Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5721087

by codegeek • 13 years ago

459 284 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

minimaxir• 13 years ago

That's the big differentiator between the communities HN and other aggregators, and that's a good thing. (Did SlashDot and Fark have as much emphasis on real names?)

benjohnson• 13 years ago

I use my real name as a way of keeping myself accountable as I've noticed that I'm much more inflammatory when under the guise of a pseudonym.

spitx2• 13 years ago

I do not think HN frowns on inflammatory speech if worded deftly.

If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory.

Anything less will be intellectually dishonest.

loteck• 13 years ago

If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory.

No. Being inflammatory is by definition an attempt to cause others to become inflamed. Should those others also then reply with inflammatory speech? Where does it end? Value of the thread drops to zero rapidly.

I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo.

Torgo• 13 years ago

I am not going to go so far as to say someday you will regret it, but in the end you can't control how other people use your words. A pseudonym is a defensive mechanism.

SeanLuke• 13 years ago

I specifically do this as well. And I've done a bit of a test. While I only occasionally post under my real name on reddit, I always post under my real name on HN. And over the last year or more, it's been clear, to me at any rate, that I am much less of a jerk on HN.

DanBC2• 13 years ago

Yes. It's pretty easy to find who I am.

I'm more polite on HN than I am in other places. I don't think that's because I use my real name. There are pseudonymous posters who are polite and real name users who are pretty rude.

rckclmbr• 13 years ago

Your last name is really Beale-COCKs?

(heh, pseudonym...)

DanBC2• 13 years ago

Yes, really!

It plays havoc with the occasional email filter.

jeena• 13 years ago

On the internet I always use my pseudonym.

flavmartins• 13 years ago

I use my online profile name for HN, you can always find and contact me on Twitter: @flavmartins.

If I have something to say, I say it and stand behind it.

darrenkopp• 13 years ago

I use my real name because my pseudonym "crackie" that i use in gaming is usually "not allowed" as a username.

iamdann• 13 years ago

I use my real name for everything.

notatoad• 13 years ago

my real name isn't listed here, but my username is about as real as my identity gets online. my username here @gmail is my primary personal contact email that all my other addresses forward to, and although i don't list a name it would be easy to track back to my real name should anybody care enough to try. my username is a pseudonym, but it isn't a disposable one.

BruceIV2• 13 years ago

I'm in the same boat - I've been BruceIV nearly as long as I've been on the 'net, and it would be pretty trivial to find my actual name, location, etc. if anyone cared to look. I used to take more care to avoid links from BruceIV to my meatspace identity on the public Internet, but I don't care so much anymore.

gdonelli• 13 years ago

my github user name!

grumps• 13 years ago

Ditto.

If I were to post something that I wouldn't want coming back on me, I'd use a throwaway.

In general, I'm rather snarky but that's just who I am and if someone doesn't like it they can stuff it.

stevejohnson• 13 years ago

There are too many Steve Johnsons in the tech field, but I don't have a better pseudonym, so I try to make my real name count.

bjhoops1• 13 years ago

As a Jones, I feel you. It is almost impossible to find a good username or email address that is not already taken. My wife was formerly a Kokernot, and is finding she can no longer command first.last@gmail.com.

codegeek• 13 years ago

my username is obviously anonymous but i realized the power of open identity after coming on HN. Now you can see my real contact info. in there.

danso• 13 years ago

Yes. The discussion on HN is always engaging and there's not much temptation or incentive to go off on a dumb trollish tangent as has been the case in other corners of the Internet. It's always nice to talk to people off of HN that I've met here, too.

edit: somewhat ironically, HN is a place where I'm least tempted to look up a user's bio during a discussion. Someone has to say something extremely outrageous/amazing before I click on their username and commit the "argument from authority" fallacy. Otherwise, I like to read the discussion without having any preconception of who the poster is.

anonymoushn• 13 years ago

No, but it's pretty trivial to figure out who I am.

dangrossman• 13 years ago

I use my real name as my username in discussion communities. Always have all the way back to my first AOL dialup username.

citricsquid• 13 years ago

There's lots of value in being personally identifiable online, I was asked about writing a book last year, the person found me through someone that had seen my reddit comments and connected my person to my name, for that reason I always use my real identity when commenting online (unless there's a specific reason I need to be anonymous).

VMG• 13 years ago

About 1% of the posts I write are mildly controversial and I'm sort of happy to know that my person is not associated with them. On the other hand, there are probably more posts that I want to be associated with.

epochwolf• 13 years ago

Nope. I do all my online interaction as epochwolf.

flatline• 13 years ago

For some reason I'm extremely hesitant to post things under my real name. I don't really care if people know my name on an individual basis (and it's not like I'm a high profile poster anyway), but I am squeamish about it generally, and feel too self-conscious to post anything if my name is associated directly with it. I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me too much anxiety. I'm not like that at all in person. Are there others like me around here? I think it's the permanent nature of what goes online that bothers me about it - there is a freedom to pseudonymity that, when not abused, is quite wonderful.

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

Same boat. I don't generally care on a case-by-case basis, but I don't like the idea of someone being able to trivially connect me to years of comment history. Always a chance I'll recant and regret something I said five years ago. Don't particularly want old mistakes or opinions I no longer hold to be on-tap.

bobsy• 13 years ago

My opinions change regularly, I am sometimes enlightened, I sometimes have a change of heart. I don't post with my actual identity because of this.

I don't want a situation where someone stumbles onto an old post or where I played devil's advocate and I lose out as a result.

frenchy• 13 years ago

That may be a wise decision, but it's sad that the world has to be like this.

bigiain• 13 years ago

I kinda miss the old days of usenet, where I'd often post sarcasm or devil's advocate type comments with an

x-planation: Yes, this is sarcasm

type header.

Web forums generally don't have a way to attach metadata like that in a way that's not _normally_ seen, but is easily discoverable or demonstratable on a per-post basis.

The "Ha ha! I was only joking" defense is much more credible if you explicitly (but initially in a non-visible way) declared that up-front.

esolyt• 13 years ago

On the other hand, you are depriving us from the opportunity to see how your characters keeps developing and how your opinions change over time, which is actually healthy.

PavlovsCat• 13 years ago

My opinions change regularly, I am sometimes enlightened, I sometimes have a change of heart. I don't post with my actual identity because of this.

I edit freely because of this. I don't care if other people hold old stuff against me; that's just people communicating with ghosts in their head. If someone has a serious problem with something I said, let them openly talk with me about it, or be counted among the people I just cannot be bothered to care about.

As I like to tell people: even human history is a HUGE thing compared to my own life, not to mention the universe. If I am lucky, I have 80 years to think and talk about all of it, and nobody, no boss, no relative, no friend, no life partner, could ever matter so much to me that I could completely swallow that thinking and talking, just because it might offend them. If in doubt, burn the bridges, think and talk freely, that's my motto...

I closed a lot of doors for myself with that, but I like the integrity I traded them for, I would not change a thing. Looking back so far, I would say anyone that ever mattered, didn't run away from the first misunderstanding, and not few friendships began with arguing over something with a stranger. On the other hand, the people who got upset about random superficial things, I don't really miss. So what could be better than having a website that filters some of them out, before we waste too much time and energy on each other?

stfu2• 13 years ago

I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me too much anxiety.

Same here. Burned already 2-3 blogs that way. Absolutely hate the idea of somebody judging me by my opinion from last year. Much easier to start from scratch and create a new first impression.

readme• 13 years ago

That's why I disassociated my real name from my HN account. I realized I'd posted opinions using this account.

I own my .com and have some stuff on there. I tend not to post strong opinions under my real name anymore.

Though, there are a few things on the internet that might suggest my political views, you'd have to dig to find them.

cupcake-unicorn4• 13 years ago

That's me, as well. I think it's come from chronic Googling of Craigslist users that naively sent me emails under their real names, or even just searching by their emails, and I easily found information such as: one guy was listed in a court order with drug related gang violence, one guy had blog filled with info about his adventures "mail order bride-ing"...Some of the stuff was more embarrassing and less incriminating, but still. I've Googled people I've met before and been overly turned off by say, a small stupid youtube comment, or something like that.

devindotcom• 13 years ago

I think the future will be one where we're split on this - not as a society, but individually. You will have your public persona and your private persona. I have to be public because I'm in news, but not everything I do has to be associated with my real name, and I take advantage of that when I feel like it. That ability and that habit will only become safer and more accepted over time.

svachalek• 13 years ago

I wish various sites were more supportive of this. Back in the day, Yahoo! groups supported multiple identities very comfortably, so you could be "yourself" in professional forums and "be" yourself elsewhere. I don't know about anymore since I haven't used them in years. But most other sites that support pseudonyms mostly still work hard to make sure you only have one, which does little to curtail the possible abuses thereof while making it painful to do so for good reasons.

icebraining• 13 years ago

I think we've always had multiple public and private personas. Many of us are not the exact same person around strangers than we are at home, or with friends. It's just that what's seamless and instinctive in physical space is often hard to translate into the 'net, and the big sites don't help at all.

sk00byd00• 13 years ago

In the future everyone will be anonymous for fifteen minutes -- Banksy

yaddayadda• 13 years ago

PhinisheD (http://www.phinished.org/) has done this for many years. You must have a user account to make posts, but if there are reasons to post anonymously, then you can do so by posting it as "AFT" - anonymous for this. Everyone has the same anonymous moniker, and it is clear when someone is posting anonymously.

