Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
Always wondered about this. Real identity means that you have your real name/contact info in your profile even if you username is generic
Please upvote the post as well for others to see if you can.
Please upvote the post as well for others to see if you can.
"We should try to be happy, if only to set an example." -Jacques Prévert
I try to be as open and plainly honest as possible, and I think using my real name keeps me from being inflammatory, and I think it also keeps other from doing the same to me (at least a little). Put another way, I think using real names makes an atmosphere of more empathy than otherwise.
So we should try to be sincere, if only to set an example. I think real names help with that.
Further, I try to make all my interactions on the web as public as possible. I set my Facebook privacy settings to 100% public, zero private stuff, because I don't like the state of what seems to be a selective illusion of privacy. I'd rather just be honest with myself: If I put something on the internet, it's there to stay.
[1] For posterity I use a different name for some games, because long ago someone bought a Warcraft 3 account name (Saint) as a gift, and I want to honor him, or find him again if I could, on the dim hopes he'd mention the name if he ever saw it.
Don't blame the presence or absence of a number on the letterbox of the house for the behavior of the occupants inside the house.
Your handle is another name for you in this moment. Relative to this discussion, to this forum, one's username is the cornerstone of each post. Perhaps forgotten easily between threads. But in $this thread is often where it counts.
In the beer garden, should all chatter be recorded and archived? Sure, why not. But then authored, as does a professional writer and editor? The skills needed not to say things that could result in noisy, inaccurate, too long, not long enough, or any number of other things that would make an unsubscribable Flipboard. Skills of few.
The username I gave myself, is more truthful of my state of mind, and point of view relative to this forum. The name means more here than the first name given to me by my parents, and my last name on loan from past generations. I'm proud of my real name, but I'm going for relevance and fun online.
Contextual, in the moment, not "published by Paul, all rights reserved". It's a casual comment only. And I don't know who you are anyway, even if you tell me your real name and Twitter feed.
That's what I mean when I say anonymity comes with the promise of zero responsibility.
I agree. If I am going to put something online, I expect it to be in the public domain.
I do however try to keep all my online identities, although all real, separate. For example, I don't link my reddit account on my facebook. It's like having different groups of friends, you don't want to force them to hang out together, it would be awkward.
I hate that I have to preface a question as being sincere to ensure that it isn't read as an insult, but here we are.
I don't have those friends anymore. I deserve better. If someone can't take the time to reply to a simple email or text unless it's through Facebook, they're not worth having as friends. Yes, you may lose some friends, but the ones you keep you know are going to be there for you.
I would not want to be your friend.
Facebook has an unreal level of penetration into my friends, literally no other app is so widely used. It's not the best at any of the things I use it for, but it is the single most reliable way to schedule events and communicate with people I know for the least amount of effort.
Of course, they also use SMS, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Kik as well, so I have to have all of those on my phone.
To make that even more effective, one could even make a point of using that same identity even when physical presence is required. Many video game players actually do this, and it seems to be mostly working.
Despite the fact that I never operate online under my given name, the fact that my username is tightly tied to my identity and reputation prevents me from employing it as a shield of anonymity to hide behind while I lob uncivil or disrespectful remarks at other Netizens. I don't generally feel tempted to do anyway, but I can't say how much of that is due to my consistent use of my username.
(Also, hi spiffy!)
Anyways, one of my long-term handles I wanted to erase from the internet and I succeeded with three exceptions, one due to my own laziness (edit: which I'm dealing with this morning), another because no one answered company email (but I eventually got through when the site was revamped), and the other because the company went out of business but the site remains online. It'd be nice to get my profile there expunged because it's slightly embarrassing but there's no valid way to contact them (not even via WHOis).
The only reason I second guess this decision is the idea of governments scraping social network data, when things are marked public you have little protection from that.
Though I keep my Facebook visible to friends only because I don't want anything Facebook related ranking high on a personal name google search. I use twitter or blogs as the public facing searchable content tied to my name.
"When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for, if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly?"
