Revealing your real name -- is it safe? (Steve, Shaden, etc.)

[Tasaio]

Greetings,

To date, I've never revealed my real name online.

Since the first thing you're told about the internet is "never give out your real name", I'm curious why people are doing it so liberally -- and what the advantages or disadvantages are.

For instance, Steve, Erin, Wil Wheaton, and Shaden have all revealed their true names on their blogs...

Thanks in advance,

Tasaio (my true name shall remain a mystery...mwahahahahaha)

[Erki]

At one point they're going to be world superstars anyway, then everyone would know their name(Unless they would use a pseudonym.)

[Erin Pavlina]

I just make sure that everything I state publicly online is something I am willing to stand behind.

[Mark Lapierre]

Some people are concerned about identity theft, and I believe it's a valid concern, but only if you have personal information about yourself listed with your name, somewhere out there. *gestures vaguely*

I don't see a problem if your name, and your opinions, are all you reveal.

I'd guess that the majority of us are confident that we can deal with anything undesirable that may befall us through the use of our real names. As Erin said, I'll stand behind anything I've said online, as I would in person.

Besides, my real name is much easier to pronounce than the pseudonym I used to use

[judge45]

My real name is Max Power, my parents got the name from a hair dryer

Unless you are building trust in your online activities (products/advice/sales. etc) then your full name is relatively unimportant, but of course you may choose to use it

Jeff (Just call me Max)

[Shaden]

I think people are more willing to trust someone who share their real name. It gives them a certain level of credibility (somehow...). It might create an image of 'nothing to hide'. Of course for all you know 'Alec Gullon' could actually just be another pseudonym that I've adopted

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Erin Pavlina

I just make sure that everything I state publicly online is something I am willing to stand behind.

Bingo -- Erin's got it. When deciding what name I would use for this forum I had to decide whether I'd go my usual route and use an alias, or if I'd use my real name, and if so, whether I'd use my full name or not.

Suffice to say my main resistance I had to work through with using my <gasp!> real name was whether I was willing to be accountable and responsible for my actions. But then it dawned upon me that alias or not, I was already responsible for my actions. Ok, maybe it would be harder to peg what I say/do to my real name if I used an alias, but largely any actions you take anywhere can be traced back to you with a bit of effort (unless you try really hard to avoid that, anyone who tries hard enough will likely succeed, whether it’s legal or not). I didn’t use an alias in “real life”, so it made no sense to me to use one in another world that, despite it’s virtual nature, is equally real (I’m referring to the internet by the way). While it may seem safer using an alias, I don’t believe that logic is very sound.

Take the internet for example. Every time you visit a website you are supplying the owner of that website with part of your personal browsing information, as well as information that can be used to trace any actions you take back to you via your ISP -- a sort of online snail trail of sorts. Some people may not be aware of this and that lack of awareness gives them an illusionary feeling of invulnerability and a sense that they can do whatever they like without consequences. But that’s just a false sense of security; an inaccurate belief that can ultimately get you into trouble. Eg. I once knew someone who had his internet account closed by his ISP because he downloaded a movie illegally from a peer to peer file sharing network. Apparently the ISP was contacted from a third party that was connected somehow with the movie he was downloading and that’s all it took for him to have his account shut down and to be blacklisted with that particular ISP.

So getting back to the question, “is using your real name safe”, I think the answer is that it’s safe to the degree that you take responsibility for your actions (or inactions). Ultimately it’s about becoming more conscious and aware. As Steve often says, you can choose to deny your power, but never responsibility. I think the real reason most (I repeat, "most", not all) people use an alias rather then their real name is out of fear and/or resistance of/to that responsibility. It was certainly the case with me for years.

Have I found it safe using my real name on the internet? I’d say it’s been just as “safe” as using my name in “real life”. Really it’s a matter of understanding the environment you operate in. If you undertand the “rules of the game” so to speak you have nothing to worry about. Just like you have no reason to fear a hot stove once you know how to use it intelligently, you have no reason to fear using your name on the internet or in “real life” once you know what moves are considered to be intelligent and what are not.

[Grigor]

Whatever you decide - to use real name or pseudonym - you will probably have to use it Internet-wide: in all forums, in your blog, your email address has to be covered and so on because, sooner or later, you can come into situation that you have to connect some of them.
There is another option: to use a nickname. It should not be intended to cover your identity but it can used in different situations. For example, you can use your real name in a professional blog and nickname in a forum with more relaxed topics. Using a nick in that case would be similar to wearing a casual dress when you go to a pub in the evening instead of a suite and a tie you wear in the office.
Concerning privacy issue, I share Bruce's standpoint.

Take care,
Grigor

[Tasaio]

How do you deal with the fear real-life acquaintences will recognize you -- worse, be able to monitor your personal questions (should I come out, is she cheating, etc.) and your private writings (blogs).