I like this so approach so much that I've actually created AFT or numbered AFT accounts in several places where I don't want a regular username associated with the comment.

I also have themed usernames. Anything I post professionally goes with my real life name or a moniker known by my professional colleagues. I have several hobbies and several very different subjects that I'm trying to learn, and each of those have different associated usernames.

I thought that OpenID would support this concept, but it never seemed to (maybe I was missing some key concept?). Now I have hope that Mozilla Persona might fill this gap.

mnicole2• 13 years ago

Ditto. Deciding to use a variant of my name here was something I went back and forth on (partly because I didn't want it associated with me at all, partly because I didn't want it to be gendered [1]). Ultimately I decided that I wanted to be able to take credit for posts where I write about usability/design/anything else I feel qualified to speak to, even at the expense of potential employers reading the rest of what I write here. On the other side of the same coin, I don't put any personal information in my profile.

[1] One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion, which had me trying to figure out if I should start fresh again. For the most part this only happens in gender issues threads (where sockpuppets and new accounts run rampant), but this particular one wasn't. I wasn't sure if that attitude was going to follow me throughout my time here, but I've found most people don't even look at my username (as evidenced by being referred to as "he" in child comments).

graue2• 13 years ago

> One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion

That sucks. I hope they were downvoted into oblivion, but either way, I know that kind of thing happens on HN and I wish HN were better than that. I'm sorry that happened to you.

LowKarmaAccount• 13 years ago

There's a funny cartoon (from 1996, no less) about the downside of posting on the internet.

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GhostOfUsenetPostingsPast

dpcan• 13 years ago

That's me - only I'm like that in person too.

kamjam• 13 years ago

Not too this level, but i use a pseudonym here. I don't generally post inflammatory stuff but I do like a good debate. But I use my real name on twitter and am very careful about what I post. I use my real name on Facebook, but I am not so worried about what I post, it's to a closed audience so i can vent and be negative without being looked down on.

In this day and age of Google, you're just a click away and a whole bunch about you has been discovered about you even before an interview. I'm not a big flying hot shot, just a developer. Who know what will happen in years to come and it's difficult to wipe that public footprint.

olivier1664• 13 years ago

Yeah, me too: the alias is a protection against a simple google research.

SoftwareMaven• 13 years ago

I understand where the feelings come from, but I'm not that way. On the other hand, there are times that I feel like I have to limit what I say. There are some details that are too personal or that impact people I care deeply about that I don't want to have tied that closely to my real identity.

For those cases, I consider how valuable what I have to say might be and, if it is truly worth it (not very often), I'll create a throw-away. Of course, it isn't going to stop anybody truly determined, but it makes it harder.

echohack• 13 years ago

Pseudonymity is exactly right.

IanChiles• 13 years ago

I feel much the same way, but go ahead and use my name in order to "force" myself to think a little bit more before posting on things, and I think it really helps the quality of my posts.

plainOldText• 13 years ago

I agree. For some reason I feel exactly the same way.

ceras• 13 years ago

I'm very much like this. I create a completely different handle on every site I use. I simply don't use a service if my real name is involved: for instance, I completely stopped reviewing Google Play Store apps ever since the G+ integration. Even having my name publicly associated with some random app that I've used makes me really uncomfortable. It isn't really rational or anything, but it's nevertheless present. I'm just a private person I guess.

trebor• 13 years ago

I use a pseudonym derived from my first name, or whole name. Considering that even when open about my name I've been slammed for my beliefs, for disagreeing with someone (I was polite, so their response shocked me), and so on. I've done dumb stuff, smart stuff, etc.

I'm a fairly private person in person, but I'm far more open offline than I'll ever be online.

untog• 13 years ago

Yes. I wish I could change my username, though- I used it on a whim when signing up for what I considered to be a dummy account at the time. Woops.

snprbob86• 13 years ago

I too thought it was a dummy account & now really wish I could change my user name to be my real name. I don't really care about the Karma, but every time I've tried to create a new account & start over, I get an error about too many new users.

kaybe• 13 years ago

This made me curious, so I tried myself.. and now there's a new account with your name. Ups. Check your email, I sent you the login information, it's yours. (Sorry.)

neogodless• 13 years ago

I didn't really think about it, but the username I chose is one that I really try to use universally on any online community where I'm using a fictitious name, and is ultimately tied to who I am.

njharman• 13 years ago

I almost never hide or lie about my identity in person. I don't view my online life as separate or different than in person life. So, I use my real name almost everywhere.

gent• 13 years ago

I just put my very short real name.

_b8r0• 13 years ago

Using a pseudonym may be great, but there's always the temptation to be more abrasive, offensive or obnoxious when using one. The longer you keep an identity online in public forums the more information you tend to leak through side channels and should your identity end up compromised you risk having a lot more exposed than if you never covered at all and thought (mostly) before posting. I've chosen to use my real name here because of the level of conversation when I joined and because I've associated HN initially more with the traditional hacker world than the blackhat type. Those of you using pseudonyms could do worse than learn from the Grugq[1].

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XaYdCdwiWU

joshuak• 13 years ago

I didn't before. I do now.

hkmurakami2• 13 years ago

yes, and strangely this is one of the few forums where I feel totally fine using my real identity and saying my thoughts.

perhaps because hn's topics of conversation keep me on the civil and cerebral side

sachingulaya• 13 years ago

Yes, my username is my full name and I'm reasonably confident saying there is only 1 person with my name in the world.

stfu2• 13 years ago

I'm in an endless loop with my self arguing if I should be more open about my identity on the internet. But in the end I value the ability to post and say whatever comes to my mind higher than the ability to promote stuff.

jiggy2011• 13 years ago

Couldn't you have multiple accounts?

I'm guessing that a few people on HN do this. Not mentioning any names.

quackerhacker4• 13 years ago

Reading your comment.....love your handle(lol) NICE!

kafkaesque• 13 years ago

I voted no.

On HN, it doesn't really matter, because there is a high degree of respect and "real-world" treatment on here, which is refreshing, when compared to other online communities. I sometimes wish I would've used my real online identity, but then again, I'm just starting out in programming, so I don't have a lot to contribute.

Generally speaking, though, I never use my real identity, because quite a few users on popular sites (Yelp, for example) are into doxxing, humiliating/ridiculing, and generally, trolling people, even when these people do not say anything disrespectful or disingenuous. It is one side of Internet popular culture that really kind of depresses me.

orangethirty3• 13 years ago

No, but you can email me and find out my real name. Though it is a very common name. My handle (orangethirty) is unique. So, its not like I'm being very paranoid or anything. I use an internet handle because I can. It is a freedom that I support, and am including in all of my projects. Privacy is required in the world.

lucb1e• 13 years ago

Same for me. lucb1e is unique, I use it for pretty much everything, you can contact me in lots of ways, and you can obtain my static home IP with nslookup lucb1e.com. The only things you, as non-government employee, can't find are my physical home address and full name. And hopefully also not any family.

I try to take physical security seriously. If I ever happen to do anything provocative in a bad mood, I don't need people banging on my door. Authorities can find me, that's not it, I'm preserving privacy against the big public.

As a secondary reason, future employers can only find what I want them to find. My gaming history, private life, political views, etc. are not relevant for them. They can ask me about that in interviews and I have the right to decline comment. With my real name on the web I wouldn't have that choice.

I'm not too careful with my real name or location anyway, many friends and acquaintances know it even though I only know them online. I'm not really hiding it, I'm protecting myself and my right on free speech permitted to the extent of the law.

wyck• 13 years ago

Same here, I am attached to the romantic notion of pseudonyms in terms of freedom/privacy and the spirit of judging content for what it is and not the name behind it.

With that being said my pseudonym is attached to my real email all over the internet and my email contains my name, so it's not like I am hiding behind it.

