The Free Talk Live BBS

Free Talk Live => The Polling Pit => Topic started by: Alex Libman on September 27, 2008, 12:25:29 PM

Title: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Alex Libman on September 27, 2008, 12:25:29 PM
A long time ago, back when your "lighting-fast" 300-baud modem could fill your 24x40 character screen in under 30 seconds, a lot more people in what eventually came to known as the cyberspace used their real names.  It started out because most users where connecting through professional institutions and their accounts were created from their student / employee files.  This lasted through the 1980s, when most hobbyists connected through dial-up BBS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system)'es that were local and people knew each-other IRL (in real life), but was already starting to fade out, and disappeared with the popularization of online games and chatting with dogs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog).  As using your real name in your online identity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_identity) became less frequent, it became more of a deliberate social statement.

A quote from the C2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham) (Web's oldest real wiki) RealNamesPlease (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RealNamesPlease) page, which became a meme-name for this concept:  "In general, it is observed that people who use online nicknames care less about what they write.  The discussion is usually taken more seriously when people do not use NickNames, but use their real names."

In the political context, I believe it also shows dignity and desire for constancy in your convictions.  It's one thing to argue for decriminalization of marijuana or kiddy porn while hiding behind an alias (an illusion of anonymity that the government can see through in vast majority of cases), and it's a completely different matter when you're using your real name, that your past acquaintances, relatives, and future employers are likely to Google.

It lets people know you're not just having a one-night-stand with this philosophy, you are married to it.  It tells people:  "Here I stand, and I don't want to do business with anyone who wouldn't want to do business with me after Googling my name."  In my opinion, this shows courage and integrity.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 12:34:16 PM
While I don't expect anyone else to do it, it's what I do.

Of course, I'm not afraid to say anything IRL that I say online. I'm pretty much just "me" wherever I go.

So I agree with you on most of your point.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Alex Libman on September 27, 2008, 12:44:20 PM
I'm wondering who else voted "I do it sometimes", so I added the word "full" to the poll question.  Just using your first name doesn't count, unless of course your first name is even more unique than most people's full names are.

There are of course degrees of anonymity even if you claim to be Joe Smith.  This poll implies sufficient transparency to fully identify who you are, as is the case with John Shaw and myself.  In my case, the Ron Paul donation (http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/neighbors.php?type=name&lname=Libman&fname=Alex) removes all doubt.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: AntonLee on September 27, 2008, 02:43:06 PM
when is your birthday I'll send you a card. 
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Laetitia on September 27, 2008, 06:08:14 PM
I don't really care whether people use their full names or not. I don't use my full name, but if somebody wanted to find out who I am, it's not hard. As a woman who runs & rides alone on a semi regular basis, I'd rather not give my full name out on every single post I make. Just seems like that would fall under the "bad idea" portion of "Good Idea / Bad Idea"
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Osborne on September 27, 2008, 06:17:54 PM
Yeah, I would totally be stalking Joy if I knew where to find her.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: mikehz on September 27, 2008, 06:54:52 PM
I don't care. I don't do it myself, although anyone really interested can find it out easily enough. But, I got tired of using handles, both because I had so many different ones I couldn't keep them straight and because I could never think up clever ones. Now, I just use my first name.

There are just too many wackos online.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Russell Griswold on September 27, 2008, 06:57:34 PM
Ian Bernard III

(I'm the fattest of the Bernards)
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: John Shaw on September 27, 2008, 07:03:43 PM
(I'm the fattest of the Bernards)

Weighing in at 102 pounds!!
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Russell Griswold on September 27, 2008, 07:08:07 PM
(I'm the fattest of the Bernards)

Weighing in at 102 pounds!!

Yeah, I'm a heavy guy. My lovely wife, Jezebel, has a degree in the culinary arts of exotic vegetables.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: bakerbaker on September 27, 2008, 07:13:13 PM
Big surprise.  The leading option to this poll posted on this [largely] libertarian forum:  "Who Cares?"
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: YixilTesiphon on September 27, 2008, 07:55:07 PM
I use my real name when I post on blogs and this when I post on forums. It's easy enough to find out who I am, but I like that divide. It's probably pointless, but why do you care?
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: MacFall on September 27, 2008, 08:16:50 PM
"Neutral." It's probably easy enough to find out my real name, but since MacFall is a professional pseudonym I tend to use exclusively. Except for Facebook.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: freeAgent on September 27, 2008, 09:44:43 PM
I've used my real name when doing professional activities online (I take that back...I use part of my real name), but I separate that from my non-professional activities where I use aliases.  It seems like a bad idea to mix your professional life with your personal life, at least in certain fields.  With enough work, you could figure out who I am...generally.  You would probably only find part of my name though--not enough to steal my identity.  Most of my friends don't know my full name :P
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: BonerJoe on September 27, 2008, 09:57:08 PM

No.  Absolutely not. 

