
Is it bad practice to use your real name online? - anuragramdasan
http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/46569/is-it-bad-practice-to-use-your-real-name-online
======
mrspeaker
When 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!

~~~
lelandbatey
I felt the same way about nicknames, but at some point I realized that I had a
digital trail attached to my online-name that was a mile wide. I figured I
might as well just start using my real name (which is rather unique already).

Also, I find your story of rules interesting. When I was first introduced to
the internet (when I was about 7 years old, in school), the one "rule" I
remember being told to us over and over again, by parents, by teachers, by
anyone in authority was:

    
    
        Everything you do online *can* be traced back to you. Communicating online
        requires the same etiquette as communicating face to face. Don't do or say
        anything you wouldn't do or say in real life.
    

That was the "one rule" of my day, and of the people I knew. It's one of the
things that made switching to my real name easy, since I didn't have to change
how I wrote.

~~~
danso
Wow, you must be very young, i.e. 10-12, or have very perceptive teachers. I
feel that teachers and other authority figures _still don 't get it_,
especially those above 40 who aren't in a Internet/computer-heavy field. And
even young folks in the tech field still don't realize it (basically everyone
who uses something like SnapChat too enthusiastically)

~~~
rprospero
I'm thirty and have been getting on the internet since the first Bush
administration. Even at the time, the first rule of the internet is that
everything you put online is public. This wasn't just about things that you
posted on forums, either. The assumption was that the sysadmin would read your
e-mails when she was bored and that anything interesting would be passed
around.

~~~
robin_reala
Not just an assumption, I’ve had sysadmins that did that.

~~~
Tomte
Meeting a sysadmin of your mail provider at some real-life net gathering,
wearing the "I read your mail" shirt really was a bit unsettling...

------
aaronbrethorst
I use my real name everywhere online. The reasons why are pretty
straightforward:

1\. It reminds me to be civil and think before I post.

2\. It makes it easier for other people reach out to me based on things I've
posted (I have a fairly unique name).

Pseudonyms are relatively easy to 'decode'. If I wrote something particularly
dumb, offensive, or stupid, and someone wanted to pin that on me, I'm sure
they could given enough time and effort.

~~~
gngeal
_1\. It reminds me to be civil and think before I post._

That sounds very much like "I don't kill people because I'd get caught". Why
can't you be civil (whatever that means) and think just because?

~~~
jkrems
Sociological studies bla, bla - TL;DR: You are more civil when people
recognize you. You are more likely to act in the "interest of the group" when
you sign stuff with your real name. At least that's the state of the research
to my best knowledge.

~~~
simbolit
please do not confuse correlation and causation. i see the correlation,
obviously, but i do not see the causation.

in fact causation could be the other way around. those who behave well are
more likely to sign with their real name.

~~~
jacalata
This paper [0] compares newspaper comment systems that allow anonymity against
others that require names, and finds more civil discourse on named discussions
- the assumption seems to be that people are not picking their newspaper site
based on comments protocol, therefore the anonymity is causing the uncivility.
There is surprisingly little research visible when I googled just now.

[0]
[https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/12420](https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/12420)

------
return0
I am prejudiced against people who use their real names when the website
allows them to use a nickname: I automatically assume they will be
uninteresting, their opinions sheepish and will always avoid confrontation or
controversial ideas. I feel like they are always talking in the presence of
their mother.

~~~
AndrewKemendo
Here is a n=1 for you: I just forcefully argued against male circumcision on
Reddit. Check it out if you like.

~~~
bsamuels
The problem is that circumcision isn't a heated controversy, it's not like
someone is going to dox you because you made an argument against it.

Here's a few arguments off the top of my head that someone might dox you for:

-Whether or not feminism is the cause of the recent emasculation of men

-Whether or not Israel is committing crimes against humanity in Gaza and against the Palestinians

-Whether or not transexual persons should be medically referred to as their original gender or new gender.

-Whether or not affirmative action should exist.

Pretty much any debate that is emotionally charged has the potential for
people to try to screw with your real life over it, circumcision is not one of
them.

~~~
robbrown451
I would far prefer discuss such charged topics in places where people have
incentives to choose their words carefully. It's fine to have a controversial
opinion, but without checks and balances on behavior, you don't have a
discussion, you just have a bunch of racists spouting their vile views.

~~~
twobits
"you just have a bunch of racists spouting their vile views"

So you are the one that will wisely choose which opinions are "vile", and
blacklist them?

------
steven2012
I used my real name until 1997, when I was posting questions on newsgroups.
When dejanews.com came out, I realized that everything I wrote was forever,
and since then I've never used my real name, except on linkedin and Facebook.
But both of those use one-off email addresses. I really don't think having a
permanent internet profile is necessary and is likely more detrimental than
beneficial.

I know I'm not anonymous, and I'm sure the NSA can figure out exactly what all
my posts are, but at least it makes it hard for regular companies to track me.