My family is very nosy, and would undoubtably start mocking me. More importantly, the Internet is one of the few safe havens of privacy I have, from my parents.

[RT Wolf]

To offer another perspective, I've used RT Wolf for many, many years. I've used it so long that it is very much my name. It is simply another name that still points to the same person. Like I'm called by a nickname by some people, RT Wolf is the name I go by on the intertubes. Besides, everyone around me knows about it anyway so its not really offering me any security in that sense.

[Dilman]

My username is actually an abbreviation of my full name.

Dylan ----->Dil
Manning --> Man

I personally think some people are way too over protective, we're having a conversation, they say they're moving to somewhere that has snow, and I ask which state, and they won't say.xD

[tomjen]

When i started in the high school I went to they used the first three letters from your first name and the first three from your surname as a computer username.

Since this isnt to horrible a name and it is much, much easier to just use the same name everywhere istandalized on tomjen.

Bonus for guessing my real name.

[starlet]

I don't post my last name online, but am happy to post my first and middle. I won't do it here, just my nickname Kit, because I keep getting this "stay away from that woo-woo" speeches so I don't use my full name. Its pretty unusual. If I was named Jennifer I'd be ok!

[Freelancer]

I tell my real name to everybody who's wondering (unless there really shady, ie common sense), but I've been using Freelancer for nearly 5 years now. At this point I'm fairly well know known under the name freelancer across different games/forums so I'm not going to use any other names.

Lately I've been wondering about starting a blog not about poker but about my own development, to jumpstart my own progress a bit. If I am creating a selfdevelopment blog it will be my real name, and I'm not really affraid that people will look down on me when because of that blog. If anything I'll get more respect because Im sharing a personal jouney with the world, that is also a form of courage. Besides every post I made in the past 5 years with freelancer I wouldn't really mind having it revealed, basically the things I write here or anywhere else with freelancer are the same things I stand behind in real life.

[SergiuB]

It's all about letting other people know what YOU are thinking... I take the responsibility for everything I say. Using a pseudonym is fine as long as it's just one. But there are people that use different names on different sites, and that's confusing. I think you'll never gain popularity and/or respect if you'll try to be 40 different persons at a time.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by SergiuB

I think you'll never gain popularity and/or respect if you'll try to be 40 different persons at a time.

...which is fine if you don't want to gain internet-wide popularity or respect.

[pinkhighlighter]

I am a writer so I do give my real name in certain places, such as the writers forum I belong to, my blog and of course articles I have published online.
But here for example, since I am not promoting my writing, I just give my first name.

[Ibsulon]

I've used my real name online for over a decade, and never had a problem. I've also used psuedonyms for things where I am looking to explore a line of thinking. That said, just about anyone can track this psuedonym to my real name if they so desire.

I look at it like this. I don't want people to be able to find my psuedonym from my real name - for purposes of work and professional relationships - but I don't mind if people go the other way around. (Unfortunately, I have a few places where that is violated, and tracked with google. Luckily, you have to look a little deeper for that.)

[Natasha]

Nowadays, the only people who call me by my real name is family, anyone from my day job, or friends who have known me a while.

Natasha is my stage name (or "Natasha Baby" for burlesque! lol), it is what I teach as, what my website and business cards say, how I introduce myself to other performers, and even my SCA (medieval geek club) name. So I consider it to be as much my name as my real name.

But I don't care if people know my real name. It is Erica Edelman. Not too marketable, huh?

Think of it this way, people can get your basic information (name, addy, phone) already on the internet, via things like the YellowPages. The important part is not to give out things like SSN, or credit card. Be very careful with buying things!

Most blogs and stuff have a "privacy" feature, if you don't want that info out there for your parents to find. I am old enough, that I doubt my parents could find me anyways, if they had a desire too. I guess teenagers these days probably have more internet-savvy parents than last decade.

[Rin]

One of the things I wish I had never done is use my real name online (actually, I only used my first name, but it's a highly unusual one). I was so naive, but in all fairness it was a few years ago when we were all a lot less savvy about privacy issues. I opened a blog with my own first name, and an email address, never dreaming that my dumbass estranged family members would come crawling out of the woodwork and back into my life after decades of relative peace and quiet. All they had to do was Google! It was a horrid shock for me when they contacted me out of the blue, almost as if all the skeletons in my life came tumbling out of the closet at once, and it was a hard job clearing them up again. Eventually I had no choice but to go into virtual hiding again to finally get away from them, closing all my beloved blogs and changing my email addresses, which was terribly inconvenient, not to mention the psychological anguish.

To wit: think long and hard about who you want in your life when you go public. There are no secrets online. I wish I had never, ever used my real name, and I deeply regret that I ever did! If I could change only one thing in my past, it would be this.