Yup.
I’m pretty much the same, though maybe a little more of a smart-ass IRL. I’m humbled by the standard of smart-assery here, though and try not to overreach myself.
I am nicer here (I think) than in real life. That isn’t quite true. I am (again I think) a genuinely nice man, but IRL I am more sarcastic. I am much more cognizant that sarcasm is tough to read on a message board.
In real life I know who I’m talking to, and I try not to get baited by people who enjoying baiting and I try not to get dragged into arguments with people who aren’t in a position to know what they’re talking about.
I’ve been on this board for over six years and I’ve only recently started noticing individual posters’ personalities. In real life, I would start evaluating people instantly and remember their quirks the next time around.
I absolutely stay stuff here, thanks to anonymity, that I wouldn’t say around my coworkers, because it’s personal. I can tell you guys because you don’t know who I am.
I’m significantly friendlier in real life - it comes through in some threads on here, but not for the most part.
While I still hold the same completely insane and indefensible opinions in real life, I’m amazingly tactful and know when to withhold them and when to hold forth.
Pretty much the same, though maybe a bit more outgoing online than off. I’m still pretty shy online but the anonymity does allow me to be somewhat more sociable.
The same, except I can’t say things in RL that I can say here.
I was waiting in line at an outside vendor stand. There was a couple behind me, goofing around and talking stupid. The guys says to the girl: “God look at your feet. If your toes were any longer, they be fingers”. I wanted to say “No. They wouldn’t be fingers. Fingers are on hands. Those are feet.”
Pretty much the same. A lot less vitriol in RL. It’s kind of nice to let it out here. It’s much easier to be nice to people in person because you can see they are really just trying to make it like the rest of us. No better, no worse.
Me too!
Very much the same; however, what I might bite off in real life, I might say out loud at the board. - If I’m allowed to get private for a moment, this also makes me at bit embarrassed twentyfour hours later, which in turn I find silly. So there’s a petty conlict going on in old Wakinyan’s brain which none of you good folks should have to suffer. Therefore, I beg your pardon and humbly retreat from any further discussion.
IRL I’m more polite to people I don’t know, and more likely to say extremely rude things to people I know well and get along with (since they know my personality and are usually capable of returning the jibes). Online, I’m not directly rude to people all that often, but if I am, it’s usually to someone I don’t like. Online, it’s a lot easier to brush someone off when they annoy you, while in real life you often have to keep dealing with the same people in your work and social groups.
I think my crudeness and sense of humor are about the same in both environments.
Same here. I tend to do it a fair bit IRL too, but as you say it’s easier to avoid the extreme qualification of statements IRL because you can visibly see people’s reactions and you can also do a lot with tone - which doesn’t always come through on posts. So yeah, I end up over-clarifying a lot on here, while I wouldn’t probably bother IRL - and this probably makes me look a little prissy too. This is quite funny, since I’m not only a tomboy but I also swear a lot - but swearing is an impulsive thing and largely disappears when I’m taking long enough to actually type out what I’m thinking.
Really, I just can’t imagine any reason why anyone would want to use a whole different persona - it’d just set them up for enforced roleplay every.single.time. they tried to interact with others, and I find that concept to be completely torturous. So, whether folks on here like me, hate me, or completely fail to notice me (generally the last one, which is why I don’t play the ‘say something about the poster above you’ games), they’re at least doing it legitimately based off who I am. 
I’ve been told that I over-use smilies, but if you knew me IRL you’d realise I don’t. I am a nervous smiler. I smile a lot. A real lot. I may over-use smiles, but I don’t actually over-use smilies. If I did, every sentence would be a colour riot. Trust me on this.
Also, I very rarely say *anything *mean to *anyone *IRL - the worst I usually get is snappy when provoked (hence the User Name) - but I’ve been known to be simultaneously completely honest and kinda mean in the Pit on occasion. In my defence, it’s exactly what I would have been *thinking *IRL…
Maybe I’m actually *more *like me on here? :dubious:
I am at least as witty, charming and erudite in real life as I am here.
Online I come across as cold, unemotional, uncaring, easily unnerved, cynical, and absolute in my opinions. IRL I’m quite the opposite… I’m shy, polite, and very conscientious of people’s feelings. I’m also a very positive and happy person IRL.
When I am not disembodied, I actually look a little younger and wear more lipstick. I don’t sound nearly as smug, but I really am. I drink less and wear more clothes.
Fairly close. I’m a bit more formal in writing than in real life. I make a lot of smart-assed remarks that I can’t do on the board because sarcasm doesn’t translate well.
I censor TMI stuff based on the audience, so with some people in real life I’ll talk about sex, bodily functions, the details of particularly nasty parasites, etc., but with other people, who I know won’t appreciate it, I avoid those subjects. Here, I’m more likely to be a bit more open about gross things and details of my past sex life because I can assume that most people are protected by the emotional distance of the medium and can just skip the post if they don’t want to read it.
One difference, I don’t like dealing with thread dog-piles and time-sucking online arguments, so I rarely say anything controversial on the board. In real life I don’t mind getting a bit argumentative, but then again in real life I don’t have to argue with thousands of people in a different time zone. If I say anything on a controversial subject here it’s because I’ve thought about it and considered the argument pretty well. Everything I have to say is usually in that one post, so I’m not going to do a lot of back and forth on it.
Same on and off the board: if someone gets too emotionally involved in the conversation, I’m done. I’ll have a rational discussion with someone, but as soon as they start getting nasty or upset, it’s time to walk away. That goes for real life or online. I don’t get into fights or screaming arguments with people if I can help it.
I don’t talk about things on the board that I don’t know about. In other words, I don’t do Google-smarts. I’ll google for sources that back up what I know, or to fill in details, but I won’t research something and pretend that I actually knew about it before googling. If I just did some research to figure out the answer to a question, I’ll almost always state that I just researched it and this is what I found out.
Same thing in real life. If I know about it, I’ll talk about it; if I don’t know about it, I’ll ask questions and listen. This, my tendency to go find out some information for myself if I have a question, and not really needing affirmation/confirmation from other people is why I’ve been around for a while but my post count is relatively low and have started very few threads.
Hmmm, I clicked on this thread yesterday and thought I’d skip it because I would have just been another “yup, this is me, just like real life.”
Then it occurred to me that this isn’t really true. There is one big aspect of my personality which plays very heavily in the direction of my life that I’ve never mentioned this on the board before. So I guess I am different after all.
If I haven’t told you all yet I’m not starting now.
I’m more open on the boards than off the boards, simply because off the boards I often have to clam up, e.g. when dealing with clients I don’t talk about my personal life and I don’t comment on theirs unless it is relevant to the matter for which I have been hired; and with some friends I avoid certain topics that might seriously offend them. In other words, off the boards you can dress me up and take me anywhere, but what you see on the boards is me at home.
“IRL”
I’ve never liked that term. For me, the boards are as much part of my real life as my life off the boards. I do not put forth a persona, and the people with whom I prefer to converse on the boards also do not appear to do so. I value the discussions we have.
How about “in meat space?”
I’m pretty much the same here as in meat space. Here I use more smileys than I would prefer to because I have an extremely dry sense of humour - I love to say outrageous things with an absolute deadpan expression - you’ve got to be looking closely for the twinkle in my eye. That doesn’t go over so well here. I’m probably a little bit more opinionated here and sometimes I step wrong like I never would in meat space; I’m a real people-reader, and I can’t use that skill as much here.