# Weirddave, kindly leave my RL name out of your posts **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607 "2006-03-16T16:11:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/1 "2006-03-16T16:11:44Z")
**Weirddave** , kindly cease your use of my RL name here on this board. I should think no justification is necessary, but FWIW, I would note the following: 1. I don’t use my RL name on this board. 2. Posters encounter each other at Dopefests and whatnot, and learn the RL names of other posters. It is not customary to regard that as an invitation to use those names here. And it is especially not an invitation to use those names while Pitting those people. 3. My RL given name is quite uncommon as a guy’s name. As such, I’m sensitive to its potential to identify me to readers, including non-Dopers, in a way that it wouldn’t if my name was John or Bill. (Hence no link.) 4. Your use of my given name implies a false intimacy that doesn’t exist. You are not my friend; I am not yours. It’s been years since even a casual observer would have been at all confused on this score. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/2 "2006-03-16T16:27:47Z")
Doesn’t creating a pit thread just call more attention to the problem? I know what thread you’re referring to and I wouldn’t even have noticed your given name if not for this thread. I think emailing a mod and asking that your name be deleted, then emailing Weirddave asking that he not use it again would have given you a better end result. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/3 "2006-03-16T16:31:22Z")
I agree with **Honey**. I never noticed him using your real name, but now I’m curious. Better to have handled it discreetly, especially since confidentiality is something you desire on the issue. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/4 "2006-03-16T16:36:25Z")
Can we have a link to the offending post? The one that gives your real name. I think that’s expected practice in a pit thread so we can judge if that thread is pit-worthy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/5 "2006-03-16T16:39:16Z")
Poor hamsters. The search continues. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/6 "2006-03-16T16:43:38Z")
You couldn’t have asked him in email? ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/7 "2006-03-16T16:44:26Z")
While I doubt that finding someone by their first name is likely, I do agree that it’s bad form to include names in posts of posters who don’t advertise their first names. All the search engines I have that can come up with addresses and phone numbers require at least part of a last name so that means going through a telephone book listing by listing, and that wouldn’t tell me whether the person is a man or a woman, giving you a little more anonymity. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/8 "2006-03-16T16:47:01Z")
Rufus T. Firefly’s real name was “Groucho.” We already knew that. Oh, wait - Groucho’s “real” name was “Julius.” Oops. Sorry. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/9 "2006-03-16T16:52:09Z")
> [@Honey](#): > > Doesn’t creating a pit thread just call more attention to the problem? I know what thread you’re referring to and I wouldn’t even have noticed your given name if not for this thread. > > I think emailing a mod and asking that your name be deleted, then emailing Weirddave asking that he not use it again would have given you a better end result. Three reasons, I guess: 1. AFAIK, **Weirddave** isn’t violating any formal rules of the board. Custom, yes. Rules, probably not. At the time I was thinking which avenue to pursue, it seemed to me that emailing mods was the appropriate response to a rules violation, but not a breach of custom. 2. I don’t email **Weirddave**. A quick mental review of posts he’s addressed to me here ends any question of whether I’d want to give him an excuse to send similar but less constrained missives to my email in-box. 3. The main sort of identification I’m concerned with is something along the lines of someone noticing that I’m posting while at work. (FWIW, I’m at home today.) This hasn’t happened yet, and I doubt anyone where I work will be ransacking the SDMB archives on the off-chance that **RTFirefly** might be one of their employees. But just in case there’s ever any real-time monitoring, I’d like to keep any additional linkage between my RL and online personas out of the picture going forward. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/10 "2006-03-16T16:54:08Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Rufus T. Firefly’s real name was “Groucho.” We already knew that. > > Oh, wait - Groucho’s “real” name was “Julius.” > > Oops. Sorry. :smack: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/11 "2006-03-16T17:04:04Z")