That said, I disagree with the statement. Different social groups have different norms, and those norms should be respected. I tend to make a large number of sexual jokes when around a particular group of friends, but those jokes would not be taken well by other groups of friends. It is not that the jokes are wrong, but simply that they do not work for everyone. To broadcast them to all my various social groups would be mean-spirited, and so I do not.
For the obvious reasons - that they are in positions of power over you.
damn, that's good.
We shouldn't need to show our drivers license to qualify or validate our sincerity in any interactions, online or in person.
"He used his real name so it must be true" is not something we will ever hear.
Your name is "simonsarris", okay, so I barely noticed. It's a handle, and it might be real or made up. As a reader of your comment it makes absolutely no difference whether your real credentials are stated anywhere or not. If you present a good argument, that's all that matters. If you talk out of your rear end, that also matters. Your real name does not matter unless I am particularly interested in your real life. Which I am not, nor have reason to be.
Less about how other people view him and more about making sure that he didn't do anything that would tarnish himself. As opposed to the freedom you would feel behind anonymity to do things you wouldn't normally.
Personally, if I'm going to go to the trouble of eviscerating someone in text, I want to put my real name on it and take credit. Then again, I grew up with Usenet when flaming was an art form. (You kids get offa my 'net!)
I don't want a situation where someone stumbles onto an old post or where I played devil's advocate and I lose out as a result.
x-planation: Yes, this is sarcasm
type header.
Web forums generally don't have a way to attach metadata like that in a way that's not _normally_ seen, but is easily discoverable or demonstratable on a per-post basis.
The "Ha ha! I was only joking" defense is much more credible if you explicitly (but initially in a non-visible way) declared that up-front.
1. Write whatever "meta" comment you want to attach to your post and add some random characters at the end.
2. Calculate the MD5 or SHA-1 hash of that comment + random characters [1] and add it to the text of your post.
3. Save the comment + random characters to a text file somewhere for future use.
Should questions arise as to whether or not you were, e.g., being sarcastic you will be able to prove your intent by presenting the original comment and letting everyone verify its hash valve. As a downside you would also have to add random hashes to every non-sarcastic post of yours to prevent sarcastic posts from being quickly detected by the presence of hash values. However, if you do so consistently and post a lot I'd wager that people would soon stop noticing them.
This may or may not be an overkill for signalling sarcasm but I have seen a few users here on HN with MD5 (or was it SHA-1?) sums in their "about" fields. I can only assume those contain their real identity should they want to prove it.
[1] You can use, e.g., http://www.md5.cz/ for convenience.
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cc2a84f549054aefc3870490d8250651
I edit freely because of this. I don't care if other people hold old stuff against me; that's just people communicating with ghosts in their head. If someone has a serious problem with something I said, let them openly talk with me about it, or be counted among the people I just cannot be bothered to care about.
As I like to tell people: even human history is a HUGE thing compared to my own life, not to mention the universe. If I am lucky, I have 80 years to think and talk about all of it, and nobody, no boss, no relative, no friend, no life partner, could ever matter so much to me that I could completely swallow that thinking and talking, just because it might offend them. If in doubt, burn the bridges, think and talk freely, that's my motto...
I closed a lot of doors for myself with that, but I like the integrity I traded them for, I would not change a thing. Looking back so far, I would say anyone that ever mattered, didn't run away from the first misunderstanding, and not few friendships began with arguing over something with a stranger. On the other hand, the people who got upset about random superficial things, I don't really miss. So what could be better than having a website that filters some of them out, before we waste too much time and energy on each other?
Same here. Burned already 2-3 blogs that way. Absolutely hate the idea of somebody judging me by my opinion from last year. Much easier to start from scratch and create a new first impression.
I own my .com and have some stuff on there. I tend not to post strong opinions under my real name anymore.
Though, there are a few things on the internet that might suggest my political views, you'd have to dig to find them.
I like this so approach so much that I've actually created AFT or numbered AFT accounts in several places where I don't want a regular username associated with the comment.
I also have themed usernames. Anything I post professionally goes with my real life name or a moniker known by my professional colleagues. I have several hobbies and several very different subjects that I'm trying to learn, and each of those have different associated usernames.
