Here are two reasons why I would never use my real name online:
I’m a teacher. I don’t badmouth my students online or anything, but if I gave them a bad grade I would expect not to be asked, amidst a online discussion on whether Rioja is better than Merlot, why I gave a certain student a low grade for an assignment. It’d be like allowing a student to interrupt any mundane pub conversation, except it’s not in a pub, you have no way of knowing that the student’s there, and it can happen years after the conversation took place.
No anonymity would mean that work mode was never off. This goes for almost any job.
Also because: I’m gay. I choose who knows this. I have experienced quite a lot of homophobia in my life and know that it is essential for some people to never know I’m gay, or to only know after they’ve got to know me; it’s my choice either way.
No anonymity would mean a choice between being totally closeted or being out to everyone.
There are lots of other reasons, but those are the two biggest for me, and they are really fucking big.
And no lawyers or doctors I know would ever post online at all.
On the other hand, your picture is out there on the picture thread… er, assuming that’s your real picture. Not just you, of course, but many hundreds of your fellow anonyms.
That’s true…my picture is out there as well (and yeah…it’s the real picture of me). There are also tons of little details I’ve given out that someone could figure out who the real ‘me’ is, with effort. Hell, I’ve actually given out my RL name in threads before. But it would take some effort for someone to dig the details out and figure out my RL identity.
I prefer to make at least a token effort to stay anonymous. Hopefully most of the nutters I’ve clashed with in the past or will clash with in the future won’t bother to do the donkey work to figure it out…and the vast majority of 'dopers or lurkers don’t care.
Though I suppose it wouldn’t be the end of the world, I am opposed to the idea of zero forum anonymity.
Firstly, it would penalize those of us with unpopular minority opinions. While it is easy to repeat platitudes such as “If you don’t want to have your name linked with it, don’t post it,” this tends to work better for individuals that share in the popular consensus. I have no qualms about my friends and loved ones knowing all about my radical theories, but I would be less comfortable with all potential employees (for instance) being able to access them at will.
Also, as has been mentioned, this would also be harsher for those of us with uncommon names. As far as I can tell, fewer than a dozen people in the world currently share my last name, and no other individual shares my first name, last name, and patronymic. Thus, I wouldn’t even enjoy the quasi-anonymity of the John Smiths of this world.
I post on another (local) board under my real first name. Did so as what I say there I am comfortable sharing in public, and it was actually to add to my “public persona”.
I post here annonymously - although if you tried really hard you can probably work out who I am. Anybody that knows me well would recognise me were they to read my total posting history.
To have every comment I have ever made here made accessible by anyone is a really bad idea, things can (and probably will) be taken out of context, people that have no right to know my stand on a lot of issues would be able to find out. And then there is the mundane that is shared here because its annonymous that I would be too embarrassed to share with those I know. My child’s teacher (for example) has no business knowing whether or not I am circumcised (something that is shared here).
Although I haven’t shared anything here that I am ashamed of, or could seriously harm me (unless taken out of context), but that doesn’t mean that the conversations I have “in private” (in that I am not identified) I want made public.
Were I known by my real name, there would be a whole lot more self-censorship, which would totally neuture the discussion here
Facebook doesn’t accept my family’s real names. I closed the account, but not a single one of my cousins there had our lastname spelled correctly; there were three siblings with all-different spellings. And if Facebook ever verified my identity, they sure were discreet about it. Bad example.
As others have said, if I wanted everybody and his mom to know the details of my opinions on SSM, sexual practices, religion, local and international politics… I’d blog, and sign with my full name, which is unique in the world. It doesn’t take a genius to find out my real name starting from the Dope, but a google search doesn’t show my zillion posts for all the world to see.
It would be hard to do something similar in the US but the South Korean equivalent of Facebook, Cyworld, does something with users national identification number. When I wanted to sign up I had to send them a scan of my passport (since I didn’t have a number).
Also a very valid reason. Most of us are selectively closeted in one way or another.
I’m out to all of my friends and most of my acquaintances who have any interest in the matter, but my sister doesn’t know I’m gay and that’s for several reasons. First and foremost I just frankly don’t want the drama: she’s an über-conservative Fundamentalist and while I’ve no idea whether she’d ultimately accept it I know for a fact initially she’d blow all of her fuses and foreverafter try to convert me to straight. For another, she- simply put- has no real friends, I’m about it as far as her connection to the outside world (think Norma Desmond, though thank God Max is still married to her) and she frankly needs me. For a third, I’m saving it either for a huge argument or her birthday. (The fact I’m in my 40s and have no discernible interest in the opposite sex and love showtunes and hate sports and have gay best friends- all this is something she can overlook, denial being what it is.)