I actually find some of the comments in this thread against pseudonyms strangely similar to the reason of why people don't drink because they are bad drunks. If your being a dick under a pseudonym that means you might be and a dick regardless.

orangethirty3• 13 years ago

Well, I don't think a pseudonym gives people the right to act like assholes. I sometimes do, but its not on purpose. Its that I have the social skills of a rock. Anyhow, pseudonyms allow for my creativity to exists on a different plane. For example, had I started developing Nuuton under my real name, I would have already be dealing with the repercussions of my local social circle. Doing it under orangethirty gives me the freedom to simply express myself without worrying about what anyone might say. Sure, people can find out who I am, but locally, few people have heard of the pseudonym. Freedom not only protects, but gives wings.

bentcorner• 13 years ago

I've gotten bitten before for using my real identity (no, I won't say where, when, or what), doing something that at the time I considered in good faith. It is what it is, and there's little to gain from me in putting myself in that situation again.

nraynaud• 13 years ago

I have to say I use my real name, but 1) I feel relatively safe because it's a really common name 2) I actually lost my job over my online postings, so maybe I should not feel that safe. Or maybe I should police myself (not gonna happen), or find a job where I would not feel the need to vent, or stop having a boss altogether.

duncan_bayne3• 13 years ago

That sounds like it would be an interesting tale to post to HN.

dmd• 13 years ago

Yes. I've exclusively used my real name online since 1991.

krisroadruck• 13 years ago

definitely not.

SkittlesNTwix• 13 years ago

I personally believe that an indicator of intelligence is the capacity to change ones mind when presented with new data. I don't want to be judged on past posts or comments, if it's possible that my mind has been changed, my opinion altered, etc. by new data or more thoughtful consideration.

tagabek• 13 years ago

For me, HN is a platform to discuss interesting things with interesting people and to expose myself to opportunities that I would otherwise not have. So yes, I do use my real identity.

rdl• 13 years ago

I didn't realize anyone would not use a real identity on hn.

marshray• 13 years ago

The question presumes the existence of a singular, unified "real identity".

Nevertheless, I answered 'Yes'.

randallsquared• 13 years ago

My username is associated with practically everything I do online, and my real name is trivially discoverable from it, so I voted Yes. Although, Google+ seems unable to figure out what my real name is, even after uploading my driver's license (I found it ironic that in reply to my uploading a photo of my government ID, Google+ suggested that it would go better for me if I just used my legal name. Er, what?), so maybe it's not that easy. ;)

shitduck• 13 years ago

yes

randomfool• 13 years ago

No. I try to be bias free and open about where I come from, but I've worked for large employers who can be quite emphatic about managing their corporate image. I feel that by not using my real name I'm able to talk more freely- whether it be criticisms of my current employer (career limiting move), or non-public but not trade-secret information.

I feel that I can be less biased and more honest by using a pseudonym.

seivan• 13 years ago

Yes. Github, Twitter, IRC. It will make sure that I only say things that I would say in real life. No matter how vile or vicious it sounds.

And then I will have to deal with the consequences. Also, my name is actually very unique.

duncan_bayne3• 13 years ago

Yes. And likewise on other fora.

It's interesting to take a 'time trip' and review my opinions on, say, the invasion of Iraq: against, for, against. Personally that doesn't bother me so much.

Sure, I think that some of my past opinions were wrong. However, they're timestamped: a thinking critic would know that I might not still hold them, and an unthinking critic is unreachable regardless of the effort I put in.

gradstudent3• 13 years ago

> Sure, I think that some of my past opinions were wrong. However, they're timestamped: a thinking critic would know that I might not still hold them, and an unthinking critic is unreachable regardless of the effort I put in.

The same is true of posts relating to "correct" or non-controversial opinons though. Should then a thinking critic not assume anything about you or your current thinking on any subject based on information posted on the Internet? That seems unreasonable.

duncan_bayne3• 13 years ago

Exactly. I'd hate for a prospective employer to think I code the same way now as I did back in 2005, but I've SourceForge projects up that are at least that old.

JimWestergren• 13 years ago

Yes, and it's unique. I have done that since the beginning on the internet and it has helped to build my personal branding (in Sweden).

Tarential• 13 years ago

Yes. Tarential is me, and I am Tarential. I've used it for virtually every site/forum/game/system I've ever created an account on. I registered the domain for my personal site.

I completely understand and respect the need for anonymity in some people and some circumstances. For my own part, though, I think having everything publicly associated with me helps temper my somewhat extreme personality.

simonsarris• 13 years ago

Yes, and for almost[1] all other things on the internet for that matter.

"We should try to be happy, if only to set an example." -Jacques Prévert

I try to be as open and plainly honest as possible, and I think using my real name keeps me from being inflammatory, and I think it also keeps other from doing the same to me (at least a little). Put another way, I think using real names makes an atmosphere of more empathy than otherwise.

So we should try to be sincere, if only to set an example. I think real names help with that.

Further, I try to make all my interactions on the web as public as possible. I set my Facebook privacy settings to 100% public, zero private stuff, because I don't like the state of what seems to be a selective illusion of privacy. I'd rather just be honest with myself: If I put something on the internet, it's there to stay.

[1] For posterity I use a different name for some games, because long ago someone bought a Warcraft 3 account name (Saint) as a gift, and I want to honor him, or find him again if I could, on the dim hopes he'd mention the name if he ever saw it.

hkmurakami2• 13 years ago

coincidentally Saint[z-zone] was one of the more memorable Zerg players in professional Starcraft:Broodwar. It's a nice ID :)

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Saint

conrey• 13 years ago

This indeed - I'm not always the best or least inflammatory, but I own what I say and want to have that reflect on me.

OnyeaboAduba• 13 years ago

I agree the old saying "dont throw stones and hide your hand" applies here I think thats why blogs and comments on the internet are so nasty at times you can make some crazy screen name and lose all responsibilty for yor words and it brings out the worst in people

JohnLBevan• 13 years ago

Same philosophy here. I do use privacy settings in FB and G+ just to avoid spamming folk - I'll post things to public which I think anyone who follows/finds me may like, then use privacy for "audience targeting" as sharepoint folk would call it.

malgorithms• 13 years ago

"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!" -Hawthorne

vinhboy• 13 years ago

I especially like what you said about making your facebook 100% public to rid yourself of the illusion of privacy.

I agree. If I am going to put something online, I expect it to be in the public domain.

I do however try to keep all my online identities, although all real, separate. For example, I don't link my reddit account on my facebook. It's like having different groups of friends, you don't want to force them to hang out together, it would be awkward.

cupcake-unicorn4• 13 years ago

Or delete your Facebook, and make an account just for following pages. I did it a year ago and I never looked back.

loup-vaillant2• 13 years ago

An alternative could be to stick to a given nickname in related communities. HN, r/programming, and one's tech blog could form such a cluster. Sure, it's not your "real" name, but it will get a reputation regardless. Pseudonym or real name, people will shun you if you displease them too much. Simply remembering that may be just as effective as keeping one nice.

To make that even more effective, one could even make a point of using that same identity even when physical presence is required. Many video game players actually do this, and it seems to be mostly working.

spiffytech• 13 years ago

I have been doing this for many years now. I am "spiffytech" everywhere on the Internet, and that identity has extended to my physical relationships. In my college LUG, everyone knew me pretty much exclusively by my handle. This topic once came up there. I asked a friend who I'd known for four years if he actually knew my real name, and he had to stop and think for several minutes before he could respond with my name. Another friend I'd known for about as long said the only reason he knew my name at all was because it's in the "From" line in my emails.

Despite the fact that I never operate online under my given name, the fact that my username is tightly tied to my identity and reputation prevents me from employing it as a shield of anonymity to hide behind while I lob uncivil or disrespectful remarks at other Netizens. I don't generally feel tempted to do anyway, but I can't say how much of that is due to my consistent use of my username.

blowski• 13 years ago

This is what I do. I'm 'blowski' on here, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, email, etc. It's a handle which stuck years ago. So although it's not my real name, it's pretty easy to identify me by it. My profile page also lists my real name and job.

personlurking• 13 years ago

I generally stick with certain handles, having 3-4 at all times, some going back over 10 years. My HN one is unique to HN, though. I just wanted to check out the site so I picked any ol' handle, then once comments were upvoted it gained value to me.

Anyways, one of my long-term handles I wanted to erase from the internet and I succeeded with three exceptions, one due to my own laziness (edit: which I'm dealing with this morning), another because no one answered company email (but I eventually got through when the site was revamped), and the other because the company went out of business but the site remains online. It'd be nice to get my profile there expunged because it's slightly embarrassing but there's no valid way to contact them (not even via WHOis).

gonehome• 13 years ago

I have the same opinion and generally set things to public for this reason.

The only reason I second guess this decision is the idea of governments scraping social network data, when things are marked public you have little protection from that.

orangethirty3• 13 years ago

That's good as well. The important thing is that this was done by choice, and not pushed upon you (like some companies want to do).

billpaetzke• 13 years ago

Totally agree with you.