~~~
gaius
Yeah Dejanews was a bit of a shock to many of us.

------
anaphor
I use my real name, and I quite frankly do not care if I get passed up for a
job or something like that because of something I said online. I'm pretty sure
any employer I would actually want to work for wouldn't care about me ranting
about the NSA or something (might even get me a job, who knows). That being
said, I do not say anything online that I wouldn't in real life (except
perhaps on IRC channels where I use a nick) and it's seemed to work out ok so
far.

~~~
tokenadult
_I use my real name_

[Accessing anaphor's HN user profile, which is basically blank]

Your real name is anaphor? I have disclosed on my HN user profile what my
birth-certificate name is, and I have put up links to a bare-bones explanation
of where my screen name (which did not originate on this forum) came from.
Eventually, I think, all roads from my various screen names, some of which
were mandatory, and others customary, in the online forums where they
originated will lead to my real name. I have always used my real name on every
page of my personal website, since 1995.

~~~
anaphor
I haven't gotten around to writing much here, but this is my SO profile which
has my real name and the school I attend:
[http://stackoverflow.com/users/903589/wes](http://stackoverflow.com/users/903589/wes)

~~~
pbhjpbhj
You don't use your real name then. You use a nick here and your first name
only, as far as I can tell, on SO. Whilst the information there makes you
traceable it's still not 'using your real name'; unless your full legal name
is only 3 letters?

~~~
anaphor
Any idea whether I can make SE show the "real name" field to anyone? I didn't
realize that wasn't visible, and I don't see a setting anywhere to change
that.

~~~
jc4p
We consider that field PII (personally identifiable information) and don't
share it. You'd have to set your display name to your real name to show it:
[http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/67331/why-does-
the-r...](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/67331/why-does-the-real-
name-field-not-appear-on-the-user-profile-page)

------
etfb
So much awesome cluelessness in the replies on that post. "It's definitely
safe to use your real name," says WHAMM (White Heterosexual Able-bodied
Middle-class Male) #1 confidently. "Nobody ever suffers from real-world social
and legal consequences as a result of what they do online. No gay teenager
from a small town has ever been bashed to death by homophobes after he got
outed for his online activities. No woman on the run from an abusive husband
ever got tracked down and 'punished' as a result of profile details on the
internet. No activist fighting an oppressive regime ever got 'disappeared'
after the authorities tracked them down using a web forum profile. It's all
perfectly safe. Don't inconvenience us!"

------
eikenberry
This 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.

~~~
BillyMaize
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.

------
jonnathanson
I use my real name here and in a few other online communities. The choice
wasn't intentional. I'm just really self-critical about the dorkiness and
unoriginality of any usernames I'm able to come up with. (Pop culture, video
game, and sci-fi references tend not to age gracefully beyond a certain period
in one's life.)

HN has been my first major experiment with RealName™. It's gone fairly well so
far. People who want to talk shop can get a hold of me. People who want to
talk trash can get a hold of me, too, but fortunately those people seem few
and far between. Prospective employers are free to search my corpus on HN, and
in doing so, they'll probably find better content than they would on Facebook
or elsewhere. In fact, I've had some opportunities come my way via HN that
probably never would have elsewhere. (AngelList is the one possible challenger
in that respect.)

Most important: using my real name forces me to think before I post. That's
not to say everything I post here is a gem. Far from it, as the record shows.
But I don't mind that the record shows something here.

~~~
saber_taylor
I first tried using my real name back when blogging started (around the same
time as Journaling file system buzz on Linux). It was difficult to switch
gears from attention seeking.

I "lurk more" when using my real name since I try to use communities where
other people are more insightful than me.

Also I noticed a common pattern of "20 questions" when I was using aliases
about innocuous Questions Answered Frequently that over time eroded my
confidence in my anonymity. e.g. vim versus emacs is one of the 20.

~~~
jonnathanson
_" I try to use communities where other people are more insightful than me"_

Those are the best kinds of communities! Maybe that's part of the reason why I
use my real name here: this community keeps me honest (and on my toes). I'm
not sure whom to attribute it to, but the old quote applies: "If you're the
smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."

