Posting under your real name

Exit

Why don't you do it?
If you do, why do you do it?

It's weird. I post under my real name on every other board I visit, except this one. This is one of the first boards I ever started posting at, and so at the time I would use fake usernames to post. Since then, I've always registered with my real name. But if an admin offered me the chance to change to my real name, I'm not sure if I'd take it.

Let me explain. I use my real name on a couple of small Irish board with about 15 regular posters, a fairly big UK forum and a fairly big US forum, but for some reason I'd feel uncomfortable using my real name here. Because there's such a large amount of people here, and because it's Ireland, there's bound to be at least one person on here who knows me or at least would recognise my name. I'm sure in the time I've been here that I've posted something that I wouldn't like to share with people who know me, and if I was posting under my real name, there's probably a lot of stuff I'd be wary of posting.

iFight

I use my real name on other forums. Suppose i just don't wont people who I know me to recognise me, if I want friends to know something(or talk to them) id tell them direct, wouldnt go through a forum.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Exit wrote:

and if I was posting under my real name, there's probably a lot of stuff I'd be wary of posting.

Mmm, I'd probably change that homepage listed in your boards profile then

Ruu_Old

Hmm doesn't matter to me if people know my real name as most on this site probably know it anyway. Come stalk meh chums. .o/ I'm known as Ruu more often than not in zee real life though.

Exit

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Mmm, I'd probably change that homepage listed in your boards profile then

Haha, holy crap, I never copped that before!

Dave!

I dunno, it's just the first thing that came into my head. I didn't give it as much thought as you apparantly have!

Rb

I wouldn't use my real name on any forum, its the internet afterall and you don't know whos reading what you post. I'm sure some would even recognise my name, and for the most part I'd prefer to keep Boards seperate to my normal life, with the exception of Boards beers/other events.

Crucifix

My college (DCU) has it's own official forums so to speak, where your username is your own full name, and I have to say it's a funny experience.
That said, I've used my first name as a user name on forums before, but it's not really the same.

connundrum

This is my real name! Or not like y'know, whatever

Rhyme

I guess using a username just stemmed from being on the internet at a young-ish age and people telling you to "be safe", "don't give out personal details", "be careful who you talk to" etc. I'm a little less stringent nowadays but not to the point of having my real name as a username... perhaps my first name, but im happy with 'Rhyme'.

just checked; my first name is already taken, by a non-poster

Giblet

Most people on here know my name, and it isn't hard to find my phone number or home address either. I don't really care anyway sure I remember giving out my number here a while ago while I was drunk and got loads of calls. Hmm, I'm drinking now.... hehe

Vorsprung

Take a read of this thread, it has a few good reasons why you wouldn't post under your own name

InFront

Dunno why I didn't just use my name... I was going to say it would be a lazy choice, but InFront was hardly the culmination of a week's sombre decision making!
Just hadn't thought about it, it would make more sense though.

bluto63

I've just preferred using a username. Besides, Bluto's a legend

I have no problem with people finding out my name, just go to my Bebo in my sig and you'll find it out.

Green_Martian

Main reason is some ppl in work usually surf this site and if they seen my real name i would be screwed for slacking off.....ha ha:p

plus i love the cloak and dagger thing........:D

cornbb

The internet has the often overlooked drawback that anything you say or do can be seen by anyone. Bulletin boards are nice because of the fact that you can preserve your anonymity, to a certain degree. Not so important for adults, plenty of people here know who I am. Bebo, myspace and such sites leave kids and teenagers in particular vulnerable to having that privacy invaded however, with dodgy consequences sometimes.

Flukey

I always use Flukey. There are online friends that I have got to know over the years and met, that know my real name. I've been using for a long time now and it is almost as much my name as my real one is. If someone came up and shouted "Flukey!" I'd answer to it. When in the company of online friends we answer to both our real and online names. I've been at large gatherings of online friends on occasionas. Often if there is a group of us together it is easier to refer to someone by their online name, as more people will know who you are talking about.

Calibos

The reason I would never use my real name:

Mr thieving scumbag is browsing the Home Entertainment forum to find out how to hook up the DVD player he just stole. He notices a post by a John Smith telling everybody about the new €10,000 Home-Cinema Projector he just bought. Scumbag looks in the Phone book and sees 50 John Smiths.