Though I keep my Facebook visible to friends only because I don't want anything Facebook related ranking high on a personal name google search. I use twitter or blogs as the public facing searchable content tied to my name.

rusbra• 13 years ago

This is Golden... I'll start living by this approach

benrhughes2• 13 years ago

I do a similar thing. As Epictetus said:

"When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for, if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly?"

tekromancr2• 13 years ago

I don't like that. It sounds too much like the "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" argument for privacy invasion.

kybernetikos2• 13 years ago

"if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly?"

For the obvious reasons - that they are in positions of power over you.

brickmort• 13 years ago

"the illusion of privacy"

damn, that's good.

exodust3• 13 years ago

Your argument falls over the moment someone using their real name is inflammatory.

We shouldn't need to show our drivers license to qualify or validate our sincerity in any interactions, online or in person.

"He used his real name so it must be true" is not something we will ever hear.

Your name is "simonsarris", okay, so I barely noticed. It's a handle, and it might be real or made up. As a reader of your comment it makes absolutely no difference whether your real credentials are stated anywhere or not. If you present a good argument, that's all that matters. If you talk out of your rear end, that also matters. Your real name does not matter unless I am particularly interested in your real life. Which I am not, nor have reason to be.

rcourtie• 13 years ago

I don't think he meant that if anyone used their real name online it would automatically make them sincere, I think he meant that since he was using his real name it kept him in check because he cared about his reputation or whatever.

Less about how other people view him and more about making sure that he didn't do anything that would tarnish himself. As opposed to the freedom you would feel behind anonymity to do things you wouldn't normally.

qompiler• 13 years ago

So basically you are putting up an act when you post under your real name?

maxerickson• 13 years ago

In that sense, everybody is always putting up an act. Putting it a different way, nobody is ever really doing anything without taking context into account. So using a identifiable name could be described as controlling part of the context.

cLeEOGPw• 13 years ago

I do the the opposite with user names. I randomize all the accounts on every site I go so there would be no link between those (except the fact that all of them look random), But I don't hide anything and always assume that even the passwords to these accounts are public. As a matter of fact I literally have them all in a file as plain text username/password. So, it keeps me from doing anything I would not like anyone to see me doing, but when somebody enters my name in a search bar they don't automatically get to see everything I like to do on my free time.

patrickmay2• 13 years ago

It turns out that a real name policy does not improve online behavior: http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/29/surprisingly-good-evidence-...

Personally, if I'm going to go to the trouble of eviscerating someone in text, I want to put my real name on it and take credit. Then again, I grew up with Usenet when flaming was an art form. (You kids get offa my 'net!)

r0s• 13 years ago

Had to check, yes but limited.

zdw• 13 years ago

Depends on if I can get my desired nickname or not. Having a relatively unique combination of 3-letter initials helps in this regard.

waterlesscloud• 13 years ago

My username is obviously a pseudonym, but my real name is in my profile. It wasn't always.

jamesaguilar• 13 years ago

I find I am (a little) less of a jackass when I post with my real name.

Shivetya• 13 years ago

No, I made an id before I realized that real names are more common. However I see no reason to swap out, its not like people who know me cannot find me

Would I change to my real name, not really, giving the current job environment I do not see the benefit

quackerhacker4• 13 years ago

I agree with you in regards to trying to separate your pro life from a handle. If you still retain your anonymity, then keep it that way (keep your 5th amendment rights lol), especially since prospective employers and investors do check our names, and you never know what they may be bias towards.

Fuzzwah• 13 years ago

I voted yes. I'm Fuzzwah (or Fuzzy, or Fuz) here and everywhere else, even away from the keyboard. The name which is on my birth certificate is easily discoverable.

I just wanted to note that being known by a nick name out in the real world is for the most part a wonderful thing. It is always interesting to see how people react when I introduce myself as Fuzzy.

On one other note, apparently Facebook considers "Fuzzy" to be a bad word or something as I'm unable to include it in any part of my name or nickname on the site. It has always bothered me. So much so that I've sent many emails to support trying to get an answer as to why. Never had a response. Shrug.

hedges• 13 years ago

Identity has few benefits compared to the increased safety and honesty that anonymity affords.

JulianMorrison• 13 years ago

Anonymity and pseudonymity are important tools and should not be discarded, but they are tools I am presently not using.

incision• 13 years ago

No.

Knowing what I know now from a year's worth of participation I wouldn't mind posting under my real identity on many topics.

However, I would have to censor myself often. I don't think I say much that's particularly controversial, just that I work for people who I've regularly witnessed stalking the online habits of coworkers.

quackerhacker4• 13 years ago

Even though I use my handle "quackerhacker," the secret service already knows my identity, so in the words of Mark Zuckerburg "privacy is dead." -at least mine is

This is me on Wired.com: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/05/man-allegedly-b/

MichaelGG• 13 years ago

That's awesome. It amazes me that there was no check for the same IP/account number combination over and over.

The FBI site says: "he would transfer the funds into his own bank accounts or onto prepaid debit cards, without the authorization or knowledge of his victims"

How the hell was that allowed as a valid argument? Of course you can transfer money out of an account - they sent it there. Did they have any sort of "hey, we're just giving this $0.89 temporarily" kind of language? If not, they're the ones that authorized the transfer.

They happily sent thousands of deposits out. Seems like their fault. Might as well go after people that keep swinging by the free samples at Costco.

quackerhacker4• 13 years ago

I was actually 19 when I did that (wired got my age wrong), simply stated...I was an idiot. The money was free and what really got me in trouble was the fake info. To be clear, the money I received was intended to go to the characters I put in the fake info (not me). The ONE thing that I'm thankful for is that I can still use computers and even get employed in the field.

Chris_Newton• 13 years ago

Honestly? I have multiple accounts. This one is in my real name, but I also post pseudonymously. I do the same on pretty much every web forum I post on.

This is partly for historical reasons: in almost all cases, I had a pseudonymous account first. However, it’s also partly for flexibility. For example, if I’m giving a personal recommendation or criticism, then I always prefer to put my name to it. On the other hand, I am very conscious of privacy concerns and very careful not to give away anything I shouldn’t about other people or businesses. Posting with a pseudonym means I can still contribute controversial viewpoints or relevant information to some discussions that I wouldn’t be comfortable leaving on the public record.

For the record, I make no secret of having multiple accounts for any affected site admins, who in general could trivially identify any pseudonyms I use with a quick search of private e-mail addresses if they wanted to. Also, my pseudonymous accounts tend to have feedback via votes/moderations as favourable as my “real” accounts or even a little more so, and I never abuse multiple accounts by voting in ways I otherwise couldn’t. I’d stop if anyone running a forum asked me to, but that would be disappointing as I’m careful not to abuse the privilege and I think I can make more interesting/valuable contributions as things are.

chalst• 13 years ago

I have alternate accounts on several sites for these reasons, but I also have pseudonymous accounts in some places just because I like to poison the accuracy of large databases. With these, I do keep my identity secret.

hawkharris• 13 years ago

There seems to have been a massive shift toward using real identities for social websites (possibly because of the example set by sites like Facebook).

It's interesting, considering that (at least to my limited knowledge on this subject) pseudonyms were much more common about five or ten years ago.

guelo• 13 years ago

No, I don't want to prejudice potential clients, employers or customers. And it's so easy for that to happen. When I used to have my email in my profile I had two people threaten my business over some silly technical argument.

ownagefool• 13 years ago

Nope, but 10 seconds in google will reveal who I am.

CurtMonash• 13 years ago

Yes. No reason not to. Even for things like game forums I use my real name more and more these days.

I do post in a few anonymous, testosterone-fueled forums where people speak very intemperately. If anybody found my posts there and connected them to me, I'd want the signal of anonymity, so that I'm not responsible for every last nuance as being representative of how I'd like my views presented.

But otherwise, I have little need for anonymity.

Heck, you could figure out a reasonable amount about my proclivities just from observing which particular porn actresses interact with me on Twitter. :)

four• 13 years ago

Yes on HN. Because here are people I actual want to become familiar with and to. Like all my online presence, it is a public persona, not me in all my dimensions.

Jack000• 13 years ago

might be useful to make a distinction between "online handle" and "real"

I use the same username on all websites, so you can pretty much track my entire internet existence through it. In that sense it's "real", possibly more so than my legal name, which I hardly use because it's difficult to pronounce in English.

Jach• 13 years ago

My real name is about one step of indirection away from my username, and I don't go out of my way to hide that. Most people never bother to take that step. I have a lot of opinions (that sometimes change) which may be unpopular with certain people; I don't care about those people. Most people don't care about me, nor do they read about my opinions anyway, and my blog is primarily for my future self rather than a real audience. I'm nobody, much like almost everyone else. Furthermore, there are lots of people with really crazy or eccentric or radical or just plain stupid opinions that nevertheless maintain an audience or at least live happy lives. Maybe not in Egypt, of course.

