# Would you post on the SDMB if you had to use your full name? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2009, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160 "2009-01-27T00:49:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/61 "2009-01-28T02:49:16Z")
I used to do this, until I got some harassing emails. Decided it was a pain, & switched. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/62 "2009-01-28T02:54:14Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Two question poll. > > 1. If you had to post on the SDMB using your first and last name, would you? Nope. I’m an asshole on the SDMB for some reason. Using my real name would be bad. > [@](#): > > 1. Would you post on any message board using your first and last name? Sure, but I’d talk about innoccuous (sp?) stuff like the weather and how cute my kid is and my prehensile rectum. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/63 "2009-01-28T02:58:11Z")
**Musicat** _is_ my full name. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/64 "2009-01-28T03:44:08Z")
I do. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/65 "2009-01-28T05:31:54Z")
I would. I’ve long passed the feeling that I might be president some day. And I’m smart enough to keep my mouth shut on sensitive issues. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/66 "2009-01-28T05:34:46Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > My real name is Jacob Brown. Ha ha! I have you now! You fool!!! Joe ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/67 "2009-01-28T06:49:16Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Mind you, my name is a common expression in the US, so people would probably assume it was a pseudonym anyway. (I’m not going to give my real name here, but the UK equivalent is Gordon Bennet). Jesus Christ? You’re right, people would assume it was a pseudonym. My name is unique in Australia and New Zealand and I suspect it is very very rare in the rest of the world. When I google my name (first and last but not middle) I get 35 hits with every legitimate hit being of me. There are a scattering of hits that supposedly have something to do with my name but when I go to them, my name doesn’t appear anywhere. I would continue posting under my real name. I’ve linked to my facebook page anyway and my name’s right there. It would probably change my posting very slightly. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/68 "2009-01-28T13:59:44Z")
1. Possibly, although I’d be far less likely to talk about my job. As civil servants we’re not supposed to say what we think personally about our professions. I’ve already been taken to task on the net before where I posted a comment on a blog and signed using my full name (my name is very rare), and someone else researched who I was, discovered where I worked and wrote about me on their own blog, which was then cross pollinated onto a political blog where my personal views were being conflated with my position within my Department. That wasn’t a fun vanity search on google, I can tell you… All the other stuff I say about myself or what I think I’m happy to admit in person, and in fact I have a pic of myself up and have said enough about me that you could work out who I was if you really wanted to. 2. Probably not as there are very few forums that I want to join, and having to do so using my real name would be yet another reason not to. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/69 "2009-01-28T14:01:16Z")
Absolutely not ---
**Author:** ![Karyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/fbc32d/32.png) [@Karyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karyn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/70 "2009-01-28T14:21:54Z")
I don’t know the genders of most of the posters here but it seems like women are far more uncomfortable with giving out their real name than men are. I’m not ashamed of anything that I post and other than bitching about my family there’s nothing I wouldn’t say anyway, but I’ve picked up enough weird creepy online stalker types and one that tracked me down in real life that I don’t want to do it again. I even get nervous posting pictures and usually send them to people in PM if they’re curious. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/71 "2009-01-28T17:01:35Z")
1. I am not about to, but if I had to I would feel OK with my real name here. I enjoy the anonymity and this is about the only board where I can feel I can “be myself”. If I am ever in a city where there is a dopefest, I will go and tell my real name (you’re seeing me, what’s the real diff?) 2. Probably not. People on this board are different than others I go to, I just feel more comfortable here. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/72 "2009-01-28T20:18:14Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > Mind you, my name is a common expression in the US Nice to meet you, Joe Schmoe! Even though ulitmately someone could figure out who I am from my posts, I wouldn’t give my full name. If we could start over using it, I would change the kinds of things I would talk about, but with the history that’s already here, no. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/73 "2009-01-28T21:11:08Z")
I’d still post, but less posts and less personal information and opinions. I signed up for Facebook last year and wasn’t very comfortable with providing my real name. I lied about my exact birthdate at least. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/74 "2009-01-28T21:18:08Z")
No and no. Ko Eeoaddi ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/75 "2009-01-29T06:13:16Z")
No, because every now and again I need to vent about my family, and they’re all perfectly capable of Googling my name (my mother’s already done it!) and then they’d find my posts. Much as I’d like to give them a kick up the butt occasionally, having them read it on a message board would be all sorts of passive-aggressive wrong. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160/76 "2009-01-29T13:15:49Z")
If I had to use my real name on this board? Yes. On other boards? Some of them. I profess I do love the anonymity of a pseudonym. I’ve always been a private person in general but I’ve become so accustomed to being an ass on the internet I would scarcely change my ways now. One guy on another board I frequent uses his real name as a handle and had this theory; “My name is a rather common name in meatspace but few people register their full real name as a forum handle. Triple reverse psychology!” My real name is apparently a very common one and is shared by several foreign TV stars and athletes. I had no idea I was that talented. Now where are my millions dammit? ☹ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-post-on-the-sdmb-if-you-had-to-use-your-full-name/483160.md?page=3)