No, but you can email me and find out my real name. Though it is a very common name. My handle (orangethirty) is unique. So, its not like I'm being very paranoid or anything. I use an internet handle because I can. It is a freedom that I support, and am including in all of my projects. Privacy is required in the world.
Same here, I am attached to the romantic notion of pseudonyms in terms of freedom/privacy and the spirit of judging content for what it is and not the name behind it. 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 r…
Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
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Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#182I'm very surprised to see so many people using aliases. Using an alias on HN is self-defeating, if you cannot stand behind your comments personally, why even make them. Not only that but I also never delete a comment
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.
Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#183Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#184Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#185Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#186Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#187My 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.
Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#188Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#189Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?
#190Well that depends, what's my real identity? The nickname and unified web presence everyone recognises me for, or what it says on my passport? If the former, then yes, if the latter, then no.