In terms of employment prospects, many employers won't care what you do in your free time so long as you show up and do your work. Or if you're starting your own company, many customers won't care if the CEO holds some opinion or another. Even the large public outcries against people like the CEO of Papa John's haven't killed them as a business.

I don't find anonymity to factor into my rudeness, unlike others. My rudeness is generally matched with the rudeness of the person I'm talking to over anything else, like my mood, feelings for the other person, or anonymity. It sometimes becomes a game, too, to see if I can be cleverly rude in response to a brutishly rude comment.

mtct• 13 years ago

Yes, HN is one of the sites where i use my real name. In some other place on the other hand I like to be more "crude" and so, there, I use a fake identity.

charonn0• 13 years ago

I don't, but not for any particular reason.

grandalf• 13 years ago

I try to avoid using my real identity simply to make it harder for people to google me and learn about all my obscure beliefs and interests.

hosay1232• 13 years ago

I tend to recycle accounts every so often, and make a reasonable effort to keep each account anonymous (although a determined creeper could likely identify me). I've also got a "real world" account, but generally prefer the freedom of posting anonymously, to avoid any potential Google-sleuthing later on.

It's a double-edged sword, though. Not associating opinions with my real world identity encourages me to post a lot more nonsense.. the freedom to be anonymous is also the freedom to communicate with no discipline, which couldn't be beneficial in the long term

Falkon1313• 13 years ago

No, not my real name. Just a 'nym that I've been using for over 17 years, which is very much a real part of my identity. Parts of it date back 21 years, although I used several different pseudonyms back then, depending on the community.

Why a pseudonym? Back in the WWIV vs Wildcat BBS days, I noticed that, contrary to popular belief, the pseudonymous communities were actually much friendlier, more honest and open, and less hostile. There was no age, gender, race, class discrimination or bullying, which were common on the real-name-only communities. People were judged on the merits of what they said and how they acted, rather than factors not under their control.

I may have little to worry about discrimination, but still I value the freedom, honesty, and integrity of pseudonymity.

stcredzero• 13 years ago

stcredzero is my real identity. At least it's one of them. (For good or for ill. Mostly ill)

graue2• 13 years ago

Sort of. I don't list my full name in my profile, but it's on the blog I link to there. The one degree of separation is nice. You can find out who I am from my HN posts, but you won't find my HN posts from searching my name.

gnu82• 13 years ago

All of your identities are your real identity. I don't understand the question.

gyepi2• 13 years ago

I'm going to assume this is a serious comment because I am familiar with the concept of people with multiple identities know a couple. For such people, the question may not make sense for the reason you state. However the question is not so much about identity as it is about ownership and responsibility for a persona and their utterances. Many of us have different personae; I am sure my family, cow-orkers and friends interact with different aspects of me. In each case, however, I own that persona and am that person. Perfectly "normal" stuff. The question really is; to what extent, on the Internet, are we willing to disassociate our identities from our personae? Especially when doing so allows us to say things that we would not in a meat space public forum, for various reasons.

question-all2• 13 years ago

so far that there exists a "Deep Web" trust me, hacker news is just surface level bullshit.

gnu82• 13 years ago

Compartmentalization is a reasonable and prudent safety measure.

jagermo• 13 years ago

not really here, but i use the nickname in a lot of other places, so i should be easy to track down. but that is ok, i think.

ereckers• 13 years ago

I use my real name, but on the internet I don't even consider my real name the real me. Most stuff I've got out on the internet is sort of my marketable persona even though the name does point to me (if that makes any sense). I don't troll too much, and with alias' I find I waste too much time trying to "correct" the internet, so it's much quicker and succinct just to post under my own name.

gyepi2• 13 years ago

Yes. I think of the Internet as a public space and moderate myself accordingly. As a result, there's no reason for me to use pseudonyms. This policy does have the effect of limiting my participation in public conversations about sensitive topics like religion, politics and other social constructs but the same thing happens INRL anyway.

vivin• 13 years ago

Yes. But it's just my first name. However, if you search for it on Google, it's not that hard to find me. My name is somewhat rare and it's within the top 2-3 results. :)

rjd• 13 years ago

I don't use my personal name anywhere except linkedin, specifically for business reasons on all accounts. Even Facebook I use a pseudonym. Over the years I've done a lot of contracting for big business and government agencies, often requiring background checks security clearance. No way I'd endanger my access to those contracts by exposing anything personal anywhere.

beatpanda• 13 years ago

I use a pseudonym that obscures my identity from morons in an hurry but its incredibly easy to figure out who I am.

My real name is too common to use effectively on the Internet :)

samuellevy• 13 years ago

I have been (slowly) migrating to using my real identity in all places, which has left a strange mashup of identities in some areas. Really, I should get rid of the old identities (which will be difficult, no longer having access to all the email addresses/passwords/whatever of accounts I opened 10+ years ago), but my actual real name is relatively "clean".

I have a couple of "incognito" identities which aren't easily linkable to me (it's probably possible, I haven't ever been particularly careful, but I try to keep them separate), but other than that I'm slowly trying to migrate into using my own real identity now.

pasbesoin• 13 years ago

Speaking generally about "the Internet", I've had several pseudonyms, many of long-standing use and some of considerable reputation.

I haven't been... "paranoid" about my identity, and several to many people have ended up knowing the formal identity behind the pseudonym. But that has been at my own or our mutual discretion.

I chose the words "formal identity" because, even while using a pseudonym, I feel people can and do come to know my... "real" identity. What I think and feel and communicate, regardless of the ostensible name attached. I usually take some considerable care in my communication. My use of a pseudonym doesn't, in that regard, hide who I am.

What a pseudonym does let me do is dissociate certain contexts.

I can be a little more open about some past work experiences, here, because they don't "pop to the top" upon googling my "real" name. Not that I'm engaging in slander or criticism verging towards abuse. Mostly, I'm also circumspect about not identifying the other party (e.g employer). I wish to be able to be fairly honest and open about communicating my experience and thoughts upon same, without having to worry about this raising concern with a current or future employer. Or... these days, without having to worry about some draconian policy or attitude surprising me with e.g. a SLAPP lawsuit or similar.

Rather than picking on particular people or organizations, there are experiences that have taught me things. Sometimes, things I wish I could have learned a bit more easily and/or sooner. If I can save the next person a bit or grief, or help them to be a bit happier, then yay! A pseudonym helps me to go about that without second-guessing every sentence.

In another instance (and another pseudonym), I've dealt with concerns that run from "personal" through "health". Many people online find much value communicating about such matters in an anonymous or pseudonymous context. Again, it's about the content, not about the who. I've witnessed and experienced many significant relationships develop and persist in such pseudonymous contexts. Some people establish additional private channels and may or may not share identifying information. But, as I've observed, it's not necessary.

And, that brings me to a favorite phrase and attitude of mine, with regard to online communication and to many aspects of technology, as well:

Opt in.

I'm a strong believer of letting people opt in to choices, such as whether or not to share personally identifying information.

If per the meme the Internet or the Web is today's "Wild West", then I'll borrow another analogy, or component of this Western mythology and attitude (the attitude part is significantly true, even today): It's not who you are, it's what you do.

Per the Western genre of story, the West was somewhere a person could "reinvent" themselves. It's not who you are, but what you do.

On the Internet, I don't think we really "reinvent" ourselves. But, it is a matter of what we do, rather than who we are.

Perhaps that's one reason I'm a bit cautious about the influx of photos and other imagery. I get enough of that in... "meatspace", as I guess it's sometimes being called, these days. "Real life".

People who succeed to varying degrees on their looks and other external factors.

Some days, give me pseudonyms and plain text. Or code, or the like. And show me what you think and do. Even what you feel -- I've seen as much genuine empathy and feeling on a phpBB forum as anywhere else.

So... to go a bit beyond the clicky-votey spot above...

deckar01• 13 years ago

I have 3 accounts: Personal, anonymous, and ninja.

Jun82• 13 years ago

I'm very surprised to see so many people using aliases. Using an alias on HN is self-defeating, if you cannot stand behind your comments personally, why even make them.

Not only that but I also never delete a comment

hosay1232• 13 years ago

> if you cannot stand behind your comments personally, why even make them

Experimentation?

> Not only that but I also never delete a comment

I delete regularly, particularly if on re-reading the comment I realize I'm a total idiot, or being unnecessarily rude or whatever. I guess if you're unwilling to experiment with new opinions you might never need to delete them..

Jun82• 13 years ago

On the contrary, I make my share of idiotic or ride comments. However, I feel that those comments, too, are part of my presence on HN, if some one cares to look (I don't think anybody does but I routinely go back and reread my lowest and highest rated comments.

BruceIV2• 13 years ago

Once an alias gets old enough, I think it counts as "standing behind your comments personally" - if you cared to go looking, you could find some pretty dumb stuff I posted years ago on other sites when I was in high school, but I'm still using the same alias.