He goes back to boards and does a search on "All posts by John Smith". He notices 2 posts by John in the Motors forum. One where John mentions he just bought an Audi RS4 and in another thread on car thefts John mentions that he'd never leave the car Keys in an obvious place where a thief could find them. He keeps the car keys in a drawer in the Kitchen. Scumbag then see's a thread in the Travel forum where John asks what sights he and his missus should go see while in Paris next week.

Finally before loggin off Mr Scumbag sees a post by John Smith on the Broadband Forum where John asks "Is anyone elses BB connection down in the Bray Exchange"

Mr Scumbag opens up phonebook and finds one John Smith with an address in Bray.

Result!!



................Hey, It could happen!

cornbb

Calibos wrote:

................Hey, It could happen!

Thats an extreme example but you're spot on. People forget that the whole world can read what you say online.

Calibos

cornbb wrote:

Thats an extreme example but you're spot on. People forget that the whole world can read what you say online.

Like the fact that in some house in Galway there is a sh1te load of expensive music equipment and synths etc. Thats just 10 seconds, 2 mouse clicks and looking at the opening text on 3 thread links on the search results page.

Now imagine Cornbb used his real name!

Same goes for me. In fact I am bound to have mentioned something else come to think of it that while not identifying myself by name would give someone from my town a very good clue about who I am and what my name is and thus they could get my address. In fact I have just scared myself thinking about it. Sh1t, if only I could erase a few of those old threads!:eek:

rogue-entity

I dont use my real name on boards because it provides some measure of anonymity, and no stranger needs to know my name for the sake it. That said, I dont say anything on the internet that I wouldnt say in real life. So if everyone here knew who I was, it wouldnt bother me a fraction. If I want to be anonymous from here and other sites, I just use a different username.

InFront

I stil don't get what the security problem would be? How would they find your actual address and if they did, so what?! It's no more than your average suburban burgler can do at any given time by keeping an eye on a house or group of houses, Internet or not.

Black Swan

What? My name real name is not Blue Lagoon? Now ye tell me! :eek:

Rabies

I use Rabies because it is name I used when plaing LAN games back in college in '98. Only use the name here.
On another forum I use my real name as my user name. But it is only a small group of users, we all know each other. No point calling myself Rabies or anything else.

phantom_lord

using my name when signed up didn't even enter my head tbh.

petes

phantom_lord wrote:

using my name when signed up didn't even enter my head tbh.

And there was me thinking you were posting with your real name. I post with half my real name.

Kur4mA

A number of reasons:

1. There are people browsing these forums that would know me IRL
2. Atari Jaguar
3. I've been a forum monkeys since back in the day when it was taboo to give out your real name, never mind registering with it so I guess that has just stuck...
4. IT'S A SEKKRIT!!!11 :eek:
5. Yore Ma.

Red Hand

I was just lazy and unimaginative.:)

Hagar

cornbb wrote:

People forget that the whole world can read what you say online.

Not everybody...

這是正義的一個測試郵件用瑞典語發現如果任何人可能讀什麼我張貼。

Spot my deliberate mistake.

sioda

Use the Irish version of my name just as its pretty unique IMHO

cornbb

Hagar wrote:

Not everybody...

This is a just test mail with the swedish discovered if any person possibly reads any me to post.

Spot my deliberate mistake.

Terrible, terrible grammar for a start

layke

Numerious reasons.

- I started postin on forums because of games. This being my in game nick.
- My second name is embarressing to say the least
- Real names just ain't as cool as some of the clever one's I read here.
- I don't want people to know who I am. You know, just in case.

Cake Fiend

Back in the day, when the dinosaurs roamed the internet, we all used our real-life nicknames online. Then people started making up their own nicknames just for an internet handle, and thus began the tradition.

Gaspode

I think I registered on this site to buy something and couldnt be arsed coming up with a username - probably thought I'd never use the site again. Indeed I dont think I did use it for about a year after I bought what I wanted.

I've used many aliases and when registering on different sites have been both male and female, and aged from 13 to 102! Anonymity can be good sometimes, but I dont really care if anyone out there knows who I am, I wont be posting anything I wouldnt like people to hear anyway.