I thought that OpenID would support this concept, but it never seemed to (maybe I was missing some key concept?). Now I have hope that Mozilla Persona might fill this gap.
[1] One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion, which had me trying to figure out if I should start fresh again. For the most part this only happens in gender issues threads (where sockpuppets and new accounts run rampant), but this particular one wasn't. I wasn't sure if that attitude was going to follow me throughout my time here, but I've found most people don't even look at my username (as evidenced by being referred to as "he" in child comments).
That sucks. I hope they were downvoted into oblivion, but either way, I know that kind of thing happens on HN and I wish HN were better than that. I'm sorry that happened to you.
In another post when I said I didn't want kids, I had about 5 replies insinuating I was risking my future happiness/purpose and I'd regret it in my later years. So.. there's still room to grow.
In this day and age of Google, you're just a click away and a whole bunch about you has been discovered about you even before an interview. I'm not a big flying hot shot, just a developer. Who know what will happen in years to come and it's difficult to wipe that public footprint.
For those cases, I consider how valuable what I have to say might be and, if it is truly worth it (not very often), I'll create a throw-away. Of course, it isn't going to stop anybody truly determined, but it makes it harder.
I'm a fairly private person in person, but I'm far more open offline than I'll ever be online.
edit: somewhat ironically, HN is a place where I'm least tempted to look up a user's bio during a discussion. Someone has to say something extremely outrageous/amazing before I click on their username and commit the "argument from authority" fallacy. Otherwise, I like to read the discussion without having any preconception of who the poster is.
If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory.
Anything less will be intellectually dishonest.
No. Being inflammatory is by definition an attempt to cause others to become inflamed. Should those others also then reply with inflammatory speech? Where does it end? Value of the thread drops to zero rapidly.
I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo.
Jobs would breathe fire when hes incensed or inflamed.
Furiousness is a skill that your kind cannot internalize.
It brings out the best when rightly meant and rightly utilized.
One has a right to be inflamed when his or her world view is called into question.
The mediocre just acquiesce, the impassioned offer a caustic rebuttal.
Not some happy medium rejoinder that pleases all.
I, too. It's almost like my IRL workplace, but with loads more techie clued-up people. And IRL, I very much enjoy working in a context in which there are very few alpha males, Insanity Wolves and Ayn Rand readers.
Now, personally, I do my best to be avoidant or calmly assertive when someone I meet annoys me, and I mentally file people who throw chest-beating tantrums under "giant baby" and avoid them on the assumption that instability implies unreliability and they wouldn't be pleasant to work with. Fundamental attribution error be damned, one blow-up is one too many for me to feel at ease around someone. So that tells you something about my personal definition of unacceptable behaviour, I suppose.
It's hard to put it better than Adam Kirsch, albeit in a different context:
The essayist is concerned, as a fiction writer is not, with what the reader will think of him or her. That is why the new comic essayists are never truly confessional, and never intentionally reveal anything that might jeopardize the reader’s esteem.
There is more backstory than that, but I became more careful when I worked for BigCo and more free again after I left that job. Lifestyle impacts such choices, not just attaching your name.
This is partly for historical reasons: in almost all cases, I had a pseudonymous account first. However, it’s also partly for flexibility. For example, if I’m giving a personal recommendation or criticism, then I always prefer to put my name to it. On the other hand, I am very conscious of privacy concerns and very careful not to give away anything I shouldn’t about other people or businesses. Posting with a pseudonym means I can still contribute controversial viewpoints or relevant information to some discussions that I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving on the public record.
For the record, I make no secret of having multiple accounts for any affected site admins, who in general could trivially identify any pseudonyms I use with a quick search of private e-mail addresses if they wanted to. Also, my pseudonymous accounts tend to have feedback via votes/moderations as favourable as my “real” accounts or even a little more so, and I never abuse multiple accounts by voting in ways I otherwise couldn’t. I’d stop if anyone running a forum asked me to, but that would be disappointing as I’m careful not to abuse the privilege and I think I can make more interesting/valuable contributions as things are.