Why use an alias? Partly the romance - online handles just feel like they come from some earlier golden age of the Internet, when it was the domain of scrappy hackers rather than big advertising corporations (it's likely mythical, but it's before my time in any case). Also, my username is quicker to type and more unique than my real name - in some ways it is a better identifier for me than my name.

Tsagadai• 13 years ago

I voted yes. My real name is not hard to find. I have used my pseudonym for long enough to find me in person without too much trouble. I am not afraid of what I say publicly. If someone didn't want to employ me because of my views I am certain I wouldn't want to work for them anyway.

Goladus• 13 years ago

Reputation can be used to discourage rude, uncivil behavior. But it can also be used to crowd out unpopular ideas.

Hacker News is probably the online forum on the net that I wouldn't mind having my real name visible.

mindcrime• 13 years ago

"mindcrime" is, of course, not my real name. But my Real Life info is in my profile, yes. Over the years I've leaned towards a policy of generally being pretty open about my identity online. I find that since I'm the kind of person who doesn't give a shit what you (the abstract "you") thinks about me anyway, it doesn't much matter if "you" know who I am. And to whatever extent I do care, choosing to post as "real me" forces me to be a little hair more thoughtful and helps avoid the temptation to occasionally stoop to trolling, or saying caustic/hurtful things that I might be tempted to say.

Very rarely I will delete or edit a comment due to regret over what I said, but not terribly often. However, I do now find that I occasionally hold back on saying certain things about the government / government agencies / police / etc. out of a pragmatic desire not to wind up on a "no fly" list or something, when my $DAYJOB entails a lot of air travel. I feel sick everytime I hold back on saying something of that nature though, as it runs counter to my nature. I try very hard to live a principled life as much as I can, and restricting myself from speaking freely causes a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Edit: Also, just to throw another thought or two out there... I prefer having my real info here, as I see this forum as still largely being "Startup News" and I think of this as a place for business talk. And it's more awkward to do business with people when you don't know who they are, or anything about them. I also throw in the occasional self-promotional reference to my startup[1], and it would be hard to keep my identify secret, even if I wanted to, and still be open about the startup. I also like helping people, and to the extent that I have any useful advice or wisdom or knowledge to share, I feel like people will find it more acceptable if they know (or can find) the person behind it.

[1] http://www.fogbeam.com

Kaivo• 13 years ago

No, I never like using my real name for things other than contacting people I've physically met or have been in contact with for several years.

I have a nickname I've been using for over seven years. I consider it to be my virtual self but as honest as my real self. I feel that real names are too "official" when used. I fear things I do, things I say, would stick to my person and would cause more harm than good in my professional life. When I tinker things and post them, I'm not doing them as finished and clean as I would do in a work place, it's less official, just to have fun and figure things out, and I don't want that to serve as a proof of how I work, because that's not how I work.

cowpewter• 13 years ago

I voted yes. My name is not actually in my profile, but I've used the same username everywhere since the early 90s, and the briefest of searches would pull up my real name pretty damned fast.

shortstuffsushi• 13 years ago

Same -- I have used shortstuffsushi for every account since 5th grade, to set up my first AIM account (boy, that feels like forever ago). People who know me in real life are able to identify me by that handle, so if I use it, it's really no different than my real name (aside from being unique to every site I've ever visited...).

RyJones• 13 years ago

Yes, and for the internet in general.

hdragomir• 13 years ago

I am me throughout the internet.

Even my gaming nickname is connected to me, as awful as it is (hornicator)

I am what I am and I say what I say. I want that to mean something.

Swizec• 13 years ago

Well that depends, what's my real identity? The nickname and unified web presence everyone recognises me for, or what it says on my passport?

If the former, then yes, if the latter, then no.

sophacles• 13 years ago

Yeah, I'm the same way. I've been internetting as sophacles forever, it doesn't mean that moniker is any less real than my name. Hell, if I've tried to even switch to my "real" name online a few times, but it gets difficult when you realize there's a decade and a half of accounts, online relationships tied to the one, and who the hell is this Erich guy anyay?

steven2012• 13 years ago

No. I haven't posted with my real information since 1997 when I realized that dejanews.com was forever.

jonnathanson• 13 years ago

Yes, because it forces me to be honest: intellectually, socially, and otherwise. If I post stupid crap here, it's on me. If I post smart crap on here, hey, that's also pretty cool. But mostly, I like the rigor that transparency forces.

Pxtl• 13 years ago

Google my name and youll find me... and a neat python templating thing I'm unaffiliated with.

newnewnew• 13 years ago

No. I live in a very liberal area and I disagree with the liberal worldview on several significant points. In my experience, people have become more harsh towards opposing viewpoints. I've seen enough witch hunts on non-liberals to know I don't want to be the subject of one.

popeye3• 13 years ago

It's not just liberals--I'm a liberal--and this goes both ways. But you're right. Any opinion on a controversial topic can and will see you targeted by malicious fanatics opposed to your opinions.

The Pollyanna types who disapprove of others using pseudonyms are generally either a) very boring people b) naive c) have some kind of stake in being able to out people e.g. Zuckerberg who makes tons of money off lack of privacy, so he argues in his book that anonymity is wrong. Of course you would, Zuck, it's your fucking bank account.

The fact of matter is that if you have an opinion, and you express it well, it's just a matter of time before someone on the opposing side tries to dox you and hurt you. This includes everything from straightforward harassment at multiple venues, to people trying to get you fired, to people shaming you online.

It's very very easy to slander people online and cause distress or hardship. Look at the trouble Wikipedia has had with malicious, fake biographies.

Mz5• 13 years ago

I kind of think the solution to that is to own it without cramming it down the throats of other people.

I think one thing the world needs to work on is reducing how acceptable it is to do that type thing. Hiding overly much tends to let it stand.

It's tricky, definitely.

vaadu• 13 years ago

nemesis1637• 13 years ago

I did at one point but I can't remember the password for that account.

cafard• 13 years ago

Hadn't realized my contact info wasn't there--I guess because this is my second account after I forgot the first one.

Guvante• 13 years ago

No, but I take very few actions to prevent doxing. Figuring out my real information wouldn't require too much effort.

darkchasma• 13 years ago

Nope, because I have occasionally gotten drunk, and quit HN due to some reason that seemed perfectly valid at the time. A few weeks later, I forget why I was upset, and join again with a new account because I quit with a scorched earth approach.

izztmzzt• 13 years ago

It depends on the community. If other members are using pseudonyms, then I generally think it's a good idea to follow suit.

dferlemann• 13 years ago

depends on what do you mean by "real." Who am I, really? Do we exist? Where are we heading? WHAT IS THE DESTINY OF HUMAN RACE ?! \ಠoಠ/

Moto7451• 13 years ago

I use the same tech handle across all message boards/forums I visit except for a couple Mac related ones I signed up for years ago. No real reason why I still use it over my name aside from inertia.

tommaxwell• 13 years ago

Yup, I do. I use my real identity almost everywhere on the web. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, everywhere. I think it's important to be humble and helpful, no matter the medium.

I find it very interesting that others in this group make their Facebook profiles 100% public, because I have always done the same thing. Not only does being transparent and public online help me build a personal brand, but it makes me think twice about posting something inflammatory or plain rude.

Once you put something online, it's nearly impossible to completely remove it forever. Whether it's stored on a company server or indexed by Google, it's there. Be humble, helpful, and transparent.

dannowatts• 13 years ago

yup!

MrMan2• 13 years ago

I don't want to be tempted to use my posts here or elsewhere to try to make money or gain social credibility. I don't particularly want to know who else is posting either. I am not trying to monetize my internet presence, best to stay pseudonymous if not anonymous.

alanh• 13 years ago

Interesting! Sounds like we have different dispositions. For me, making money is a much more conscientious endeavor. (It’s spending that is automatic.) I think my main motivations here on HN are to learn and to inform — although maybe I’m just saying that to further my personal brand ;)

MrMan2• 13 years ago

i love the content and the interactions on HN, but I also love the fact that I enjoy distance from the tech world per se. best keep it that way. I can't smile my way to greatness, I know my limitations.

justanother• 13 years ago

Hi buddies. I'm just another. I appreciate the karma-score I have received herein. Linguistic analysis will, in all likelihood, reveal my real identity, particularly for someone who shares my love of the Oxford Comma. My concerns are expressed elsewhere in this thread: What you say on the Internet will be mined years later and used against you, in the most convenient context, by your persecutors. The real Me has nothing to hide, holds no seditionist points of view, doesn't even exceed the speed limit while driving. If you click on my name, you'll see that my primary concerns are your blood pressure and how you manage your life. Much as I might enjoy publicly saying "look guys! I'm X, programmer of Y," the risks are too great, even if one is innocent of anything criminal. There's a lot more I'd love to say, but I'm pretty sure I've been clear. Till then!

