In a pit thread it was mentioned that an obnoxious banned poster was IRL very quiet and polite, which reminded me of how often people’s online personalities differ from their “real” personalities.
What posters have you met in real life that turned out to be a very different type of person than you expected? I haven’t met any posters IRL, AFAIK.
I think that in my case, I probably used to be more confrontational online, but I’ve tended to be less so lately, so I think my online and “real” personalities are merging.
Is elucidator monosyllabic IRL? Does Reeder hardly ever mention Bush unless he’s at a keyboard?
While I can’t say anything from personal experience, on a related note. I’m in the SCA, we do medieval re-enactment, and there’s one guy who’s a total ass, pompous and loudmouthed and lecherous. But outside the SCA, he’s meek and pretty damn cool to hang out with. What we’ve discovered is that he takes on his persona in the SCA and his total personality warps around it. Really weird to get used to to Jekyll and Hyde he pulls.
I guess it would be something like that online on the boards.
I’m always surprised to see my post count, because IRL I’m actually pretty quiet. Until you get me drunk. So I guess my online personality is just my drunk personality. How eeenteresting.
I think I’m generally a bit more reserved IRL till I get to know people, but I have felt myself being particularly gregarious on occasion. For the record, alcohol has nothing to do with my occasional gregariousness - in fact, it puts me to sleep.
But I really am nice in person. Really. I’m nice, dammit!
I am rather gabby and effusive online. In real life I am agoraphobic, and I am extremely uncomfortable meeting new people. Perhaps this is partly because I was teased and mocked about my looks when I was young. If people can’t see what I look like, I am less afraid of them.
I think that’s a major feature of online communication, it has it’s own built in anonymity. Even when talking to people who know us, if they don’t know that it’s us, they can’t recognize us. And thus it gives people freedom to avoid their anxieties and to get past problems.
IRL, I’m a Pentecostal minister, married with six kids.
Actually, IRL people would probably be surprised at how quiet I usually am, how seldom I discuss sexual orientation or atheism (my gaytheism is known but doesn’t come up nearly as much in The Waking), that I have absolutely no southern accent (except for when I want to) and I’m far less argumentative on controversial topics.
Ya know, I was totally ready to post that I was a 6’5" trucker named Bubba, and I just play a girly-girl on the dope, but then I realized that might not be as funny as I first thought, in a been there, done that sort of way…