Let's just say that, on HN, I never feel as though I'm in the wrong room. :)

------
robbrown451
The advantages of using your name can often outweigh the disadvantages.

Reputation is a valuable thing. You don't gain a good reputation by hiding
away. You build a good reputation by making a positive impression on lots of
people over a long period of time. You can't do that if you are always
anonymous.

If I was hiring someone, I'd google them. And if nothing turned up, that would
give a somewhat negative impression. Better than seeing them being a jerk or
idiot or criminal, of course, but still.

On the other hand, if I saw a long history of them behaving intelligently and
diplomatically, going back a long time, that would make a very good
impression.

I say use your real name, but don't be a dick, and don't be stupid.

~~~
gtz59
by "somewhat negative", do you just mean that less information makes you less
confident about a decision? Or do you mean that being quiet is bad?

~~~
robbrown451
"Somewhat negative" in the sense that it suggests that they haven't made much
of an impact on the world, or that they don't have much to say. They are much
more of an unknown quantity.

Quiet isn't "bad" per se, but I'd rather hire someone who is confident enough
in what they have to say, to say some stuff publicly.

------
potatolicious
I 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.

~~~
diminoten
I feel like the Internet has gotten the same treatment that hitchhiking has
gotten - stories make it seem dangerous, but when measured, the danger is much
lower than expected.

~~~
bmelton
Agreed. Above and beyond that too, humans are naturally paranoid animals, and
bad at seeing probabilities when assessing personal risk.

If a child that looks like yours is abducted, it makes you more paranoid that
your child will be abducted; even if that other child was halfway around the
world; even if that child was abducted by a relative; etc., etc. Despite the
fact that abductions are rare, and that they're even more rarely done by
strangers, blah blah, the brain gloms onto the perceived danger and isn't very
good at letting go of it.

------
daniel-levin
I don't mind using my real name online because it is stupidly generic (Daniel
Levin). If someone wanted to identify me, my name wouldn't be of much help to
them. This is interesting because _my real name is less useful in being
identifying than a screen name used on multiple websites_

~~~
mixmastamyk
My name is also highly generic (one notch below John Smith) to the point where
good friends haven't been able to find me on facebook.

------
fantastical
For me, I find myself scared to participate using my real name. I think it's
mostly a lack of self-confidence. I actually just registered this username
last night, hoping that anonymity will help me get over my fear of posting.
Maybe in the future I'll be more comfortable/confident and use my real name,
but for now, an anonymous username will be my crutch.

------
jasonkester
For what it's worth, take a quick spin through the top voted commenters here:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders](https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders)

Notice that the entire top 10 are using their real name or a trivial
abbreviation thereof (apart from 3 accounts that got there through story
submission and have essentially no comment history).

Notice the top 30 or so, where real names clearly dominate, with a few well-
known strong pseudonyms in there.

Smart, interesting people with nothing to hide, offering good advice and
participating in good discussions. That's what this site is best at. And
that's the sort of thing one doesn't generally need to hide behind a fake
screen name to participate in.

At least, that's why I only have this one real-name account here.

------
ElongatedTowel
I always used a pseudonym and even change it from time to time. But if I want
to have a job in software development, what choice is there? If you can't rely
on past experience you have to build something from the ground up.

I feel forced to have something on the net that screams "me".

I'm unimportant. But who knows what the future brings? I don't want to feel
like _why. And to be honest, the whole archiving is beyond annoying. Barely
anything we write is relevant in 10 years. Archive.org saves 99.999999% stuff
that will not be looked at or even be of relevance, but might be enough to
discredit you or even find you. Why does the internet even need to be this
way? For me the internet was always about the present and the future.

------
mattholtom
A 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.

------
CurtMonash
I use my real name. But then, I'm an analyst, blogger and columnist, so I'm
going to get flamed one way or the other. :)

There is one or the other forum at which I post anonymously, and participate
in the vitriol of anonymous political discussions. I make no effort to conceal
my real identity, however. If I'm ever found out, I'll claim that I'm not the
one who started the intemperate excess.

(Yes, that phrase is redundant -- it deserves to be.)

------
Casseres
There 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.

~~~
DanBC
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?

~~~
spindritf
Yes, but most people's e-reputation has to withstand only the most cursory of
google searches so using a nickname, even without air-tight OPSEC, is often
enough.

~~~
computer
People should start choosing better nicknames! There's a reason I chose this
one.

