Blogging - Posting your real name - good to do or not?

[WWiD]

Hi everyone -

My first posting here. I see many of you have your own blogs. I have a question about posting your "real" name, and contact info. Is that ever a problem with privacy issues? Have people tracked you down, or contacted you in other ways other than through your blog? It's fairly easy these days to type in a name and state and get all kinds of free info on sites such as zabasearch.com.

Also, depending on what your blog is, some of your issues, examples, etc. may be best left as anonymous as possible - for example, you don't want to be bitching about your job, school, in-laws, etc. if you are leaving all your contact info for everyone to see? Especially if your blog is listed anywhere on search engines?

Any thoughts on that, or real-life examples of why it has been good or bad for you?

Just curious - thanks for the input!

[kellyrued]

I put my real name on everything that I wouldn't mind my children finding online. If there is anything that I would consider inappropriate for my kids, I *might* use a different username so they can't easily stumble upon certain things *but* I imagine I'm more open and honest than many parents about the types of info I would let my kids find.

As for employers and adult family, they've got a right to know who I am and what I'm really like. If they take issue with something about me, then at least they can know where I stand and can open a dialog with me if needed. I understand wanting to protect your own privacy but I also think there is merit in living an open life with nothing to hide. You might regret things or change your mind later and have to revise things you once said but people might benefit if they get used to forgiving and adapting to one another (imo) instead of making everyone live in fear of being embarrassed or ashamed for expressing themselves. The bottom line is that if we ALL were totally honest and put ourselves out there more often, there would be *something* about each of us that would be embarrassing or inappropriate to someone. We all have relative flaws and you'll be a very up-tight and guarded person if you spend too much time trying to always put your best face forward or make sure nobody can see your shortcomings (someone will always be able to see them anyways). ;p

I especially dislike when people are pressured to hide themselves for fear of losing their right to support themselves/their family. Employers have been able to make hiring decisions for centuries without the help of google and I think it should be their legal obligation to not employ such tools to evaluate a candidate in this day and age either. People have to stand up for their rights to be individuals and to do what they like with their off-work time. Your employer doesn't "own" you so I think it should be illegal to fire, demote, or hold someone back at a job based on anything *other than* on-the-job or criminal behaviors. If an employer is going to make employment decisions just based on what you do on the weekend, blog about, or post on your myspace, then I think that employer is abusing their power and using unethical HR policies.

On the flip side, I dodged a bullet last year and avoided a partnership with a real scam artist by googling and finding out that this person wasn't even using his real name or selling me something he owned the rights to sell (so there is something to be said for incorporating web search into your criminal background/identity check). However just looking up someone to see if they party "too much" or support a political party you despise should be considered an unethical HR practice.

[sakredkow]

In my opinion it can be very dangerous. Just one example, many companies and hiring managers will google up the names of prospective candidates and you just don't know what might work against you. But if you're covered with your job and have no worries, and if you aren't at all controversial so that someone somewhere is going to take serious offense, well I wouldn't try to talk you out of it. I might just suggest however that on the internet, no matter how inoffensive you are someone somewhere is probably going to take serious offense. Good luck with whatever you decide though.

[Shamou]

Hello and welcome aboard WWiD...

I believe that the internet is simply another method of broadcasting what you have to say... and it should be treated as such...

If you are to talk about private issues that are best be kept secret... you certainly should not use your name or anything that could identify you...

However if you want your opinion to have more weight, you should not be afraid to come come out as who you are... with name, personal picture etc...

So, whether you should or should not use your name depend on the intent of your postings...
.

[coollikeme]

for business, then you should use your name and phone number. If it is for personal thoughts, or just blogging, then it should be your choice. If you don't feel comfortable then don't do it. If you believe in what you write then you should not have worry about it. Good luck.

[WWiD]

I wasn't so much concerned about myself specifically, as just to what everyone else thinks about it. Having your name and address online seems to me a little scary on many levels, especially if you get a large following. I see Steve has his Donation link, but also posts his name and address for check payments, etc. I just don't know that I would want people knowing exactly where I live, you know??

I'm venturing back to school to get my nursing degree, and was thinking about creating a blog for those of us older folks going back to school, starting second careers, talk to other nursing school people, etc. This blog would be something where I might have examples of things or want to vent about things that could be troublesome if I used my real name, and obviously I would never use other people's identifying names or places, so I was planning on using a pen name or something. I figured that people who also do training, seminars, books, etc. would obviously use their own name, but I was just curious about the "regular" bloggers... and why or why not you feel the way you do.

I was possibly thinking of adding my own little donation link on my blog once I get it set up, for people to donate and help out with my tuition? Seems a little silly to me at first, as I've never blogged before, but the idea just popped into my head yesterday completely out of the blue! I figure if I'm helpful or entertaining, and people feel like donating $5 or $10 towards my education, that woud be cool! Don't know if it would actually work, but it never hurts to try, I guess!