On HN, it doesn't really matter, because there is a high degree of respect and "real-world" treatment on here, which is refreshing, when compared to other online communities. I sometimes wish I would've used my real online identity, but then again, I'm just starting out in programming, so I don't have a lot to contribute.
Generally speaking, though, I never use my real identity, because quite a few users on popular sites (Yelp, for example) are into doxxing, humiliating/ridiculing, and generally, trolling people, even when these people do not say anything disrespectful or disingenuous. It is one side of Internet popular culture that really kind of depresses me.
"Doesn't that prevent uncivil arguments?" NO. Anyone can make a throw away account and post garbage. It's just hurting the people who are contributing to HN as regulars.
Of course, I guess this could be easily done if you could change your userid (on the backend, it's proabably a GUID or sequence number anyway).
Building a mountain of conversations that will never be read again is utterly pointless.
Yes, plainly "tokenadult" is not the name on my birth certificate, but after lurking here a while, I saw that there were quite a few other users who use screen names rather than real names as user names, so I decided to recycle the electrons of a screen name I was already using on two other sites. Even when I use a screen name (which is mandatory on some forums I use, as for example the one where my screen name here originated), I usually make my real-world identity discernible in my user profile on all sites, and some friends recognize me just from my on-line behavior and off-hand references to my real-world life experiences, if they first met me under my real name somewhere else.
On Wikipedia, where I use a distinct screen name different from what I use on all other sites, I for a while was harassed by people who even phoned me in the middle of the night because they didn't like my sourced edits. So I'm somewhat aware of why some people would like to be anonymous online. But on the whole, I figure I should have consistency of online identity, and linkage to my real-world identity, and I think that does provide incentive to comment more responsibly and to be cooperative with community guidelines.
I try to take physical security seriously. If I ever happen to do anything provocative in a bad mood, I don't need people banging on my door. Authorities can find me, that's not it, I'm preserving privacy against the big public.
As a secondary reason, future employers can only find what I want them to find. My gaming history, private life, political views, etc. are not relevant for them. They can ask me about that in interviews and I have the right to decline comment. With my real name on the web I wouldn't have that choice.
I'm not too careful with my real name or location anyway, many friends and acquaintances know it even though I only know them online. I'm not really hiding it, I'm protecting myself and my right on free speech permitted to the extent of the law.
With that being said my pseudonym is attached to my real email all over the internet and my email contains my name, so it's not like I am hiding behind it.
I actually find some of the comments in this thread against pseudonyms strangely similar to the reason of why people don't drink because they are bad drunks. If your being a dick under a pseudonym that means you might be and a dick regardless.
Comments posted to the internet are permanent like nothing else in history. It's like having your casual conversations recorded and then stored in an indestructible format accessible to anyone who cares to look for it, forever. Of all the thousands of strangers who see your posts, whether individuals, corporations, or governments, some are actively looking to exploit you. Please be aware of the increased vulnerability when you're in a vastly more public setting. You don't owe the world unfettered access. Boundaries and levels of access are a good thing.
If the former, then yes, if the latter, then no.
I'm guessing that a few people on HN do this. Not mentioning any names.
This is me on Wired.com: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/05/man-allegedly-b/
The FBI site says: "he would transfer the funds into his own bank accounts or onto prepaid debit cards, without the authorization or knowledge of his victims"
How the hell was that allowed as a valid argument? Of course you can transfer money out of an account - they sent it there. Did they have any sort of "hey, we're just giving this $0.89 temporarily" kind of language? If not, they're the ones that authorized the transfer.
They happily sent thousands of deposits out. Seems like their fault. Might as well go after people that keep swinging by the free samples at Costco.
My online and offline lives have been fairly separate for a long time. I imagine at some point those world's will collide. I have been working on trying to arrange for a gentle, anticlimactic collision. I no longer work for BigCo, so I no longer worry that my employer will go "You were quoted in a book saying WHAT?!!" or "You have a website about WHAT?!!"
It's all good.
In fact, what encourages bad behaviour is lack of consequences. This is easily avoided by having mechanisms that enable pseudonyms to build up (or lose) reputation.
