pseudonymity

[deird1]

...and, once again, someone out there in the blogosphere is declaring that using a pseudonym is "cowardly" and means you have issues.

*rolls eyes to infinity*


Dear Universe,

Should I behave like an arse in internetville, you may want to publish my name far and wide to shame me into submission. If this happens, you'll basically have one of three options, depending on which name you've got hold of.

1) My professional name.

Googling my professional name will uncover my Linked In account, and very little else. At which point, you may be able to track down my past employers (good luck: I can't manage to track down most of them), and informed them in horrified tones that I have been misbehaving on the internet. To which they will respond: "...so?"

2) My legal name.

If you google my legal name, you will be directed to a franchise of beauty specialists in the USA. I won't come up at all.

If you happen to know a whole bunch of extra details about my life, you may be able to track down the real me. However:
a) the only way you could find out those details is by knowing my screenname and checking out this blog;
b) the only people you could contact after this detective work would be my family - who read my blog, and already know most of the ways I'm likely to misbehave on the internet.

3) My screenname.

This would be Deird, deird1, St Deird, or other variations thereof.

I use this name at: LiveJournal, Dreamwidth, Slacktivist, Love Joy Feminism, Rachel Held Evans, Ship of Fools, Snark Squad, Making Light, Tumblr, Ravelry, AO3, Whedonesque, Hoyden About Town, Vimeo, and everywhere Disqus is in operation. If you know my screenname, you have the power to ruin my life.


Cowardly? Cowardly would be hiding behind one of my RL names. Using my pseudonym puts my entire online reputation at risk – and that's the gutsy option.

Comments

[velvetwhip]

I'll bet you anything the same people who make those "internet rules" send anonymous hate messages on tumblr. Puh-leez. I am ever so very fed up with people declaring themselves the arbiters of online virtue.


Gabrielle

[frayadjacent]

What Gabrielle said.

I think I'd have a bit more to lose if someone "outed" me, but then again I have an extremely common name, so I'd probably be fine. I do complain about work here sometimes, so that's my main concern. Though I also just prefer to keep my fannish life somewhat separate from my analogue life. AS IS MY RIGHT. :/

[deird1]

Same here.

[deird1]

INDEED IT IS. Why don't they get that?

[lliira]

I have a couple different internet identities. I don't try all that hard to keep them separate, but they are separate. I don't need to link my comments in gaming communities to my comments on Dreamwidth to my sex blog, and I certainly don't need to link all those things to my real name. Regarding the sex blog, because of the world we live in, it would at least endanger my and my husband's professional chances to link it with everything else. And there are very good reasons for women to keep their real names private on the internet. A whole lot of internet activism would die if people had to use their real names on the internet. Which I suspect is one reason why certain people want that to happen.

[kerkevik]

For me; Kerkevik IS my real name; the name I have to live with Ray(mond) Maurice Harley is one I didn't get to choose. Maurice certainly isn't; especially once I discovered I was named after a man who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII. And Harley is my father's name; let's leave the fact that is a complete statement of feelings about him at that.

Kerkevik was the name I adopted online; one that I created for an early attempt at world-building. Over time it has become more real as an identity than the one I was given.

Kerkevik is who I am; Ray Harley is who I am forced to be.

[next_to_normal]

If you google my legal name, you will be directed to a franchise of beauty specialists in the USA.

BTW, from now on, my headcanon is that your legal name is Vidal Sassoon or something.

I think "outing" someone (i.e. linking their real name to their screen name) can frequently be life-ruining, depending on the person's job and the nature of their online presence. But just, like, "So-and-so is a terrible person!" shaming? Yeah, it's much more effective to use the screen name since, presumably, the point is to ruin the person online.

[goldenusagi]

BTW, from now on, my headcanon is that your legal name is Vidal Sassoon or something.

I'm guessing Sally Hansen. Though Vidal obviously has more pizazz.

[deird1]

*nods*

There are just so many reasons for people to use pseudonyms. And yet some people just act as though everyone who isn't using their legal name is commenting as a totally unidentifiable anonymous person, and is clearly doing so for nefarious purposes.

[deird1]

Well said.

[deird1]

BTW, from now on, my headcanon is that your legal name is Vidal Sassoon or something.

Hee! Not quite. But maybe I should start claiming that it is…

[kerkevik]

Thank you.

Btw I think you missed this.

http://kerk-e-fics.livejournal.com/1519.html

Lust Long and Perspire,
Ray.

[deird1]

Thanks! I did miss it.