71–80 of 307 posts
I'm in an endless loop with my self arguing if I should be more open about my identity on the internet. But in the end I value the ability to post and say whatever comes to my mind higher than the ability to promote stuff.
I'm guessing that a few people on HN do this. Not mentioning any names.
I use my real name as a way of keeping myself accountable as I've noticed that I'm much more inflammatory when under the guise of a pseudonym.
I do not think HN frowns on inflammatory speech if worded deftly. 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.
Yes. And likewise on other fora. 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.
Would I change to my real name, not really, giving the current job environment I do not see the benefit
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.
For some reason I'm extremely hesitant to post things under my real name. I don't really care if people know my name on an individual basis (and it's not like I'm a high profile poster anyway), but I am squeamish about it generally, and feel too self-conscious to post anything if my name is associated directly with it. I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me to…
I think the future will be one where we're split on this - not as a society, but individually. You will have your public persona and your private persona. I have to be public because I'm in news, but not everything I do has to be associated with my real name, and I take advantage of that when I feel like it. That ability and that habit will only become safer and more accepted over time.