One of the great benefits of the internet is that as online characters we can be abstracted from matters of sex or race or age. Discrimination is instinctive in huamns, but we can help each other by removing irrelevant signifiers and deal with each other as our actions and our arguments deserve. Why would we want to lose that by signing our posts with an identifier that was forced onto us by others and over which we have so little control?
I believe everyone has the right to construct (and reconstruct) their own identity as they wish. Power over what you reveal to others and how you reveal it seems to me to be one of the more fundamental rights. To force people to use their 'real name' i.e. a name that has been assigned to them by a government organisation is at once creepy and ignorant of the fact that my 'real' name is actually however I choose to be known.
Why a pseudonym? Back in the WWIV vs Wildcat BBS days, I noticed that, contrary to popular belief, the pseudonymous communities were actually much friendlier, more honest and open, and less hostile. There was no age, gender, race, class discrimination or bullying, which were common on the real-name-only communities. People were judged on the merits of what they said and how they acted, rather than factors not under their control.
I may have little to worry about discrimination, but still I value the freedom, honesty, and integrity of pseudonymity.
The other part of it is that if you look at politicians who have gotten caught, it's always the cover up that kills their career rather than the original offence.
My preference for real names stems not from some idea that it makes us better people (I've been in real-name-only communities and there's absolutely vicious, horrible people who participate and are just fine with their vicious horrible nastiness being attached to their real name, because they consider that a small price to pay for being mean). And sometimes real names means there are negative consequences for me: I'm a Wikipedia admin and because I use my real name as my username, there are certain tasks I just don't go anywhere near because I've seen the doxxing and other shit that's gone on to other people. And mostly my fellow admins are fine: they understand why I don't want to deal with certain people—there's plenty of other people who can deal with the stuff that I'm not inclined to handle.
No, there's a much better reason for it. I've done secrecy in the past. Nearly a decade of it: it's called being gay and in the closet. And it really is a fucking waste of life. It makes you utterly miserable. Coming out is a huge psychological relief. Ten years of fear of other people's judgements is a long time to put off having relationships and, well, life in general. The misery of the closet made me make decisions about my academic/professional career that I have come to regret too. But to come out, you need to reach the stage where you don't really give a fuck what someone thinks about you. That comes with age and maturity and self-confidence.
The reason I'm open about my life is that I've tried the alternative and it didn't work out for me on a pretty epic scale. There's something very freeing about being very open about life and not giving a shit what people think.
When you've successfully left one closet, building new closets to hang out in starts to seem like a very bad idea. Sure, people might judge me negatively based on what I say. But they might judge me negatively simply based on who I am. I don't care enough about their opinion of me to not live openly and speak the truth as I see it.
I wrote a long-ish post about this kind of thing recently: http://tommorris.org/posts/8268
And then I will have to deal with the consequences. Also, my name is actually very unique.
I'm more polite on HN than I am in other places. I don't think that's because I use my real name. There are pseudonymous posters who are polite and real name users who are pretty rude.
(heh, pseudonym...)
It plays havoc with the occasional email filter.
In terms of employment prospects, many employers won't care what you do in your free time so long as you show up and do your work. Or if you're starting your own company, many customers won't care if the CEO holds some opinion or another. Even the large public outcries against people like the CEO of Papa John's haven't killed them as a business.
I don't find anonymity to factor into my rudeness, unlike others. My rudeness is generally matched with the rudeness of the person I'm talking to over anything else, like my mood, feelings for the other person, or anonymity. It sometimes becomes a game, too, to see if I can be cleverly rude in response to a brutishly rude comment.
Voted as "no" because I felt like following the letter of your request.
I really value the option of anonymity and identity play that the Internet gives us. In no small part because it was very very useful to be able to play around behind a female identity while I worked out that I was transsexual. I've had a bunch of different names on the net that corresponded to different stages of my life.
But then I still got slow-banned on that account without any given reason or recourse. That felt uncomfortably asymmetrical, to put my real identity out there and to then be secretly "punished" by an anonymous mod.
