I promised to open a thread about blogging, pseudonymity, and "handles." So here it is.
Queries: If you blog or comment under your full name, why? First name only? If you use a pseudonym, how did you choose it? What impression do you imagine your "handle" gives to others?
I blog under Hugo Schwyzer because it’s my name. Having tenure doesn’t mean I don’t periodically wish I did have a pseudonymous blog! (My family’s fascination with my circumcision post was a bit overwhelming, given that that revelation was news to lots of folks, including my own mother.) I realize that at times, I’m guilty of assuming that blogging under one’s full name is indicative of courage, while the repeated use of pseudonyms indicates, well, the opposite. I acknowledge that’s unfair.
So, have at it. Explain yourselves.
I blog under my own name, but I barely post so it probably doesn’t matter much. I stopped commenting under it because I don’t want google searches to keep finding my comments.
Someday, if I ever decide to actually put a lot of time into a blog, I will probably make it anonymous.
When I was a teenager, I did something I later came to regret. Having it follow me around for years afterward making me miserable definitely shaped my perception of identity. Fortunately, much like baby teeth, your childhood identity eventually falls out of who you are.
Now that I am grown up and several publications into my academic identity, which is attached to my real name, I do not want my random blog comments to follow me around for the rest of my professional life. Hence, I am anonymous for the sake of my career.
In my second year of a theology extention course taught at my Parish, one of the other students started calling me Monk in Training. It sort of stuck. :)
I post/comment variously as Firstname Lastname, Firstname Lastinitial (Emily is such a common name, I get mixed up with other Emilys in comment threads), and More-Or-Less-Permanent-Pseudonym. (I believe I’ve been using it to register for web forums since 2000 or so).
Pseudonym is for fandom stuff–comic books, TV shows. That kind of thing.
Emily H. is for political/issue-oriented blogs, or blogs where common practice is to go by one’s real name, and Pseudonym seems too frivolous for those.
My full name is for my book review blog, which I don’t really mind if people link up to my real identity. (I’m a librarian, so it helps my employment prospects insofar as it proves I read a lot of books).
My sisters and I ego-google each other. My parents aren’t computer-savvy enough yet, but you never know. I’m nervous about my employment prospects, sure, but more nervous about having to be accountable to my family for what I say about sex and God.
I don’t really care about the relationship between a person’s real identity and their internet identity–well, I care enormously if a person tries to pass themself of as someone they’re not in order to gain sympathy or credibility, but I don’t care about whether the “Hugo” or “Lauren” at the bottom of a post matches up with a person I can look up in the phone book.
If a person maintains a consistent online identity in some fashion–if I can trust them not to use sock-puppets–then knowing their real name matters to me not at all.
Repost for relevance:
Handles - very easy for me. In high school, as my hair grew longer and I began to grow my biker moustache (the bushy fu-manchu) I resembled “Gonzo” Ted Nugent. A lot. I also ran with a guy named Cassaday. So it became “XXXXXX Cassaday and the Gonzo Kid.” (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?) I got the “Kid” appended to it because I was, well, 16.
I don’t pull of “kid” real well anymore. I may not look all of my forty-mumble years, but that just doesn’t fly. Gonzo Man doesn’t flow trippingly off the tongue. Gonzman does.
So - thank the Dean of Students at my high school. Almost thirty years later….
I post as “The Chief” because it’s a nickname a rather eccentric friend hung on me in high school–not sure why, I have no appreciable Native American blood in me and I’ve never been the head of a police force–but he still calls me that to this date.
Why use a pseudonym? I’ll admit, I like and probably need the anonymity. I’m an MRA and an extreme civil libertarian. In my perfect world family law would be radically different, most drugs would be legal, prostitution would be legal, all pornography not involving children would be legal, etc, etc. These view are not always conducive towards regular employment or being treated civilly by other people. If it were just me I might handle things differently but I have two dependent children to think of, hence the pseudonym.
I use my handle and my name interchangeably these days.
My current handle started in college as an email alias (bookworm@brown.edu), because they used a First_Last naming convention that was inconvenient. It didn’t offer much anonymity, because it was possible to look up who a particular alias corresponded to in the school directory, but it did offer a way to display a little more personality.
