There are at least four nationally known people who share my name, and several others who are probably regionally famous turn up in Google. I am known primarily to people I’ve met, and on a couple of message boards (including this one, where I’m not particularly prominent).
Under my username here on the Dope, I am much loved because I’m nice, dammit. In the rest of the world, zilch.
My name most famously belongs to an author - first page of googling is all her. Apparently I’m also a hairdresser in Brisbane specializing in brides, an attorney, a real estate agent, and a rather crude entry in the urban dictionary! :eek: At least thru the first 5 pages googled, I don’t show up. Which is fine - I try to protect my true identity.
My baby bro, on the other hand, shows up in a Forbes profile, and my baby sister dominates the first page of googling, but her name is unique, as is she.
I’m certain the FBI has a file on me, as I have attended counterculture festivals for the better part of two decades. But it’s not something I worry about, as I’m sure they have a file on most of us. No one else knows me, though. My largest pool of notoriety is here.
Well, I don’t really have an APB out on me, but that was the closest option.
I was a juror on the first of three high-profile trials against a man accused of a rather notorious state-wide crime, and the judge, prosecuting attorneys, and a number of police know me from that. And when it leaks out to coworkers and such that I was on it, it’s usually a big shock.
In addition, I was the star student at a couple of local universities, and professors and faculty still stop me on the street when they see me.
Beyond that, I wrote a few FAQs for some obscure retro video game systems that circulate in and are considered definitive by the retro gaming community a good 15 years after they were written; I still get e-mails from collectors and researchers regarding the system and games every month or so.
I’m just some guy. A few months ago I was thinking about changing my username to Just Some Guy, but of course it was already taken.
I’ve contributed a few blog posts to my field (computer forensics) and spoken at a couple of conferences. My blog gets cited here and there online. One of the more influential writers of forensics texts cited me briefly in the most recent edition of his book. That was cool. Not what I’d call fame, exactly.
I’m well known in professional science fiction circles, and among northeast science fiction fandom. Maybe 100-150K people have seen my byline over the years.
I was once famous regionally, and when I return to that area, people still know who I am, if they’re old enough to remember that long ago, when I was recognized on sight. I was known to about a half a million people.