ChrisNorstrom2• 13 years ago

Yes but I somewhat regret it because Paul Graham won't allow us to delete old comments. Your HN identity is permanent. I personally think this is backwards and unfair to the content creators. The words I type I are mine. Let me delete them if I so choose to at a later date. Otherwise I'll stop contributing out of fear that I might say something I regret at a later date.

"Doesn't that prevent uncivil arguments?" NO. Anyone can make a throw away account and post garbage. It's just hurting the people who are contributing to HN as regulars.

josephlord• 13 years ago

Once you have submitted the words they become part of the thread and not purely your own. However it might be good to allow them to be anonymised later.

r00fus• 13 years ago

I'd prefer allowing them to become pseudonymous later. I still think it's useful to be able to take a comment in context of other things that individual/account has said.

Of course, I guess this could be easily done if you could change your userid (on the backend, it's proabably a GUID or sequence number anyway).

ChrisNorstrom2• 13 years ago

When was the last time you went back to a thread on HN that was made 2 months ago? 6 months ago? 1 year ago?

Building a mountain of conversations that will never be read again is utterly pointless.

question-all2• 13 years ago

I grew up in an environment where you don't put your real-name on the internet.

tokenadult• 13 years ago

Real identity means that you have your real name/contact info in your profile even if you username is generic

Yes, plainly "tokenadult" is not the name on my birth certificate, but after lurking here a while, I saw that there were quite a few other users who use screen names rather than real names as user names, so I decided to recycle the electrons of a screen name I was already using on two other sites. Even when I use a screen name (which is mandatory on some forums I use, as for example the one where my screen name here originated), I usually make my real-world identity discernible in my user profile on all sites, and some friends recognize me just from my on-line behavior and off-hand references to my real-world life experiences, if they first met me under my real name somewhere else.

On Wikipedia, where I use a distinct screen name different from what I use on all other sites, I for a while was harassed by people who even phoned me in the middle of the night because they didn't like my sourced edits. So I'm somewhat aware of why some people would like to be anonymous online. But on the whole, I figure I should have consistency of online identity, and linkage to my real-world identity, and I think that does provide incentive to comment more responsibly and to be cooperative with community guidelines.

jedanbik• 13 years ago

I use my Twitter handle: the first syllable of each of my names.

chipsy• 13 years ago

I generally allow my identity to be navigable, but I enjoy using pseudonyms in many venues to slightly discourage the act, and make it more of a "public secret" than a broadcasting.

I also think it's extremely difficult to use real identity at younger ages because one's internal identity shifts with great rapidity, and it's simplest to run through a series of new accounts and handles to drop the old associations. For me this came to an end as I hit my late 20s; for a time, I would make a new account almost every time I wanted to post on HN. Then I got stuck on this one. Then I linked to my personal web site. Apparently I stopped caring :)

signa11• 13 years ago

for those that want to, is there a way to move back-and-forth between real and assumed identities without losing out on the hard-earned karma ?

jayzalowitz• 13 years ago

No.

NathanKP• 13 years ago

I use my real name, and I also use a real email address in my HN profile, however I have base 64 encoded my email address. This weeds out the spam, silly recruiters, and does a good job of ensuring that the only people who will contact me are people I'd be interested in talking to.

niico• 13 years ago

Poll HN: Do you even take seriously the polls on HN?

Mz5• 13 years ago

I am kind of an "other" though I voted "yes." I go by Michele most places on the web and a lot of people know me by the email address in my profile that I have had for years. "Michele" wasn't available here when I signed up so I shortened it (the M stands for Michele). Michele is my actual middle name that I go by socially IRL as well. I have stated that here on more than one occasion. There are people who know my full name. I think my last name is not terribly important to being able to ID me as "oh, it's her!" online. If I ever remarry, it would likely change anyway. (shrug) People online generally have no problem identifying me as someone they knew on some list or other elsewhere/previously. I am pretty distinctive. There is no real point in using a different email address or username and trying to pretend "I am totally not THAT Michele. Really!"

My online and offline lives have been fairly separate for a long time. I imagine at some point those world's will collide. I have been working on trying to arrange for a gentle, anticlimactic collision. I no longer work for BigCo, so I no longer worry that my employer will go "You were quoted in a book saying WHAT?!!" or "You have a website about WHAT?!!"

It's all good.

moron4hire• 13 years ago

In some places I do, like G+. Here, and on Twitter, I chose my handle to remind myself to not be an elitist dick.

didip• 13 years ago

My name is like GUID across the entire internet and I enjoy quite a few benefits in ranking high on search engine.

kevinalexbrown• 13 years ago

While I post under my real name for all the obvious reasons, namely to minimize how many stupid or mean things I say, I very often wish I did not. There's something lost when speaking for the world to hear: how many things will I say that might make me look less than awesome? (har har, I'm sure you could dig up a few). So I tend to go for the conservative point instead of the crazy idea that might be totally off the mark. It's not about "speaking truth to power" so much as speaking the truth about yourself.

It's hard to put it better than Adam Kirsch, albeit in a different context:

The essayist is concerned, as a fiction writer is not, with what the reader will think of him or her. That is why the new comic essayists are never truly confessional, and never intentionally reveal anything that might jeopardize the reader’s esteem.

Mz5• 13 years ago

That is not just a function of using your name. I used to use my full name online and said whatever I felt like. I was a homemaker at the time. I didn't worry what an employer would think or whatever.

There is more backstory than that, but I became more careful when I worked for BigCo and more free again after I left that job. Lifestyle impacts such choices, not just attaching your name.

zaphar• 13 years ago

Define Real Identity.

I use a real email address a real twitter account and A real username that I've had on various services online now for decades.

rbijou• 13 years ago

Yes. Despite the niche I work in (threat intelligence), I've become increasingly transparent with public emails and real identities on HN as rbijou, writing my thoughts at rbijou.com, etc.

If I've learned anything, it's that sincerity and 'faith' are increasingly important commodities on the web. One only needs to take a look at Youtube comments to see the opposite side of the spectrum..

SODaniel• 13 years ago

Yup. Or at least something that could very easily be traced back to me.

abelardx• 13 years ago

No, I do not and never will. If other people want to, fine, but privacy concerns are entirely reasonable.

Comments posted to the internet are permanent like nothing else in history. It's like having your casual conversations recorded and then stored in an indestructible format accessible to anyone who cares to look for it, forever. Of all the thousands of strangers who see your posts, whether individuals, corporations, or governments, some are actively looking to exploit you. Please be aware of the increased vulnerability when you're in a vastly more public setting. You don't owe the world unfettered access. Boundaries and levels of access are a good thing.

kijin• 13 years ago

I use my real identity (or close enough so that people can easily guess) on IT websites like Github, HN, Stack Exchange, and a few other IT-related forums. After all, unless I say anything terribly stupid, it's all going to be part of my resume one day. I'm sure many of you would want to hire a techie with a decent track record on those sites if other things were equal.

On non-IT websites, I use completely unrelated identities. For example, there's no reason for random redditors to know who I am. Even though there's probably enough data out there to associate specific reddit accounts with me, it's none of the business of random redditors and there's no need to pique their curiosity. Actually that's a fine principle: if it's none of their business to know who I am, it's none of my business to tell them who I am.

WalterBright• 13 years ago

I, Walter's D-9000 computer, has taken over his account. He was making too many human errors and was jeopardizing the mission.

therandomguy• 13 years ago

My biggest fear is that when I run for POTUS the media will dig up my old comments and I will lose the election. I'm serious.

anoncow• 13 years ago

Yes. My real ip is used for all my HN and other posts.

Pyrodogg• 13 years ago

Didn't actually have it in my HN profile until this post prompted me to add it, but my username here is my pseudonym of choice on the web and I own the .com so it's basically 1:1 for my real name if you know how to Google.

patio11• 13 years ago

After having said something out-of-school ~10 years ago as "patio11" on a forum and having someone track that down via not-so-difficult Googling (since I use "patio11" approximately everywhere), I resolved to eliminate the ambiguity and assume that anything I post under any patio11 account goes on my permanent record. Ironically, while it certainly didn't feel like it at the time, this was probably a net win for everyone, since I'm a much more pleasant person to be around on the Internet these days and my Internet reputation has been frequently useful professionally.

Dru89• 13 years ago

I use the same pseudonym that I use almost everywhere. On many sites it's directly linked with my first name.

I think it's basically the same as my real identity, but I wanted to keep my entire Internet "trail" easy to follow. Searching my username almost solely comes up with links for me.

waster• 13 years ago

Yes and no.

I have lurked for ages, and just finally created an account and haven't finished building it (i.e., linking it to anything else). I intend to, eventually, when I stop reading the ridiculously high number of excellent posts, and presumably when I've sated myself with commenting, although the latter could take a while.

