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Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

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181–190 of 307 posts

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#181
post #160

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…

Well, I don't think a pseudonym gives people the right to act like assholes. I sometimes do, but its not on purpose. Its that I have the social skills of a rock. Anyhow, pseudonyms allow for my creativity to exists on a different plane. For example, had I started developing Nuuton under my real name, I would have already be dealing with the repercussions of my local social circle. Doing it under orangethirty gives me the freedom to simply express myself without worrying about what anyone might say. Sure, people can find out who I am, but locally, few people have heard of the pseudonym. Freedom not only protects, but gives wings.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#182
post #125

I'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

Once an alias gets old enough, I think it counts as "standing behind your comments personally" - if you cared to go looking, you could find some pretty dumb stuff I posted years ago on other sites when I was in high school, but I'm still using the same alias.

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?

#185
I use my real name, and I also use a real email address in my HN profile, however I have base 64 encoded my email address. This weeds out the spam, silly recruiters, and does a good job of ensuring that the only people who will contact me are people I'd be interested in talking to.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#187
I am kind of an "other" though I voted "yes." I go by Michele most places on the web and a lot of people know me by the email address in my profile that I have had for years. "Michele" wasn't available here when I signed up so I shortened it (the M stands for Michele). Michele is my actual middle name that I go by socially IRL as well. I have stated that here on more than one occasion. There are people who know my full name. I think my last name is not terribly important to being able to ID me as "oh, it's her!" online. If I ever remarry, it would likely change anyway. (shrug) People online generally have no problem identifying me as someone they knew on some list or other elsewhere/previously. I am pretty distinctive. There is no real point in using a different email address or username and trying to pretend "I am totally not THAT Michele. Really!"

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.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#190
post #137

Well 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.

Yeah, I'm the same way. I've been internetting as sophacles forever, it doesn't mean that moniker is any less real than my name. Hell, if I've tried to even switch to my "real" name online a few times, but it gets difficult when you realize there's a decade and a half of accounts, online relationships tied to the one, and who the hell is this Erich guy anyay?
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