Since then I consider any account on HN to be a throwaway. I'm still open to being personally accountable, but only if it works both ways.
Then again, I've met people from the internet in real life, in both friendly and professional contexts, with no issues thus far. When I want to chat with someone, I send them an email or IM username, which both have my actual name and location on. I'm much more comfortable with it 1-on-1 than in the open crowd of 3 billion internet users.
I have lurked for ages, and just finally created an account and haven't finished building it (i.e., linking it to anything else). I intend to, eventually, when I stop reading the ridiculously high number of excellent posts, and presumably when I've sated myself with commenting, although the latter could take a while.
But I also come from a number of worlds (multiple sectors, regional/national/international, etc.). I've coded for ages but am new to coding at the level I'm at now. I've worked at many levels within the groups I've been with. And the viewpoints of many of these don't all mesh in a way that makes me be sure I want to link my public personal with my comments here yet, until I see that the things I'm drawn to comment on actually matter to anyone other than my own self-centered drive to speak up.
Like others, I only post on FB, G+ and in other venues with the understanding that any post is, could be, or one day will be public, even if I have all my privacy settings set to private for now. HN is public, and that makes me want to put my toe in the water gradually. But I think I'll link it up all eventually anyway.
It's interesting to take a 'time trip' and review my opinions on, say, the invasion of Iraq: against, for, against. Personally that doesn't bother me so much.
Sure, I think that some of my past opinions were wrong. However, they're timestamped: a thinking critic would know that I might not still hold them, and an unthinking critic is unreachable regardless of the effort I put in.
The same is true of posts relating to "correct" or non-controversial opinons though. Should then a thinking critic not assume anything about you or your current thinking on any subject based on information posted on the Internet? That seems unreasonable.
Even my gaming nickname is connected to me, as awful as it is (hornicator)
I am what I am and I say what I say. I want that to mean something.
That said, do I bother filling in my real name on every site to which I sign up? No. Because I don't use Facebook signle sign-in and nobody implements OpenID these days.
Very rarely I will delete or edit a comment due to regret over what I said, but not terribly often. However, I do now find that I occasionally hold back on saying certain things about the government / government agencies / police / etc. out of a pragmatic desire not to wind up on a "no fly" list or something, when my $DAYJOB entails a lot of air travel. I feel sick everytime I hold back on saying something of that nature though, as it runs counter to my nature. I try very hard to live a principled life as much as I can, and restricting myself from speaking freely causes a lot of cognitive dissonance.
Edit: Also, just to throw another thought or two out there... I prefer having my real info here, as I see this forum as still largely being "Startup News" and I think of this as a place for business talk. And it's more awkward to do business with people when you don't know who they are, or anything about them. I also throw in the occasional self-promotional reference to my startup[1], and it would be hard to keep my identify secret, even if I wanted to, and still be open about the startup. I also like helping people, and to the extent that I have any useful advice or wisdom or knowledge to share, I feel like people will find it more acceptable if they know (or can find) the person behind it.
On non-IT websites, I use completely unrelated identities. For example, there's no reason for random redditors to know who I am. Even though there's probably enough data out there to associate specific reddit accounts with me, it's none of the business of random redditors and there's no need to pique their curiosity. Actually that's a fine principle: if it's none of their business to know who I am, it's none of my business to tell them who I am.
The Pollyanna types who disapprove of others using pseudonyms are generally either a) very boring people b) naive c) have some kind of stake in being able to out people e.g. Zuckerberg who makes tons of money off lack of privacy, so he argues in his book that anonymity is wrong. Of course you would, Zuck, it's your fucking bank account.
The fact of matter is that if you have an opinion, and you express it well, it's just a matter of time before someone on the opposing side tries to dox you and hurt you. This includes everything from straightforward harassment at multiple venues, to people trying to get you fired, to people shaming you online.
It's very very easy to slander people online and cause distress or hardship. Look at the trouble Wikipedia has had with malicious, fake biographies.
I think one thing the world needs to work on is reducing how acceptable it is to do that type thing. Hiding overly much tends to let it stand.