I added the “jfp” to it at some point as a login name at some site where “bookworm” was taken. After that, I started using “jfpbookworm” for consistency’s sake - it was easier for me to remember a single alias than many, and it helped other people correlate my presence on various sites (without confusing me with any other Jeff Packs out there, at least one of whom also has a strong internet presence).
I don’t make any effort to hide my name. I use the handle, when I use it (my primary blog and email address no longer use the handle), more as a way of being more memorable rather than less. I realize I have privilege in this - the worst that’s happened to me is that I got a harassing phone call from a spammer I reported - and I try not to judge anyone by whether they use a real (-sounding) name or not.
I also think there’s a bit of a culture clash going on here. There are many communities where using a nickname is expected, even if you aren’t intending to hide your identity. BBSs, LiveJournal and MMORPGs all come to mind. Using one’s real name on those is often either infeasible or seen as a sign of unoriginality. When people who are accustomed to this move over to a forum like this, where there’s only name/email/URL fields, they are likely to keep using their handle, because this is how they’re known, rather than a real name which likely means nothing to anyone they’re talking to.
I blog under my own name, but if I could do it again would probably blog under a pseudonym. But at this point it would be impossible to change everything, so it would all end up back to me anyway.
I’ve been SamChevre and/or Sam Chevre online since my second email address. Sam is my real first name, Chevre is derived from my childhood nickname of “billy goat” (which I earned by my habit of climbing on things.)
I use the same name across a variety of fora, so SamChevre is me online; anyone who knows me IRL and frequents sites I frequent knows who I am. But the alias makes it easier to separate the online me from the real me when I’m making arguments that I may think are good arguments, but which don’t convince me; it also makes real-life harassment on step harder. It also allows me to share stories of friends without outing them (although, very occasionally, I do that under “anonymous” if the need for confidentiality is crucial).
I use a pseudonym to protect myself, both from termination from employment, career assasination, and to avoid physical assaults from angry feminists and other so-called ‘progressives’ on our campus. Yes, people with un-PC views have been physically assaulted here by feminists and others, and I have recieved threats of such assaults via my pseudonymonous (real word?) email account. The need for MRAs to protect themselves is real folks.
I chose “Mr. Bad” because I heard the term used to describe a ‘cool’ person in a 60s funk song; unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the tune nor the artist, but it was a cool - bad, if you will - song. I also like the fact that it has double-entendre message to it, as I think that some in the feminist community might think that I’m bad, i.e., malevolent, because of my ideas and writings.
I blog under a handle, but append my name to it.
Why? Hard to say. I’ve had a number of names in my life, most acquired by happenstance. There was a forum where I used a pseudonym, and only that (so there are people who still call me Murphy) because I was asked to come in, and play a role. That role went away, but the sense of person attached to the name persisted, and thought of myself as Murphy.
These days, because I blog under pecunium, and I see no reason to hide myself, I use that where possible, though there are fora (mostly where I know the participants from before my blogging days, back in the years of usenet and letters and face to face) where my given name is the one they see.
The nom de plume allows me some small sense (misguided, perhaps, and known to be false, since the one is linked to the other) of freedom to speak my mind (and being a soldier there are limits). On occasion I will post with a totally false name, and addy, and the like, because I can’t afford to have the sentiment associated with me, and plausible deniability/lack of direct pointer are needed.
TK
In most places, I comment under the name ‘aphrael’; it was a name that I had been using in an RPG when I got my first unix shell account, and it’s stuck with me as my online identity ever since. I’m reluctant to change it, since there are many people who know me by that name; and it feels a bit like a comfortable piece of clothing, now. I have no idea what image it causes to arise in people’s minds.
In some places, where the culture obviously requires or prefers it, I comment under my real name, ‘Robert West’; but doing so generally feels awkward, and i’ll only do it if I think the culture of the site requires it.