------
ruricolist
There is one very strong practical justification for pseudonyms: some people
have very common names. There are thousands of people named Paul Rodriguez,
probably hundreds named Paul M. Rodriguez, but there is only one person who
goes by "ruricolist". To the extent that I have one, my nickname _is_ my
reputation.

------
Diederich
For me, it's perfectly fine, even desirable.

It firmly roots in my mind that my words here will be seen as words from my
person. That's a good thing.

------
a3n
It's bad practice to require someone to identify themselves completely merely
to participate.

------
macNchz
I have an uncommon name—as far as I can tell there's only one other person
using the internet who shares my name right now. That raises the stakes quite
a bit...even using full real names, the majority of people have a small extra
layer of obscurity: there are a bunch of other people around the world with
the same name.

I liken using my real name online to having all of my in-person conversations
be recorded and broadcast on TV. If I go to a bar down the street and meet
some strangers from my neighborhood, I'm fairly anonymous, and our
conversation is decently private. I can express unpopular opinions and have no
record of it. I'm not on the record, and I don't have to wonder what everyone
I know and everyone I will ever know might think if they Googled me and found
that conversation. If I go on a neighborhood blog and have the same
conversation in the comments with my real name, I have the ear of,
potentially, the entire world.

So I use my real name some places, and pseudonyms in others. Just how I might
talk to coworkers, new friends, people at a party or business contacts without
them instantly knowing everything I've ever said or done, having a pseudonym
makes it possible to isolate your personal spaces online to some degree. It's
usually possible to gauge the scope of how many people are privy to a real
life conversation, so I try to achieve a similar setup online. I don't pretend
that any of my user accounts online are at all truly anonymous, but they
present a small barrier between online spaces. Much like meeting strangers in
real life: they can probably find out who you are, but you are in control of
how much information they have about you at any given momemt.

------
alan_cx
Using your real name makes the inevitable online abuse harder to take. It feel
more real. Using something else makes it seem more abstract, its easier to
handle such abuse.

I only use my real name when I have to, buying on line and government services
for example.

------
city41
My main concern with this is account security questions like "what was your
first car?". With how much information people put online these days, these
questions are often pretty easy to crack. Some websites allow you to change
your password after simply answering a couple of these.

