation in guildchat, two boxing was rare in the old days and so it became a requirement for me to have one char bitch out the other for keeping her muzzled most of the time.
I had a friend that signed up to eHarmony as 2 men. One was himself and another was a fake one with a fake picture/job etc. How he did this I don’t know.
He basically did it to see which women would reject the real him but would approach the fake guy. If they did that he would play practical jokes on them. The fake guy had an attractive picture/was a doctor etc.
Yes, he wasn’t the nicest guy, but it was fun to have beers after work and hear his stories.
I also once signed up an account on a board pretending to be a malevolent AI emerging from a board’s profanity filter and attempting to take over the world. I don’t know if that counts as signing up to be another person, though.
Almost did once, sort of, maybe ------- with the permission of the boards owner. He lost something at a RL gathering and I happened to be the one to find it. When I called him up to mail it back to him he suggested we make it into a “kidnapping” and a game of who did it. I created the account but at least three people posted to it.
Several people later did the same kind of thing (created a joint identity and shared it) to screw with people and that basically killed the board.
Inventing a false persona can be fun and can give a sense of security. When one attacks you ad hominem, you know that the person is attacking your false persona, not your real identity. Of course, if you don’t want to create a false persona, yet don’t want to tell the world so much about yourself, then you can remain ambiguous on every topic that comes up. The choice is yours.
“DrFidelius” is not my name in meatspace. Usually. But the Dr has been my default on-line persona for almost twenty years now, and he has become virtually indistinguishable from me.
The Captain, on the other hand, is a far more frivolous person. I have never used both on the same venue,
But what’s the point in not being yourself? I am who I am. If somebody has a problem with who I am, it’s not my problem. I realize some people I interact with online aren’t going to like me. So be it. I’d rather people hate the real me than put up a fake persona just to be liked.
At one point a board I frequented banned someone and he formed his own board. I had enjoyed his posts so I joined the second board. I didn’t want to get involved in the rivalry aspect and used a different username even though they had requested you use the same one from the original.
The only vaguely deceptive part was when a comment I made on the first board was criticized on the second. I didn’t actively participate.
I don’t think this is exactly what the OP meant but some of those people encountered both of me.
Of course. It’s always a good thing for one to be oneself. However, if one’s own personality is disagreeable to other people and impedes the individual to befriend and associate with others, then I think it’s time for a change, or be forever lonely otherwise (unless one wants to be alone). The Straight Dope forum has a distinct atmosphere. Its members typically use bold assertions rather than mild suggestions or neutral opinions, complete with occasional sarcastic remarks. I have been on forums, where every word must be literal, and that its members must know how to word properly in such a manner that the wording does not sound so forceful or impolite, and that critiques must be saccharine, gentle, tactful, and in good fellowship. Sometimes, I wonder if gender has to do with the way people interact. Then again, I don’t want to sound stereotypical here, so I digress.
I have done this before too. Sometimes, I don’t want to deal with past mistakes and misunderstandings on my part and on theirs, so I end up creating a new account to start anew and afresh. What really amazes me is that some people never really make social errors, or faux pas. This leads me to think that I am some sort of social misfit, on the Internet and in real life. I have also learned those people who have skills and more knowledge are treated with more respect and dignity than those who have less skills and knowledge. So, in order to gain respect and dignity, I need to gain a skill, some experience, and ample knowledge. Higher prestige can be rewarding, because then people are less likely to criticize you.