I’m more closeted about my increasingly militant atheism, however. I honestly don’t want to offend or hurt my religious friends- we have our differences but agree to disagree (or avoid) the subject of religion, and they know I’m not religious but they don’t know the extent of it. It could cause all manner of problems at work and with second-tier friendships if they knew just how stupid I think many of their beliefs are. Ditto the friends who are Fox Newsies types: we’re not close enough to have a knock-down/drag-out over politics and if we did it wouldn’t change their minds or mine anyway.
In the Waking I’m exceptionally diplomatic and polite. Here I can be a lot more open and frankly a lot more rude in my beliefs on religion, politics, you name it. Some consider this hypocrisy perhaps, I consider it good manners, but either way I don’t intend to change it anytime soon.
No. I agree with many others in this thread who’ve expressed my feelings more eloquently.
That said, I used to write letters to the editor of the newspaper using my real name, and in some cases, got hate mail and threatening phone calls simply because my views were unpopular (such as being in favor of anti-smoking laws).
So I can’t see myself using my real name on a board, and if it becomes a requirement, then I simply won’t post on that board. They (the hypothetical board) need me more than I need to post on it.
This has been my response to most of Mr. Manjoo’s work, which typically consists of him praising some “new” bit of technology (that’s actually been around for a while and well-covered in other outlets), championing some crappy tech innovation/ new business practice, or lobbying heavily for the death of something people actually find useful.
Oh, and occasionally popping into his own “Comments” section to invite his critics not to read his column if they don’t like it.
I wrote an editorial on gay marriage one time and got a lot of emails (my number wasn’t listed so my address and phone number weren’t easily available). My favorite was the one that called me a ‘faggit’ (which I think is half gay-man and half daggit).
I use Invisible Chimp almost everywhere on the Internet. I have my real picture in the SDMB photo gallery. I’ve said it in other threads and I’ll say it again, my real name Jacob Brown. You could easily link my posts to the real me, so I self-censor a lot. I’ve chosen to only be semi-anonymous.
Others in this thread have mentioned great reasons to stay anonymous though. You shouldn’t have to be forced to use your real identity on message boards if you don’t want. The Internet would be a better place if more places were moderated using the SDMB’s “don’t be a jerk” rule though. I choose not to go to places that don’t.
Manjoo’s premise is stupid and flawed. Why should the internet be more civilized? Why should comments be of higher quality? If someone wants to shit on his writing, why can’t they?
He wants people to stand behind their comments. Why? There’s no good reason for that. Enforcing quality is irrelevent to the desireability of quality in the first place. When I watch Adult Swim, or the Three Stooges, or buy cheap rings off a street vendor, I do that knowing that the quality usually matches how much I pay for it. I’m fine with that.
What Manjoo wants to do is eliminate the choice of choosing lesser quality for some supposedly inherent desirability of the opposite. He doesn’t realize that if the only cars for sale were Ferrari’s, then a hell of a lot of people aren’t going to be able to drive. Fuck that guy.
When I post anonymously, I do it knowing that what I get back may not be Pulitzer Prize quality work, but its something that has a demand as well. I don’t care about great writing if I’m clicking on a thread about zits.
He keeps saying that the web would be better off. Why? I need my weekly quota of dead baby jokes and racist jokes. Can you imagine how bland humor would have to be if everyone was afraid their boss or mother would read what they said?
The web should remain anonymous for the most part. I don’t care if they want to set up their own website and make it linked to a social network site or whatever, but make the lawless wilds an available choice
Yeah, this. There are only three people in the entire world with my first and last name. Using my real name would make me very easy to find for nefarious purposes like identity theft or stalking, so I’d rather not post anywhere with such a policy since it puts more risk on someone like me that one of 10,000 Joe Browns. There is exactly one post on the SD that contains my full name (posted by someone else quoting me in a publication) and the mods were nice enough to edit it to remove my town from that post…I almost asked them to remove my last name too.
You really want me to trade in my unique handle for my generic “real” name? :rolleyes:
No, seriously, there are three minor celebrities who have variations of my legal name, and there’s a guy two states away with precisely the same name and same birthdate. If I used my “real” name, you’d have to go by SSN or something to distinguish us.
And it would be worse if I were named, say, Mike Smith.
But foolsguinea, or “fool’s guinea” as I originally formed it, that’s me, baby. I’m the only one.
Besides, how the holy hell would you enforce it? I can sit down at a keyboard & say I’m David Smith, or Angie Voight, or Geo. H. W. Bush. Are we all to be issued universal PIN’s or something?