I personally avoid this problem by generating "answers" as passwords in
1Password. But the vast majority of people don't do this.

~~~
wtetzner
I agree. I think security questions are a broken idea. Sites will validate
that you have a strong password, and then have you fill in the security
questions, which are often either easy to guess or easy to google.

------
acheron
I mostly don't, though I ended up using my real name on Twitter, which I post
to regularly. Generally I try to avoid it whenever possible -- I hate being
Googlable. Not really sure why I changed my mind for Twitter.

I have an unusual name combination, so there aren't many others with my name.
However, about 5 years ago, one of the few others started playing college
football, so the search results are mostly for him, though I'm guessing he's
graduated by now.

Just now googled my name for the first time in a couple years probably. Still
mostly about college football, with a few of my things scattered throughout,
including my Twitter account and an archive of a mailing list where I used my
real email address (which is my real name). Also at least a couple things
still surfacing from the mid-90s, when I didn't know any better.

My first Internet lesson to my kids will be: never use your real name online.
I am glad most of my teenage real-name-using happened on local BBSs or things
like AOL, and so it has vanished into the ether; my kids won't be as lucky.

------
dredmorbius
Information has value.

Posting everything under my username doesn't create sufficient value for me.
_Managing_ my real-name profile is of some interest, and I do this to an
extent, though largely it involves keeping my real name (or well-established)
userIDs limited, while conducting most of my online interactions under various
pseudonyms. These give me freedom of movement and expression and some freedom
from tracking (though I'm under no illusions a dedicated national actor would
have trouble finding me should it choose to do so, nor, quite likely, others).

What I've observed having been online for several decades is that most people
seem to go through a lifecycle of online activity: early exploration, a wide-
open persona, and often, starting once "life gets real" (usually somewhere in
their 30s or 40s), either a withdrawal or a far-more-managed persona. I can
point to numerous "public figures" of the 1990s whose online profiles are
vastly more constrained: Jenny of Jennycam, Eve "pi girl" Astrid Andersson,
Philip Greenspun (actually fairly active), Xeni Jardin, and many others. Even
those who are still active are much more ... controlled in their presence.

If you're in your 40s or older and have a significant online presence, odds
good are you're in marketing.

Even the principles in social networking have ... limited exposure. Sergey
Brin's most recent public G+ post was February 20, 2013. Larry Page posts
something banal and/or product-related once or twice a month. Page's wife and
girlfriend (may they never meet) have been conspicuously absent of G+ since
news of status changes (not posted to G+) broke in August. Curious in the case
of the girlfriend who's in Google marketing ... but has been posting of late
to Twitter.

Yeah, life has a way of getting real.

------
minor_nitwit
The rule for me is to give the least information required for the interaction
to take place.

If someon is considering me for a job, it's reasonable to give my full name.

If someone just wants to chat with my on reddit, they don't need to know my
full name.

If someone knows me outside of the internet, but we communicate through the
internet, then I don't need to provide my real name.

------
paraiuspau
I found that my particularly malicious ex-gf (restraining order was eventually
required) was using my online realname-based content to "haunt" me somewhat. I
am also from the 90s internet where nicknames were more the norm, but I
actually felt somehow "mature" (for lack of a better word, and no offense
intended to anyone) when I decided to switch to my real name back in ~04 or
so. Since then though, social networks have become ubiquitous to the point
where some services only allow you to login with social network credentials..
It's all gone mad; pre-interviewing and therefore pre-judgement based on your
Google hits, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria.

I say head back to the 90s and obfuscate/omit your ID where possible.

------
jbrooksuk
I use my name when signing up to things (not as a username, but when
First/Last asked for) because:

1\. Builds a brand of me. 2\. Following from #1, it reminds me to post things
I want to be read that I would want my family and myself to be proud of.

------
happen_io
I'm surprised no one has brought up that it depends some on what your real
name is. Some names are more searchable than others, and some names are unique
where others are shared with lots of people. If you are the only "Klandon
Forzuth" on the planet then your online activities are much more easily found
than if you are one of a million "David Smith"'s.

And sometimes people want to avoid being pre-judged, so Saheed may want to use
a psuedonym when participating in an online discussion about 9/11 regardless
of his views.

If your name because something of a brand or source of credibility, you'll
probably want to use your real name. But if you're well known in one domain
but want to participate in another domain without the baggage of the other
domain, you may want to not use your real name. Same reason why some writers
use different names when they write in different genres, even if it's not
secret that they use multiple names.

I suppose there are several famous people participating in online activities
that we are all unaware of because they don't use their real names. It's like
avoiding being mobbed by fans on the street.

It you have an abusive spouse or stalker, you may not want to make your online
activities so easily discoverable using your real name.

So it's not just because people want to be rude that they use a pseudonym.
It's more complicated than that.

------
visakanv
I've used my real name pretty much everywhere, and on the rare occasion that I
use a nick of some sort, I link it to my blog and online presence.
Intentionally or otherwise, I've led a very public online existence. I find it
liberating. Maybe I'm narcissistic, but I've always enjoyed the idea of people
being able to reach me. I think this only becomes a problem if people are
camping in your garage to take pictures of your children... and I don't
anticipate that being a concern for me.

I do believe that access to anonymity is very important- it allows the
oppressed, etc to speak up. But as a person in a generally privileged
position, I find that leading a fully public life makes me more accountable,
think harder, etc. I have all the upside with little to none of the downside.
So it's a simple decision for me.

I've been very outspoken about local political affairs, and I have strong
opinions on things. Sometimes I've said things that have gotten me into
trouble, but I make it a point to constructively engage the criticism I
receive. I've always placed a high premium on having the space to speak up for
what I believe is right, and I am headstrong and naive enough to declare that
I wouldn't want to work for or with anybody who thinks that's an outright
problem. It's not in my nature to be secretive. It would end badly for both of
us.

Do I have absolutely nothing to hide? Meh. I don't want to make such a bold
claim. I'm sure I've said and written some embarrassing stuff.

I can think of a few things I'd like to say from the cover of anonymity, but
these are usually fun little sideproject-y type ideas, far down my priority
list. I'd prefer to work on things publicly that get me into interesting
circumstances as a person.

------
forgottenpass
If you're bland enough or rich enough that nothing you ever do online could be
held against you, no. Otherwise yes.

------
Zigurd
I 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.

------
naner
I don't use my real name online in most cases. Being pseudoanonymous allows
for more free flowing casual conversation[1]. Much like two buddies sitting in
a bar allows for different conversational avenues than the same two buddies
chatting in a crowded office.

I have no real reason to curate an online identity or reputation and I don't
want my online words to be only of a "professional" nature.

Also, I have no trouble being civil. Even if I was inspired to be a jerk,
accountability need not be tethered to identity.

1:
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/11/the_future_of...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/11/the_future_of_e.html)

------
jebblue
It's a psychological thing, a perception, on the part of the users of your
nick. I know people who publicize their nick and real name, still post under
their nick and their nick gets more attention by far. There's something about
human nature, I prefer to read stories about Notch more than Markus Perrson. I
don't know why, it's just that way with the human brain.

I may have just had an epiphany, political figures use their real names (well
mostly), maybe this is why their lives seem a bit characiatured to us. Perhaps
this helps insulate them to a degree.

------
VLM
What about the worlds most pitiful one way hash function, like the nickname
I'm using here which is "obviously" my initials?

Another classic in this genre is for decades I've watched the comedy of people
advertising their ham radio callsign, then not realizing people can look them
up, then realizing that almost no one knows how to look it up or cares, then
figuring out it doesn't really matter at all. So ham radio callsigns are yet
another pitiful wanna be one way hash function.

------
codezero
Most people are very bad at consistently using a pseudonym and it's been my
experience that even an unskilled "snoop" can very easily tie a pseudonym to a
real person. The same goes for nicknames and for other forms of identity
obfuscation. Very few people do it right, it's great advice, but in practice,
it doesn't work.

It's much better to control the content you create and manage the distribution
of that content in the way you are most comfortable with.

------
callil
I choose to use my real name on many services, it really doesn't bother me
because I feel that I should be able to stand behind my words wherever I say
them. It's also a unique name and usually not taken.

I will admit there have been times I have been hesitant to say or post things,
but more often than not it's fine. If there is something I don't want
associated with me, I use an alternate account.

------
dhughes
It never used to be but it's rapidly getting to be, I use mine out of habit
but I'm slowly changing to gibberish. Then again at some point it's changed
from a "nickname" to "username" to "your real name".

In the olden days using numbers in a username was considered bad now it's
becoming as necessarily as using a mix of characters in a password.

------
AndrewKemendo
I stand firmly behind everything I do on the internet or otherwise knowing
full well the capability for people to take things out of context or cherry
pick.

Having it out there allows for a full audit of what I am doing on the back
end. On the front end, it ensures I am thinking through what I am writing so
that I can ensure it reflects what I intend it to even if it is not all
positive.