Faith

It never occured to me to use my real name either. Nobody on boards really knows me. I've met one person, afaik, in real life, before I signed up, and I talk to another on MSN. I wouldn't be handing out the link to my Bebo page or really anything that could cause people to identify me.

I'm happy with you all knowing me as Faith and all you know about me is what I tell you. I post my real name in the occasional private forum, or sometimes on PMs, but that's it.

Hagar

cornbb wrote:

Terrible, terrible grammar for a start

Well spotted. I was hoping for Swedish but Bable fish doesn't do Swedish so I settled for Chinese.:D

Pythia

I used to post under my real name.
I wrote something about work on boards, work read it, almost got fired.
So now I have a nice, unusual name.

Fajitas!

I use Fajitas for everything online, I guess people recognise me being me faster than if I used my real name.

miju

same as myself Fajitas I use miju for everything myself , force of habit thing i suppose though i always put my real name in my profile in case anyone feels like stalking me

myself69

Exit wrote:

Why don't you do it?
If you do, why do you do it?

Ehh, so i don't reveal my identity, like you have.

Ken McM****

Marksie

I post using my real name.

I don't particularly care what people at work think... if they say something then what were they doin looking at it in the first place.

Though posting in PI can be tricky at times i guess.
Either that or i have a lack of imagination

rediguana

Once you can stand by your opinions, who cares if someone recognises you? They'd have to be sad to be doing the detective work anyway.

Wertz

Real names are boring.

Mine's my RL nickname and it's what I use for everything online. I prefer not to associate anything I do online with my real name for loads of reasons, the main one being it's no-one elses bloody business who I am and I prefer to have control over who knows.
Barring some apocalyptic scenario, everything you ever posted or submitted online will be accessible for many years by anyone with rudimentary google skillz...I wouldn't like for something I said/did/thought to come back and bite me on the arse in some way shape or form...
I'd prefer to have the freedom of posting more or less what I like rather than having to tiptoe about using my RL name...

daiixi

mmm "daiixi" may not be the name my folx gave me but I've been using it for six years now so it's part of me. I actually have friends who still call me by the nick I used for three or so years before I got bored and changed it. However I don't use the name my folx gave me as it gives me a sense of anonymity. Hell half the time on a night out if someone asks my name I won't give them my real one..

NoDayBut2Day

Wertz wrote:

Real names are boring.

Mine's my RL nickname and it's what I use for everything online. ...

I use my nickname as well. A lot quicker to type than my "real" name. :rolleyes:

Rb

NoDayBut2Day wrote:

I use my nickname as well. A lot quicker to type than my "real" name. :rolleyes:

People call you NoDayBut2Day? Interesting nickname anyway.

In retrospect, my username is my initials, which gives out plenty of information as far as I'm concerned

Bateman

Not sure why anyone would want to use their RL name on a site this popular. I have come across one or two people I know or knew in RL here, and wouldn't be too pushed on the idea of people who know me being able to identify my posts. Obviously a handful of people who know me in RL know my username here as I've told them, but there would be very few. By and large, I'm happy being anonymous on the internet.

Rb

Bateman wrote:

Not sure why anyone would want to use their RL name on a site this popular. I have come across one or two people I know or knew in RL here, and wouldn't be too pushed on the idea of people who know me being able to identify my posts. Obviously a handful of people who know me in RL know my username here as I've told them, but there would be very few. By and large, I'm happy being anonymous on the internet.

As would most people I'd assume (prefer to remain anonymous). It acts as a safety barrier I suppose. Certainly glad I don't use my real name on here after what I said about Scientology on here, don't want to be part of their enemy lists any time soon

Wishbone Ash

marksuttonie wrote:

I post using my real name

'Suttonie' must be a pretty unusual surname.

andrew

andrew isnt exatly the most unusual name, i doubt people could decipher who i am

Lord Nikon

I'm sure if someone read all my posts (and that's a lot) they would figure out just who I am (serial profile stuff).

I know I have posted personal stuff, but i'd rather not give it out, it's no-ones business, and i'd like to keep it that way.

Neuromancer sounds cool anyway, just like the book with the same name.