It's tricky, definitely.
Peace.
I have a nickname I've been using for over seven years. I consider it to be my virtual self but as honest as my real self. I feel that real names are too "official" when used. I fear things I do, things I say, would stick to my person and would cause more harm than good in my professional life. When I tinker things and post them, I'm not doing them as finished and clean as I would do in a work place, it's less official, just to have fun and figure things out, and I don't want that to serve as a proof of how I work, because that's not how I work.
Nevertheless, I answered 'Yes'.
I find it very interesting that others in this group make their Facebook profiles 100% public, because I have always done the same thing. Not only does being transparent and public online help me build a personal brand, but it makes me think twice about posting something inflammatory or plain rude.
Once you put something online, it's nearly impossible to completely remove it forever. Whether it's stored on a company server or indexed by Google, it's there. Be humble, helpful, and transparent.
I just wanted to note that being known by a nick name out in the real world is for the most part a wonderful thing. It is always interesting to see how people react when I introduce myself as Fuzzy.
On one other note, apparently Facebook considers "Fuzzy" to be a bad word or something as I'm unable to include it in any part of my name or nickname on the site. It has always bothered me. So much so that I've sent many emails to support trying to get an answer as to why. Never had a response. Shrug.
I also think it's extremely difficult to use real identity at younger ages because one's internal identity shifts with great rapidity, and it's simplest to run through a series of new accounts and handles to drop the old associations. For me this came to an end as I hit my late 20s; for a time, I would make a new account almost every time I wanted to post on HN. Then I got stuck on this one. Then I linked to my personal web site. Apparently I stopped caring :)
I have a couple of "incognito" identities which aren't easily linkable to me (it's probably possible, I haven't ever been particularly careful, but I try to keep them separate), but other than that I'm slowly trying to migrate into using my own real identity now.
If I wouldn't have my real name in my profile, you'd still be able to figure out who I am in a second. Even if that would _not_ be the case: Given that I am my handle on the internet and keep it everywhere I go, I'd say that this is more useful and even more personal than my 'real name'.
It's a double-edged sword, though. Not associating opinions with my real world identity encourages me to post a lot more nonsense.. the freedom to be anonymous is also the freedom to communicate with no discipline, which couldn't be beneficial in the long term
I do post in a few anonymous, testosterone-fueled forums where people speak very intemperately. If anybody found my posts there and connected them to me, I'd want the signal of anonymity, so that I'm not responsible for every last nuance as being representative of how I'd like my views presented.
But otherwise, I have little need for anonymity.
Heck, you could figure out a reasonable amount about my proclivities just from observing which particular porn actresses interact with me on Twitter. :)
Hacker News is probably the online forum on the net that I wouldn't mind having my real name visible.
I haven't been... "paranoid" about my identity, and several to many people have ended up knowing the formal identity behind the pseudonym. But that has been at my own or our mutual discretion.
I chose the words "formal identity" because, even while using a pseudonym, I feel people can and do come to know my... "real" identity. What I think and feel and communicate, regardless of the ostensible name attached. I usually take some considerable care in my communication. My use of a pseudonym doesn't, in that regard, hide who I am.
What a pseudonym does let me do is dissociate certain contexts.
I can be a little more open about some past work experiences, here, because they don't "pop to the top" upon googling my "real" name. Not that I'm engaging in slander or criticism verging towards abuse. Mostly, I'm also circumspect about not identifying the other party (e.g employer). I wish to be able to be fairly honest and open about communicating my experience and thoughts upon same, without having to worry about this raising concern with a current or future employer. Or... these days, without having to worry about some draconian policy or attitude surprising me with e.g. a SLAPP lawsuit or similar.
Rather than picking on particular people or organizations, there are experiences that have taught me things. Sometimes, things I wish I could have learned a bit more easily and/or sooner. If I can save the next person a bit or grief, or help them to be a bit happier, then yay! A pseudonym helps me to go about that without second-guessing every sentence.
