Do you ever use your real name online?

A few people know it anyway for specific reasons (like going totally off DU for a subject).

In part, it was because I'm out front locally as a "lefty", a Dem, and a Labor person anyhow. However, there was something more to it than that. I found that I was much more focused on maintaining a level of civility and thought in my exchanges when it was under my own name. Seems to me that a lot of the political issues we face are helped much more by civil discourse than they are by snark hidden behind a pseudo.

That board has since gone by the wayside, but I've had more than a few folks tell me they were reading what I'd said, and they maybe didn't agree with me 100%--BUT they respected me for being willing to put my stuff up under my own name. As an added bonus, I had people that contacted me for information because they figured I was approachable and wouldn't bite...much.






Laura

it is a forum for computer related support problems on a variety of platforms and equipment and I still participate but if I had started today I'd use a screen name instead. At the time I joined it was a pretty small and specialized group and I only participated in the areas that dealt with my specific thing and it didn't occur to me that the thing would get big. Pretty much everyone used their real names or some form of them back then but nowadays hardly anyone new signing up does.

I'm a working writer published in both online and print media so sometimes it's a professional necessity. Actually it's not my real name either but it is the name everybody knows me by, including my family. (Obviously my family knows my birth-name, they just know that I never use it and that the only reason it's never been legally-changed is laziness.)

Okay "William Pitt". Whatever you say "William Pitt".

They've known that for years!






Laura

I do use my first name on occasion here and if people call me that, I am completely cool with it

This is a version of my real name. Plus I use my real name on Twitter. I just feel like I at least try to be more civil when it is under my own name, than if it isn't. I see so many ugly things online, where people hide behind anonymity, that I made the decision to be more or less public with my identity. I know anonymity is important if you have the kind of job where you get fired for expressing a contrary opinion or if you are blogging about controversial subjects, and probably for some other very good reasons. But none of that really applies to me.

I figure I'm easy to find anyway. After all, if my college alumni association can find me two weeks after I moved cross-country, then probably anyone can.

I have never revealed my last name.

Your last name is California!

I don't know if it would be believed anyway.

I mean, who else would be me?

It's a rock star, and that's all I'm giving.

I wouldn't post it online either.

How'd you do that?


(I had to Google Chad. )

Bring it on!

I have a pseudonym that is a derivation of my real name for polls.

I don't post much there either.

Yep, that's me. Any edits that appear are not done by me.

well its Kimiko but yeah.

found in a dumpster behind the Republican National Headquarters the night the watergate thingy came down.

My real REAL name is impossible to pronounce for americans and makes their tongues bleed if they try to say it.

I yam what I yam.

but about elebenty billion other women had the same name - first, middle and last - as i did before i got married, so it wasn't a not a big issue for me. now, however, i am pretty sure i am the only one with my name now since i hyphenated when i got married. i may have posted enough to lead someone to me, but they'd have to do a lot of digging and i'm really not worth it.

We should get at least one free change your name in life card anyway.

Since I have people beside myself that I am responsible for, no way I would use my real name. It is a bad idea no matter what your situation.

There is one place on the web, that is private and members only, where I use a name similar to mine and if anyone from there calls the house even my Daughter knows exactly why they are calling when they ask for me by my handle. Even then, security is always very high.

I have been on the fringe of two horror stories from the web. Both times it was a male overly interested in a female friend of mine. Two different women, two different messes.

so for me there's nothing to be gained from using my real name. I'm not a journalist, writer or pundit, I'm just a guy with a passing interest in politics.

However, I do tend to use usernames that look like real names. For the record my username is based on CJ Gregg in West Wing...but I misheard it!

But it's never been a problem because I'm a very dangerous fellow when I don't know what I'm doing and most of the time I don't know what I'm doing.

It's the disturbing nude chainsaw juggling pictures, isn't it? Perhaps the pink feather boa was a bit over the top.

On Twitter, mainly.