Whatever, Sam.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: John Shaw on September 28, 2008, 08:12:53 PM
Big surprise.  The leading option to this poll posted on this [largely] libertarian forum:  "Who Cares?"

Well, the poll is probably skewed by the fairly large Anti Libman contingent, as well, so you probably can't give that option complete trust.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Lindsey on September 28, 2008, 08:26:43 PM
No, I use it all the time.  It doesn't bother me.  Nor has it resulted in anything remotely bad or even interesting happening.  In fact, the Google only returns things from here and Classmates.com from when I registered years ago to see something. 
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Russell Griswold on September 28, 2008, 09:41:41 PM
Lindsey D. Brestensizen

Is that German?
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Lindsey on September 28, 2008, 09:44:51 PM
Lindsey D. Brestensizen

Is that German?

Austrian, as a matter of fact. 
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: JWI on September 28, 2008, 09:46:05 PM
Sephora
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Lindsey on September 28, 2008, 09:46:49 PM
Sephora

...is my favorite place in the entire world. 
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Russell Griswold on September 28, 2008, 09:49:40 PM
Lindsey D. Brestensizen

Is that German?

Austrian, as a matter of fact. 

Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!  :lol:
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Lindsey on September 28, 2008, 09:51:49 PM
Lindsey D. Brestensizen

Is that German?

Austrian, as a matter of fact. 

Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!  :lol:

 :shock:
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: JWI on September 28, 2008, 09:55:11 PM
Sephora

...is my favorite place in the entire world. 

My wifes too.  She spent my Craps winnings at the Sephora in LV.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: bakerbaker on September 29, 2008, 02:12:37 PM
Lindsey D. Brestensizen

Is that German?

Austrian, as a matter of fact. 

Austria! Well, then. G'day mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!  :lol:

 :shock:

(http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2005/writers/bill_syken/07/21/daily.blog/p1_dumb.jpg)
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 29, 2008, 03:25:31 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: BonerJoe on September 29, 2008, 03:34:07 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 29, 2008, 03:51:38 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.

It's Ankara. Or maybe Brede. Or Bridget. or Norea. Or Rianna. Or Roxanna. :3
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: BonerJoe on September 29, 2008, 05:14:42 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.

It's Ankara. Or maybe Brede. Or Bridget. or Norea. Or Rianna. Or Roxanna. :3

You try and help someone, but they don't get it...
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Level 20 Anklebiter on September 29, 2008, 06:27:15 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.

It's Ankara. Or maybe Brede. Or Bridget. or Norea. Or Rianna. Or Roxanna. :3

You try and help someone, but they don't get it...

The power set of an empty language is the empty set.
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: BonerJoe on September 29, 2008, 06:32:01 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.

It's Ankara. Or maybe Brede. Or Bridget. or Norea. Or Rianna. Or Roxanna. :3

You try and help someone, but they don't get it...

The power set of an empty language is the empty set.

<?PHP
PRINT "WAT";
?>
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Lindsey on September 29, 2008, 07:29:18 PM
Sorry, but I prefer my privacy. If they want to know who I am, then they can exchange email addresses and PGP keys to converse. Otherwise, fuck off.

Whatever, George.

It's Ankara. Or maybe Brede. Or Bridget. or Norea. Or Rianna. Or Roxanna. :3

You try and help someone, but they don't get it...

The power set of an empty language is the empty set.

<?PHP
PRINT "WAT";
?>


LAWL. 
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Alex Libman on August 18, 2010, 09:43:34 AM
From UK Telegraph -- Young will have to change names to escape 'cyber past' warns Google's Eric Schmidt (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/7951269/Young-will-have-to-change-names-to-escape-cyber-past-warns-Googles-Eric-Schmidt.html) --

Quote
The private lives of young people are now so well documented on the internet that many will have to change their names on reaching adulthood, Google’s CEO has claimed.