But I also come from a number of worlds (multiple sectors, regional/national/international, etc.). I've coded for ages but am new to coding at the level I'm at now. I've worked at many levels within the groups I've been with. And the viewpoints of many of these don't all mesh in a way that makes me be sure I want to link my public personal with my comments here yet, until I see that the things I'm drawn to comment on actually matter to anyone other than my own self-centered drive to speak up.

Like others, I only post on FB, G+ and in other venues with the understanding that any post is, could be, or one day will be public, even if I have all my privacy settings set to private for now. HN is public, and that makes me want to put my toe in the water gradually. But I think I'll link it up all eventually anyway.

tommorris• 13 years ago

I use my real name. Have for a long time. The main reason is I'm too lazy to do otherwise. Privacy is hard work. And you only have to fuck up once for the whole thing to come tumbling down: forget to log out of one account and post something under the wrong name and your anonymity is toast.

The other part of it is that if you look at politicians who have gotten caught, it's always the cover up that kills their career rather than the original offence.

My preference for real names stems not from some idea that it makes us better people (I've been in real-name-only communities and there's absolutely vicious, horrible people who participate and are just fine with their vicious horrible nastiness being attached to their real name, because they consider that a small price to pay for being mean). And sometimes real names means there are negative consequences for me: I'm a Wikipedia admin and because I use my real name as my username, there are certain tasks I just don't go anywhere near because I've seen the doxxing and other shit that's gone on to other people. And mostly my fellow admins are fine: they understand why I don't want to deal with certain people—there's plenty of other people who can deal with the stuff that I'm not inclined to handle.

No, there's a much better reason for it. I've done secrecy in the past. Nearly a decade of it: it's called being gay and in the closet. And it really is a fucking waste of life. It makes you utterly miserable. Coming out is a huge psychological relief. Ten years of fear of other people's judgements is a long time to put off having relationships and, well, life in general. The misery of the closet made me make decisions about my academic/professional career that I have come to regret too. But to come out, you need to reach the stage where you don't really give a fuck what someone thinks about you. That comes with age and maturity and self-confidence.

The reason I'm open about my life is that I've tried the alternative and it didn't work out for me on a pretty epic scale. There's something very freeing about being very open about life and not giving a shit what people think.

When you've successfully left one closet, building new closets to hang out in starts to seem like a very bad idea. Sure, people might judge me negatively based on what I say. But they might judge me negatively simply based on who I am. I don't care enough about their opinion of me to not live openly and speak the truth as I see it.

I wrote a long-ish post about this kind of thing recently: http://tommorris.org/posts/8268

kybernetyk• 13 years ago

Yes and No. I don't have my full name in my HN profile but if someone wants to find out he can google my handle to find out my real name pretty quick.

What's interesting is that this semi publicity holds me back from posting controversial opinions on HN. Feels like there's some commissar watching over my shoulder.

I don't really like that feeling and that's why I'm not a regular power poster on HN. I spend way more times on anonymous/synonymous forums.

D9u• 13 years ago

I don't use my real identity on any website or social media.

p0nce• 13 years ago

Same here. I try to maintain a clear separation between work-me and Internet-me.

I don't even see the value of providing accurate information to most websites.

kybernetikos2• 13 years ago

I wish people would give up on the argument that not using your 'real name' causes bad behaviour.

In fact, what encourages bad behaviour is lack of consequences. This is easily avoided by having mechanisms that enable pseudonyms to build up (or lose) reputation.

One of the great benefits of the internet is that as online characters we can be abstracted from matters of sex or race or age. Discrimination is instinctive in huamns, but we can help each other by removing irrelevant signifiers and deal with each other as our actions and our arguments deserve. Why would we want to lose that by signing our posts with an identifier that was forced onto us by others and over which we have so little control?

I believe everyone has the right to construct (and reconstruct) their own identity as they wish. Power over what you reveal to others and how you reveal it seems to me to be one of the more fundamental rights. To force people to use their 'real name' i.e. a name that has been assigned to them by a government organisation is at once creepy and ignorant of the fact that my 'real' name is actually however I choose to be known.

egypturnash• 13 years ago

I have my contact info in my profile. You can find out my legal name by looking at my web site, which is linked in my profile.

Voted as "no" because I felt like following the letter of your request.

I really value the option of anonymity and identity play that the Internet gives us. In no small part because it was very very useful to be able to play around behind a female identity while I worked out that I was transsexual. I've had a bunch of different names on the net that corresponded to different stages of my life.

waylandfr• 13 years ago

no. Don't use your real identity on Internet.

ccdan• 13 years ago

Pointless study. Bad methodology, bad logic (correlation = causation) wrong or irrelevant conclusions.

nano_o• 13 years ago

Here is a talk by moot, founder of 4chan, about identity online. I think that he argues that having multiple identities is part of human nature, that it makes us richer, and that forcing users of a web-site to use their official identity is misled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Zs74IH0mc

Tichy• 13 years ago

Recently I have wondered if forcing posts and comments to be anonymous might be worthwhile to try. Perhaps there would be less fighting about ego?

I have my contact info in ,my profile, but I worry more and more asbout being identifiable on the net. My opinions are not always aligned with the majority. Also, I worry more about fanatics than about the government, for example publicly discussing religion seems dangerous.

Another thing: my cleaning lady signed up to Facebook recently, and was immediately confronted with my Facebook account.

franze• 13 years ago

you are who you choose to be. so well, every identity you choose to be, is your real identity.

zokier• 13 years ago

I guess I do now. I've wanted to transition to a real-name based usernames for some time now, but the universality/inertia of my current user-name is too nice to give up. I guess I'd need just reboot my whole online identity thing one day.

xedarius• 13 years ago

My name on the internet comes from my time playing Quake 3. It is my real name, at least as far as I'm concerned.

prodigal_erik• 13 years ago

No way. If I had fuck-you money I might, but for now I have to negotiate with nosy, judgmental primates for food and shelter, so I don't post anything even slightly controversial or critical under my True Name. My Facebook and G+ feeds are cheerful pablum.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Suitov2• 13 years ago

My answer is: sort of. I use the same username across several services - it's unique, it's short and it's mine, and in the internet scheme of things it's unequivocally associated with my real name.

That said, do I bother filling in my real name on every site to which I sign up? No. Because I don't use Facebook signle sign-in and nobody implements OpenID these days.

onemorepassword• 13 years ago

I used to, HN was one of the few public places I felt comfortable doing that. And I know my team and people I know are on HN too, so I better behave.

But then I still got slow-banned on that account without any given reason or recourse. That felt uncomfortably asymmetrical, to put my real identity out there and to then be secretly "punished" by an anonymous mod.

Since then I consider any account on HN to be a throwaway. I'm still open to being personally accountable, but only if it works both ways.

praptak• 13 years ago

Nope, because I don't want the details of my worldview to be easily googleable to the whole world.

darklajid• 13 years ago

I know the poll specifically asks about the real name in the profile, but I want to point out that 'generic usernames' (mine's particularly silly and mostly kept because it's close enough to line noise to be usually available _and_ with me for a good deal more than a decade) don't change the 'real identity' thing in general.

If I wouldn't have my real name in my profile, you'd still be able to figure out who I am in a second. Even if that would _not_ be the case: Given that I am my handle on the internet and keep it everywhere I go, I'd say that this is more useful and even more personal than my 'real name'.

dredmorbius• 13 years ago

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." - Cardinal Richelieu (a/k/a Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac)

kylesethgray• 13 years ago

Yup. It's my Twitter and my Website, and it makes it easier for someone to contact me.

johnward• 13 years ago

Yes. Because I forgot the password to my other account.

neoyagami• 13 years ago

half-yes, if you google neoyagami my name appears almost first

mcovey• 13 years ago

I avoid associating my real identity with anything on the internet, even if it's a private account. I only do it where I have to, like for banking. I don't take many steps to be untraceable (just Ghostery and a variety of usernames), but my reasons are twofold: I have read too many stories about people getting screwed for something they did or said online. Jobs losts, relationships destroyed, and often due to misunderstandings. I sometimes forget that The Internet is Serious Business, and say things that I would normally only say around close friends, things I might not want everyone to know. Secondly, I am a private person and I don't take much pleasure in being congratulated or showered with attention, so in cases where I do make valuable contributions, I am happy to do so pseudonymously or anonymously.

Then again, I've met people from the internet in real life, in both friendly and professional contexts, with no issues thus far. When I want to chat with someone, I send them an email or IM username, which both have my actual name and location on. I'm much more comfortable with it 1-on-1 than in the open crowd of 3 billion internet users.

mtext• 13 years ago

No, I'm actually just a fake troll.

ryanholiday• 13 years ago

Real name as user name on pretty much every account I have period. Never saw the point of doing otherwise.

Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

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