First, I want to point out the difference between a pseudonym and a handle or screenname, at least as I understand it. A pseudonym is meant to conceal the legal identity of the writer — hence, `Mr Bad’ and `Bitch PhD’ are pseudonyms. A handle, screenname, or nom d’internet need not be used to conceal one’s legal identity, as in the case of my handle, Noumena, or Ampersand.
For me, writing under a handle is simply an old habit left over from my teenage years, spent on internet bulletin boards and in chat rooms, where using one’s real name was discouraged. It’s not a matter of privacy — click on my name to go to my blog, and my blogger profile has my legal name and a link to the website I maintain under it. Like aphrael, writing under this handle just feels comfortable, and I see no real reason to change.
I considered severing all links between my legal identity and my nom d’internet a few months ago — there are a couple social conservative student groups here that have happily engaged in incredibly nasty smear campaigns against liberal faculty, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk being targetted by them. But I realized that my political commitments are an important part of who I am, and as a feminist intellectual my politics are thoroughly integrating with my writing (and, eventually, my teaching). I won’t apologize for it (though I will defend it), and I certainly won’t be terrorized for it.
I don’t trust most “people” on the internet, and have seen situations where someone’s words on a forum were used to get them fired by unknown and likely psychologically unstable internet persons. Although I represent my views similarly in real life, I’d rather not have some bitter person keep a log of everything I’ve posted, and try to somehow use it against me in the future when I have a public career.
It’s why my amazement with Hugo’s incredibly candid posting style never ends.
I use a pseudonym, as you probably know. My main reason for doing this is to protect myself from online harassers, and I learned last fall that even with a pseudonym, I hadn’t done it well enough: Just by virtue of my naming, on my blog, the city to which I’d moved, I attracted the attention of a belligerent and threatening guy who emailed me several demands (they certainly weren’t requests) to meet up. And he’d name locations with which I was familiar, which were nearby. It was frightening, but I can only imagine how much more frightened I would have been had he had my real name.
Secondary reasons for my use of a pseudonym: It protects my family’s privacy; just because I want to “share” online doesn’t mean they do (I also try not to write about ‘em too much). Using a handle also keeps me from getting too bigheaded about myself, because my pseudonym’s really just a dumb, dumb joke. It’s absurd. I don’t mind if my handle projects a little absurdity to others, or if others are inclined to take me less seriously because of it, because that attitude’s healthy for me and maybe healthier for them, too.
I love Ann Bartow and I don’t want to revive, even inadvertently, any bashing on her–but I’m really glad you provided this thread and ASKED people why they do whatever they do (use a real name, a fake one, comment anonymously), rather than assuming anything about the reasons.
What I am not sure everyone who uses his or her real name online realizes is how sort of backhanded by the real-names -rule! crowd you can feel if you’re pseudonymous; like, “Well, I thought providing the same email address everywhere I comment and having a distinct writing style identified me as a discrete individual and gave me legitimacy enough, but maybe they’re right, maybe what I have to say doesn’t count as much if I don’t sign my real name to it.” That hurts. Thank you for not doing that.
I use a pseudonym because it’s fun to lead a double life. A few people know who I am (because I’ve told them) and a whole lot more could figure it out if they had the time and inclination.
I get a kick out of being anonymous. It’s like having a secret affair. There’s a definite frisson quality to it all.
I know I could be outed at any time so my philosophy has always been never to write anything I wouldn’t want to own up to.
My name is a blatant play on my first name because it’s such a common name (I’m either declaring myself bad or it’s cute I’m not sure which).
I post as Q Grrl because years ago my roommate at the time was the bassist in the lesbian band The Butchies and when we played video crack (MegaTouch), her handle was Riotgrrl, and because I am a big time pool player I was “Q” grrl, just to make sorta matching themed nicknames. “Q” is also a play on queer and a play on the oft used “Suzy Q” that goes with my given, real life, name.
Hope *that* all made sense.
I like the use of pseudonyms b/c of the creative atmosphere it lends to the internet word.
er, world
I’ve used this silly nom de post for years across a variety of fora, and my primary motivation has been not to have my off- and online lives collide. I value my privacy and do not want my posts trailing me for the rest of my life even if I never post an opinion I wouldn’t be willing to defend in person. As an introvert, I prefer to reveal myself to people I meet IRL according to my comfort level; it would make me feel very vulnerable to know that they could google my name and instantly know the range of my opinions.