Eric Schmidt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_E._Schmidt) suggested that young people should be entitled to change their identity to escape their misspent youth, which is now recorded in excruciating detail on social networking sites such as Facebook.

"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," Mr Schmidt told the Wall Street Journal.

In an interview Mr Schmidt said he believed that every young person will one day be allowed to change their name to distance themselves from embarrasssing photographs and material stored on their friends' social media sites.

The 55-year-old also predicted that in the future, Google will know so much about its users that the search engine will be able to help them plan their lives.

Using profiles of it customers and tracking their locations through their smart phones, it will be able to provide live updates on their surroundings and inform them of tasks they need to do.

"We're trying to figure out what the future of search is," Mr Schmidt said. “One idea is that more and more searches are done on your behalf without you needing to type.

"I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next."

He suggested, as an example, that because Google would know “roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are”, it could remind users what groceries they needed to buy when passing a shop.

The comments are not the first time Mr Schmidt has courted controversy over the wealth of personal information people reveal on the internet. Last year, he notoriously remarked: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Earlier this year, Google was condemned by the privacy watchdogs of 10 countries for showing a “disappointing disregard” for safeguarding private information of its users.

In a letter to Mr Schmidt, Britain's Information Commissioner Chris Graham joined his counterparts in countries including Canada, France, Germany and Italy, in raising concerns over its Street View and Buzz social networking services.

First of all, I must say how I hate this Obama-worshiping (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=28400.msg588462#msg588462), hypocritical, "Net Neutrality" pushing (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=3165.msg605376#msg605376) asshole!  I do love their copyFREE software (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=31254) though...  Cheese in a mousetrap?  Maybe.  My philosophy on this issue follows a paraphrasing of Sun Tzu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War), or something similar - "it is strategically beneficial to eat your enemy's lunch, just as long as it isn't poisoned".  And Google doesn't have any hooks into me!  One can switch search engines / fork chromium / etc at any time.  Sure, they know about me Googling for images of Jesusfagporn (http://bbs.freetalklive.com/index.php?topic=31264), for example, but so does everybody else!

And that's where the philosophy of RealNamesPlease (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RealNamesPlease) comes in.  Secrets are a liability, honesty is an asset!  There is no offline Alex Libman that is pure and sheltered and distinct from the online Alex Libman!  I yam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Yam_What_I_Yam) what I yam!  And you should to!  I mean you yar what you yar!  I'd like to see more libertarians abandon their illusions of privacy, end all the pointless secrecy, and just come out of the closet.  If people don't accept you as you are, then they don't deserve to be a part of your life anyway.  There's an old Russian proverb (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Russian_proverbs), "take care of clothes since [when they are] new, take care of [your] honor since [you are] young".  Changing names wouldn't do jack squat to fool reputation wikis that would inevitably exist in a free society.  Take responsibility for who you are, and reciprocate onto others the understanding that you'd want others to have toward you!

The government will use people's fear for their privacy to strengthen its power over item.  At the same time, it will also use their fear of anonymity of others.  Take a look at the "There Ought to Be a Law" section of Richard Stalinman (http://stallman.org/)'s Web-site, for example.  He wants Mommy Government to "foil companies like Blackwater (http://www.prwatch.org/node/8214) and Philip Morris (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Altria_Group) that change their names to escape the odium of their past deeds".  The links in the quotation are in the original, and they are a prime example of why this isn't necessary - information sources like prWatch.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PR_Watch) and SourceWatch.org (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SourceWatch) already exist to keep track of company name changes and a whole lot more.  Sure, those two examples have a huge socialist bias, like the rest of society does today, but that is a battle that we'll have to fight in the marketplace of ideas, and if the fight is fair then eventually we'll win!  As technology improves, your augmented reality (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality) glasses might even alert you whenever you see "Xe Services (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xe_Services)" or "Altria Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altria_Group)" names, logos, products, connected individuals, etc, etc, etc.

I have seen the future, brother (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_brother#Other), and it's 100% transparent, for better or worse, no matter if you sell your soul to an all-powerful government or not!
Title: Re: RealNamesPlease?
Post by: Kaicielia BlueDragon on September 19, 2012, 12:08:13 PM
I generally use a pseudonym online, but the pseudonym I use is easily traced to me and I always use the same one.  It is a name I made up for myself back when I thought AOL *was* the internet, and it has been available on every site I've used since so I don't need to remember many different names.