In another instance (and another pseudonym), I've dealt with concerns that run from "personal" through "health". Many people online find much value communicating about such matters in an anonymous or pseudonymous context. Again, it's about the content, not about the who. I've witnessed and experienced many significant relationships develop and persist in such pseudonymous contexts. Some people establish additional private channels and may or may not share identifying information. But, as I've observed, it's not necessary.
And, that brings me to a favorite phrase and attitude of mine, with regard to online communication and to many aspects of technology, as well:
Opt in.
I'm a strong believer of letting people opt in to choices, such as whether or not to share personally identifying information.
If per the meme the Internet or the Web is today's "Wild West", then I'll borrow another analogy, or component of this Western mythology and attitude (the attitude part is significantly true, even today): It's not who you are, it's what you do.
Per the Western genre of story, the West was somewhere a person could "reinvent" themselves. It's not who you are, but what you do.
On the Internet, I don't think we really "reinvent" ourselves. But, it is a matter of what we do, rather than who we are.
Perhaps that's one reason I'm a bit cautious about the influx of photos and other imagery. I get enough of that in... "meatspace", as I guess it's sometimes being called, these days. "Real life".
People who succeed to varying degrees on their looks and other external factors.
Some days, give me pseudonyms and plain text. Or code, or the like. And show me what you think and do. Even what you feel -- I've seen as much genuine empathy and feeling on a phpBB forum as anywhere else.
So... to go a bit beyond the clicky-votey spot above...
I have my contact info in ,my profile, but I worry more and more asbout being identifiable on the net. My opinions are not always aligned with the majority. Also, I worry more about fanatics than about the government, for example publicly discussing religion seems dangerous.
Another thing: my cleaning lady signed up to Facebook recently, and was immediately confronted with my Facebook account.
What's interesting is that this semi publicity holds me back from posting controversial opinions on HN. Feels like there's some commissar watching over my shoulder.
I don't really like that feeling and that's why I'm not a regular power poster on HN. I spend way more times on anonymous/synonymous forums.
I feel that I can be less biased and more honest by using a pseudonym.
I completely understand and respect the need for anonymity in some people and some circumstances. For my own part, though, I think having everything publicly associated with me helps temper my somewhat extreme personality.
If I've learned anything, it's that sincerity and 'faith' are increasingly important commodities on the web. One only needs to take a look at Youtube comments to see the opposite side of the spectrum..
I use a real email address a real twitter account and A real username that I've had on various services online now for decades.
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
I use the same username on all websites, so you can pretty much track my entire internet existence through it. In that sense it's "real", possibly more so than my legal name, which I hardly use because it's difficult to pronounce in English.
Knowing what I know now from a year's worth of participation I wouldn't mind posting under my real identity on many topics.
However, I would have to censor myself often. I don't think I say much that's particularly controversial, just that I work for people who I've regularly witnessed stalking the online habits of coworkers.
It's interesting, considering that (at least to my limited knowledge on this subject) pseudonyms were much more common about five or ten years ago.
I think it's basically the same as my real identity, but I wanted to keep my entire Internet "trail" easy to follow. Searching my username almost solely comes up with links for me.
Would I change to my real name, not really, giving the current job environment I do not see the benefit
Not only that but I also never delete a comment
Experimentation?
> Not only that but I also never delete a comment
I delete regularly, particularly if on re-reading the comment I realize I'm a total idiot, or being unnecessarily rude or whatever. I guess if you're unwilling to experiment with new opinions you might never need to delete them..
Why use an alias? Partly the romance - online handles just feel like they come from some earlier golden age of the Internet, when it was the domain of scrappy hackers rather than big advertising corporations (it's likely mythical, but it's before my time in any case). Also, my username is quicker to type and more unique than my real name - in some ways it is a better identifier for me than my name.
perhaps because hn's topics of conversation keep me on the civil and cerebral side
My real name is too common to use effectively on the Internet :)
I don't even see the value of providing accurate information to most websites.
If I have something to say, I say it and stand behind it.
If I were to post something that I wouldn't want coming back on me, I'd use a throwaway.
In general, I'm rather snarky but that's just who I am and if someone doesn't like it they can stuff it.