Wow. I must have missed some intermediate steps along the way. I knew you guys had a difference of opinion, but when did that translate into open hostility? ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/12 "2006-03-16T17:05:45Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Rufus T. Firefly’s real name was “Groucho.” We already knew that. > > Oh, wait - Groucho’s “real” name was “Julius.” > > Oops. Sorry. :smack: Not according to number 3 in the OP. My guess is Marilyn, his dad was a huge Monroe fan and saddled him with that name, as he was born on the day she died. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/13 "2006-03-16T17:07:42Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > Wow. I must have missed some intermediate steps along the way. I knew you guys had a difference of opinion, but when did that translate into open hostility? Look Airman, you need to stop using my name. It’s unique and not very common. But we are not friends, so use Abbie Normal and do not call me by my first name again. Wow ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/14 "2006-03-16T17:15:22Z")
> [@Abbie Normal](#): > > Look Airman, you need to stop using my name. It’s unique and not very common. But we are not friends, so use Abbie Normal and do not call me by my first name again. > > Wow Grooooooan!!! I knew there was a joke there, but I had to read your post three times to get it. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/15 "2006-03-16T17:17:08Z")
I can call you Betty, and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al. Na na na na…na na na na… That’s all the protection my RL ID needs. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/16 "2006-03-16T17:21:10Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > Grooooooan!!! I knew there was a joke there, but I had to read your post three times to get it. :smack: HEY THERE!!! :mad: Grooooooan 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/17 "2006-03-16T17:44:36Z")
I wouldn’t worry about it. “[RTFirefly’s real first name] is a very popular male first name, ranking 397 out of 1219 for males of all ages in the 1990 US Census.” Plus it’s short so it’s easy to glance over and miss in a post. If you’re that paranoid about your office superiors getting wind of your online non-work activities there are between a handful and hundreds of people, depending on the size of your company’s IT shop, who are bigger risk factors than **Weirddave**. If you’re just using this as a personal grudge kind of thing(“It’s _Mr._ **Firefly** to you asshole!”) that’s fine, but objectively the dangers you fear are both minute and entirely under your own control. You could stop doing non-work related stuff at work and end pretty much all the danger. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/18 "2006-03-16T17:50:21Z")
I didn’t even notice that a “Name” had been posted until this thread drew attention to it. Now I’m working as hard as I can to sign you up for all sorts of Franklin Mint-related crap, credit card offers from Capital One, and I’ve told all the major telecommunications companies that yes, you are veeeeeeeeery interested in being contacted about long-distance savings plans, and that they should call after 11:00pm, since you’re a day-sleeper. Oh, and you’re a Scientologist now, or soon will be. No need to thank. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/19 "2006-03-16T17:54:56Z")
I agree with the principle of what **RTF** is saying: people’s anonymity shjould be preserved, unless they reveal personal details themselves on the board (and not just when they do so at off-board get-togethers). And (on request) the mods should delete such details from postings (or delete the whole posting if it makes no sense without the personal details). ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607/20 "2006-03-16T18:00:01Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > I agree with the principle of what **RTF** is saying: people’s anonymity shjould be preserved, unless they reveal personal details themselves on the board (and not just when they do so at off-board get-togethers). And (on request) the mods should delete such details from postings (or delete the whole posting if it makes no sense without the personal details). I see no reason the Moderators or other staff of the boards should add to their workload by servicing such requests. They have, collectively, explicitly disclaimed responsibility for what happens off-board in gatherings of posters. From the sticky thread in MPSIMS entitled “[Disclaimer (concerning real life meetings of members)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=103190)” > [@](#): > > The Chicago Reader, Inc., and its agents, including the administrators and moderators of the Straight Dope Message Board, are in no way responsible for anything associated with any real life meeting of our members. While we permit SDMB users to post announcements and other discussion of meetings and events on the Straight Dope Message Board, we don’t organize, sponsor, endorse, approve, or have any formal association with such events or any activities that may occur at them. We don’t vouch for any individual or group organizing an event. Attend at your own risk. SDMB moderators and administrators who attend events do so as private individuals and not as representatives or agents of the Chicago Reader, Inc. We encourage all attendees at these events to obey the laws of the jurisdiction in which they are held. Enjoy, Steven(which may or may not be my real name, muwah ha hah!) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirddave-kindly-leave-my-rl-name-out-of-your-posts/348607.md?page=2)