~~~
loceng
The issue is when people will go on a witch hunt for something you say without
being compassionate and helping you understand their or a different point of
view - whether it is something you said in the present moment or well in the
past.

------
guidolang
I'm currently running a survey to better understand perceptions and attitudes
towards anonymous online communication. Feel free to contribute -- every
response is greatly appreciated.

[https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/onlineanonymity](https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/onlineanonymity)

------
whyme
Everyone should just use some form of a Pig Latin user name. Maybe then add
some spice to the name as well.

This way we can reasonably claim our good reputation if the result of our
actions turns out ok, but if not we can borrow from each other and all get
second chances.

I'm pretty sure Pig Latin will fool the NSA too. :)

------
NateDad
HN is about the only place I don't use my real name these days, and I wish I
could change my profile here so it was. If you're a professional and try to be
nice online, I doubt it'll hurt you with anyone you care to be associated.

~~~
aestra
>If you're a professional and try to be nice online, I doubt it'll hurt you
with anyone you care to be associated

You are incredibly short-sighted if you believe that. Imagine if you have been
or are being stalked or harassed or your children or spouse is. Victims of
abuse.

Other people who are hurt by using their real names:

[http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Rea...](http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Who_is_harmed_by_a_%22Real_Names%22_policy%3F)

------
rhaphazard
I believe there was an article a while back that showed it was trivial to
track a person by their use of vocabulary and grammar style. But it's probably
still better to use a pseudonym, even if only to deter the laziest of
tracking.

------
greenwalls
It's a good idea to have some information online for your real name that you
control. Otherwise eventually someone else will write some things about you
that you can't control and that will be what comes up first in Google.

------
simonebrunozzi
As you can see from my username here on HN and everywhere else, I have decided
to go with full disclosure. I think there are a lot of pros, and a few cons,
some of them very annoying.

~~~
clarkm
Like when your children start going through your post history and reading
stuff about you they weren't supposed to know (yet).

------
mverwijs
At some point I figured: why pretend to be anonymous when I'm obviously not?

------
yuhong
Personally, I prefer to aim at fixing the problems with using real names. I
was the one who mentioned the irony in this Slashdot submission for example:
[http://slashdot.org/submission/1778830/google-is-gagging-
use...](http://slashdot.org/submission/1778830/google-is-gagging-user-
advocates)

------
twobits
Yes.

------
ScottBurson
Shit, I hope not!