Also, recently I was stalked online (and, eventually, offline) by someone who did manage to find out my real name and address, and it’s an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Now that I’ve had that experience, I know for sure that I’ll always be pseudonymous online.
For most people, real names are meaningless. I could claim my name is, say, Johanne Gagnon. There are hundreds of Johanne Gagnons in this city — how would you know which one is me? Or that I’m telling the truth? I could make an email address at one of the zillion free email accounts, etc — for the very small percentage of people who have a professional web presence, “real name” is meaningful; for everyone else, it’s just a claim you make about the name you go by.
I use a psuedonym because I do not want people who know me in real life to google me and find my blog etc — it would not be good professionally or personally.
My professional blog is under my real name because that’s what I write under and where I send editors. My personal blog is under a pseudonym, so I have my own space to say whatever I want to say and not have to worry about it affecting my personal life.
Woops: I meant my personal blog was a place I could say whatever I want and not have it affect my professional life.
I post under my real name primarily because I started my blog as self-promotion (I’m an author). Of course, from time to time I say something inflammatory and someone promises to burn my books and never ever recommend them again. Which makes me wish I was pseudononymous. Not because I fear a loss of sales, but because it’s such a stupid threat to engage with and because the whole “not getting it” thing about such a person is being smeared all over my work.
i use the psuedonym bluefish A because i live in fear that mens rights activists will find out where i live, work and teach and they will then tear me apart like a pack of wild dingos whilst shouting “know your place, woman! feminism is making me do this!” yes, sometimes men do physically assault women- i know it’s rather shocking consider we women are responsible for over half of the domestic violence rate.
sorry, i just read mr. bad’s post and i thought it was hilarious.
i post blog comments under bluefish A because it’s a combination of my birth sign, favorite color and the fact that i am A NUMBER ONE! in my own mind.
I use a handle and my name interchangeably (usually), since the most basic search of one will immediately lead to the other. That said, I’m getting ready to get some sort of pseudonym. I wrote you about circumcision that I felt I couldn’t post, because my family knows who I am, and I didn’t want to discuss their choices on this topic in public.
When I started creating web pages in 96, spam, let alone online harassment, were unknown. I read sf; I shoulda known better. I was stunned and not a little chargrinned when some usenet post I couldn’t even remember writing in 1992 floated up, though the ideas and style were surely mine—because at the time I had no idea this stuff was being preserved, or would ever be resurrected—I didn’t know sufficient storage even existed back then.
Besides that is the security factor: Somebody knows your DOB and mother’s maiden name? Scary. I’ve done what I can to get a well-meaning relative to delete all genealogical research he posted on me online deleted; every time I find some sort of (family identifying) link, I try to get it taken down. But, frankly, it’s a losing battle, and I know it—at best I’ve slowed down a good searcher a few minutes, or hours. When I
learnt Google was storing searches (not pages, but searches) by IP address, I knew I was totally screwed.
Yet I understand perfectly the whole identity thing, and why
pseudonomonous bloggers feel justified. Honest ones are presenting a consistant image. Family wedding pix of me wearing pants were abhorrent to some of my older, male relatives and one of my younger male relatives tried `fixing’ things by photoshopping me into a black dress for a family site. Me! Who will not wear dresses except under the most extreme duress, because even as a little girl I knew only second class citizens wore them (my views have become more
sophisticated but I, personally, still won’t wear ‘em); and me, who knows better than to wear black to a wedding, particularly to that of a close family member.
I was told I was unreasonable and rude for getting angry, but I have come to realize it was my relatives, not me, who were rude: I wore my best and fanciest to that wedding, and their efforts to impose what they felt should be my identity—less arty and more feminine—were wrong. It’s one of the few times where I really felt my mother screwed up when she said I should suck it up.
Now, every time I post anything anywhere I realize it could come back to bite me in the butt—20 or 40 years later. While I feel you should own your words, how long and how closely should comments dashed off in the midst of strong emotion follow? —To never be held accountable is clearly wrong; but I’m not crazy about the model of ever less privacy that we’re moving to, and neither are a lot of other thoughtful people.