Some good points of view so far today, thanks everyone for taking time to answer me!

[ginkgo]

That is a good question with good responses. My mother told me not to tell anything to anyone that you do not want everyone to know. People disagree with political figures but they use their own name. If you are going to to say things that are polically incorrect like in the movie Borat (retards), then decide if you want them associated with your name.

But it looked like you were concerned with people trying to find you. I did not pay the extra money to have my address and phone # hidden on my website domain purchases so people can see that. You may get a few mailings on how you won $250,000. The one concern I would have is if you have a beautiful looking female at your house and you put up a picture of her on your blog, then people may be able to get your address. But I guess you can make sure that that is not listed anywhere.

I write articles for article sites and besides having a link to your website, the other benefit is that your name becomes more well known. This article on the lemonade diet has things that go against some of the teachings about this diet but I strongly believe that I am right. I was kicked off a lemonade diet sub-forum for disagreeing with the accepted teachings of it. You are not allowed to disagree. But later on they created an alternative lemonade diet sub-forum for people who do not agree with all the teachings, since many were challenging some ideas. One thing that I disagree with is drinking 2 teaspoons of salt. I have read of people being damaged from it.

Martin Luther protested a 1500 year old religion 500 years ago. There were so many disagreements on it that it created a war in Europe with many thousands being killed. It was between the Catholics and Protestants so all of the killings were done by Chritians. But in America more people followed the new religion created by Martin Luthur.

[hotwired]

yes, it depends
I keep everything anonymous at www.somethingishappening.org simply because I'm clear that I may want to post very personal financial material as well as controversial stuff about being a husband, relationships with women, etc.

[LillyoftheValley]

My partner and I don't blog about personal stuff, but our identity is not hidden, and we even have our flickr integrated in the blog. We thought people will trust us if they see who we are.

[seeker5]

This is a good topic. As I think about starting a blog, I've been thinking about the same issue - should I use my real name or should I keep it with a handle. There are good domain names available for either option . I'm leaning toward using my real name because the blog won't be about personal stuff, however I do talk about personal stuff in this forum. Thus if I use my real name and I talk about personal stuff on here, I wouldn't be able to mention my blog on here, which would sux. So I'm still thinking about it. Sometimes I feel it may make more sense to just develop a big courageous trait like Steve has and no longer care about having personal stuff attached to my name. On the other hand, I have said some embarrassing stuff in newsgroups about 15 years ago and it still shows up if someone does a newsgroup search with my name. So I'm still deciding, and I'm enjoying reading this thread and the advice contained in it.

[John Hill]

If you have any form of authority through your name perhaps you could use it to your advantage if you are writing about topics you are already known for professionally. Although it is a personal choice you will have to make yourself, I don't think their is a great deal of privacy concerns to worry about since you are writing from the privacy of your home or office and nobody needs to know who you are unless you put a picture of yourself on your sites.

John

[fieldsofgold]

We shouldn't forget that there are millions of blogs out there already with many more being created every day. The question of whether you use your real name needs to be considered in the terms of a global scale.

On my blog I get readers from around the world and some from my own country. I'm happy to use my real details as it is who I am and therefore what I write about must reflect that.

Unless you are extremely unlucky the chances of you being targetted by anyone would I believe be very small. You will first of all take a long time to attract a reasonably sized audience, so it will probably be a long time into the future before you upset someone so violently that they want to waste their time bad mouthing you or worse tracking you down.

Life's just too short

[AldianP]

This is a very interesting topic.

For my personal blog, I use my own name. I use contact form with verification code (captcha) to prevent spam to my own email. So far I only receive legitimate contacts

Furthermore, I never mention my email addresses anywhere in my blog, and I also use email filter and aliases to protect my privacy even more.

So far so good.

I believe that scammers and spammers may find our identity from our domain's WhoIs information.

[fiar]

WWiD

I freely use my real name and identity when emailing commenters on my blog. I have no compunctions about anyone knowing that.

BUT, I don't publish my posts or comments under my real full name. Why not. I l Know for a fact that I would be the #1 Google search for it. I know this because I was. I severed links and made changes. I'm sure the results are still there if you use the Wayback Machine or something, but they are not there through quick and standard search techniques. That's good enough for me.

I just don't really feel the need to be the #1 search result for my name. I no longer am BTW. Some other dude with the same name is now.

I do post my picture. Look in my profile here even. That's really me.

There's a difference between allowing people to know who you are, and allowing it in a way that's searchable on a search engine. The latter feels too much like having my name and number on the bathroom wall. The former feels more like meeting a person and saying, "Hi. I'm Mike. Pleased to meet you."

That's my perspective.

[coollikeme]

and a cell phone, that will keep, you a little more private. Don't use your real address if you don't feel comfortable.