Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
security.stackexchange.com
Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
1–10 of 166 posts
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#2When I got on the intertubes, oh-so-many years ago - the rules were simple: the ONLY piece of information you could freely give on public forums, or IRC, was your nick. Now, the only piece of information you are supposed to withhold is your credit card number.
I'll say this about the new ways: I'm extremely glad that I didn't have my teenage years documented and archived. Dodged that bullet!
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#3When I got on the intertubes, oh-so-many years ago - the rules were simple: the ONLY piece of information you could freely give on public forums, or IRC, was your nick. Now, the only piece of information you are supposed to withhold is your credit card number. I'll say this about the new ways: I'm extremely glad that I didn't have my teenage years documented and archived. Dodged that bullet!
So you changed your nick to become mrspeaker?
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#4There is no undo button when using your real name on the Internet.
With a nickname, you always have the option of associating it with your real identity at a later date if you so choose.
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#5I dislike using my real name online - though in some cases (like HN) it's pretty trivial to discover my identity.
My real fear isn't having my more rant-y posts associated with my IRL life, but more extreme possibilities like 4chan/Reddit doxxings and abuse.
I also no longer use the same handle as when I was a kid, so I've got that going for me.
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#6This seems pretty obvious to me. When you are working to build a positive reputation online you use your real name. When you are taking part in things you don't want associated with your reputation you use an alias.
You don't want to never use your real name. You want to be googleable, but you want it to be mostly positive.
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#7This seems pretty obvious to me. When you are working to build a positive reputation online you use your real name. When you are taking part in things you don't want associated with your reputation you use an alias. You don't want to never use your real name. You want to be googleable, but you want it to be mostly positive.
The only account I have so far used my real name on is my stackexchange account so I can potentially use it in interviews to show I am active in the community and in my own learning.
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#8There is no undo button when using your real name on the Internet. With a nickname, you always have the option of associating it with your real identity at a later date if you so choose.
Most people do a lousy job of keeping the names separate.
You can usually follow a chain of pseudonyms back through time to get to the early embarrassing posts.
Meatball wiki changed my mind about real name posting. First I thought "always use an obvious nym", then "always use a realistic, but false, name". Now I just post using me real name on a few places, and a bunch of nyms (realistic and otherwise) in other places.
My writing (especially my appalling use of punctuation) is distinctive. I think it'd be easy enough to tell if a post is mine or not by counting the weird commas.
Perhaps privacy advocates need some method of making writing more anonymous? Lower-case everything, convert full-stops to new lines, strip out all out punctuation?
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#9I use my real name and my first name is enough to find me. I probably don't fit the legal definition of "public figure," but everyone I work with and many other people, mostly in the field I work in, know who I am.
So I can't really avoid it. I'm not black, or gay, or Muslim, and I don't have non-mainstream political views compared to people I live and work with, so I'm lucky enough to not experience the negative effects of being obviously identifiable online.
I can definitely see why many people would prefer to be pseudonymous, and why maintaining multiple online personas is useful. But I can barely keep up with my blog and product pages on multiple social media, and I'm still learning how to best use those to my advantage.
Re: Is it bad practice to use your real name online?
#10A few years ago I tried to eliminate every possible trace of my real name online. It just doesn't work, there will always be something.
So I gave up. Now I just try and make sure there is an accurate representation of my personality, views, and so on associated with my real name, online. Hopefully this gives a bit of balance to my profile in case I miscommunicate something in the future.