Given the power imbalance between individuals and larger entities I don’t see anonymity—even if it’s more perceived than real—going away anytime soon.
I post under a nick (I don’t blog, don’t have the self-discipline) for two reasons: First, is to respect my family’s privacy, since it’s not just me anymore, and I don’t want my wife or kids to be embarrassed by what I say in somebody’s comments. Second, I’m keeping my powder dry in the unlikely event that I want to do something more professional down the road.
I always pick my nicks based on what’s going on when I pick it. “Spiritrover” refers to the Mars Expeditionary Rover A, as I was tickled to see it working after its problems upon landing, plus it contains many fewer letters than “opportunityrover.” Upon reflection, though, I think it sounds a little too new-agey for my delicate sensibilities. But I keep using it because it’s a throwaway nick anyway, it has no brand value to me.
i blog under my own name. partly this is because my blog is connected to my practice. i must say that when i go to a blog where it looks like the author is going to great lengths to conceal their identity, i often feel a bit uncomfortable. i feel more comfortable with “real” people, so i do the same. also, i have this theory that many artists - definitely me including - have a bit of an exhibitionist streak. i even post under my name in situations where most people post anonymously. never had a problem with harrassment or anything like that. cross my fingers!
the funny thing is that i realize more and more than when it comes to my clients, i am completely the opposite. to a large degree this is understandable - as a therapist, i SHOULD protect client confidentiality. however, i am sometimes surprised how far i am willing to go with it.
which brings me to another theory regarding MY non-anonymity/exhibitionism. at core, i think i’m such a private person (as demonstrated, among others, by my concern for client confidentiality) that no amount of exposing myself will penetrate to the core of that privateness.
does that make any sense?
I’ve been using the name on the Internet so long I hardly think of it as a pseudonym; it’s nothing that would keep anybody from finding out my real name.
I am what I am. Maybe one day I will accumulate enough entitlement and/or privilage to care one way or another; but I doubt that. A blog is a construct, a creative work formed to a purpose, it is not who I am, nor it is always a representation of how I completely feel.
My online name has a few components for my reasoning for employing it.
-When jumping aboard a particular men’s forum, I wanted something with gravity; perhaps it sounds too malevolent for a few (also considering that in person I can be jovial and a bit of a flirt at times), but lends a severity that follows into the other points here:
-I was thinking about the dark side of female nature, and as much as this blog doesn’t concern itself with the topic that much, others give attention to it. Extreme examples came to me, including the sickening exploits of Karla Homolka, Belle Gunness, Elizabeth Bathory, Aileen Wuornos—killers known for being nefarious. I would frequently visit the area surrounding Gunness’s haunting grounds as a youth, although at the time it had little to do with her specifically as much as Black Sabbath, Samhain and a little too much to drink.
-It is also an indirect reference to Krisiun, the South American War/Death Metal band’s 1998 album.
-Because Chris is just as popular as a name as Josh, David, or Kyle; it basically has no definitive impact as SR. I like to afford some anonymity; when I do come out of the woodwork, it leaves more of an impression.
I’v usually gone under a pseudonymn. In the early days, I could get away with my middle name. It protected me enough, it *was my name (I preferred it a little, actually, to my given name) and, more importantly, it protected the identity of my then-not-out-yet ex-wife, about whom I was posting to bulletin boards, etc, in search of advice, sympathy, etc.
I went that route originally when posting to blogs, but frequently found myself being confused with other posters with the same names I had.
I’m a rank-amateur chant scholar, an “oriscus” is a type of neum (chant “note” symbol), and furthermore, one whose meaning, though now standardized, was originally a bit ambiguous, and for which there are a bewildering number of variants in the early MSS.
Anyway, a friend had already taken “quilisma”, and Oriscus sounded a bit more “masculine” anyway. I use it for most, if not all my blog posts now.
I occasionally add my initials and city of residence to the body of the post, if the prevailing attitude on the blog is one of Pseudonymous = Cowardly.
Just for the record, they are
hpb
Austin, TX
“Yes, people with un-PC views have been physically assaulted here by feminists and others, and I have recieved threats of such assaults via my pseudonymonous (real word?) email account. The need for MRAs to protect themselves is real folks.”
I trust, mr. softy, that you realize that your word isn’t reliable and therefore, sans proof, your post is nothing more than whining, right? I’ve got a box of tissues for your tender, oppressed and delicate little nose, if you need some.
~~
Lya Kahlo is a stage name, if you will. It’s the name I do business under IRL, though it is not my actual name.
I post under a pseudunym because I like to say what I think rater than water things down to the point where no one will get pissed off and try to take things to another level. Even if they don’t, I’d rather that employers and potential employers not find anything interesting by googling my name. I also make a point of NOT blogging about any topic that makes my identity relevant.
I started blogging under my real name because it would make it easier for people who knew me to find me (this was back in the Dark Ages before Myspace). And before blogging, I wrote opinion columns for my college newspaper — where you’re not allowed to be pseudonymous. I’d rather have someone who’s googling me find my up-to-date thoughts on my blog than just the embarassing things I sometimes wrote as an undergrad. Also, given my miniscule readership, I don’t imagine that I’m important enough to attract any enemies.
I leave comments under just my first name because it saves typing, and my first name is distinctive enough. I do wonder sometimes whether some people, having never heard the name “Stentor” before, might assume it’s a pseudonym. And if you know Greek, my name (”man with a loud voice”) would make a particularly apt blogging pseudonym.
This is a great thread. I have written about this before but I use a pseudonym for a ton of reasons:
1) I work for an image-conscious law firm. I don’t want to have to worry that whatever I am saying might be at odds with how the firm wants its lawyers to present themselves to the world.
2) I want to be able to write about family members without violating their privacy.
3) And yeah, like Deirdre, I enjoy the small thrill of having this secret double life no one knows about.
But I am prepared to own up to and take responsibility for what I have written if I am ever discovered.
I chose the name mainly because it represents the treatment of male victims in society. Just like those little green plastic men, boys and men who have been abused are considered disposable. Everyone knows about them, but no one talks about them. Everyone uses them, but no one wants them. Those little army guys come in buckets, get poured on the floor, loved for a handful of minutes and then get torched, melted, lost, chewed on and broken without a second thought. They are the toy everyone had but no one keeps. In a way, that is what society thinks of male victims. We are simultaneously remembered and forgotten.
I’ve had my screenname for close to ten years now. The fizz part is a family nickname. The evil part is also a family joke. I have a twin sister, and after getting really sick of the “so, which one of you is the evil one?” I decided to own it.
If you google for me, you’ll find my own small scale blog, and links to pretty much every comment I’ve ever made online. I don’t use my own name because my first name is in the top 25 in popularity in the US every year and my last name seems to make lots of people snicker like middle schoolers. (Just trust me here.) I’m also the only one of me in the U.S., so I can’t hide in the anonymity provided by a common name.
There is nothing which precludes people from finding out who I am, but I do have some fleeting political aspirations and am going to work for the Army, so I stick with a pseudonym.
My handle is derived from a childhood nickname, and I chose it because it’s memorable and has a playful quality, to remind me and others that It’s. Only. Blogging.
On my own blog I own up to my first name, Viv. I don’t use my last name because I want to protect my family’s privacy even more than my own, and according to that meme-quiz that went around recently, if I was in the USA I’d be the only one of me.
It wouldn’t be impossible with sufficient sleuthing to find out my full name etc, but at least it’s harder to google my various posts/comments for googling employers etc. If I ever get paid for writing I’ll own up to the connection and let the chips fall where they may, but as blog commentary is replacing journalistic commentary in popularity at a rate of knots, how likely is that?
For me, the whole point of blogging was to own who I was and write things that other people would read, which meant blogging under my own name. If you google my name, my blog is the first thing that comes up. 90% of my friends read my blog at least occasionally, my family reads it, and some of my former students do as well. I’ve even had friends I haven’t seen since high school find me through my blog, so I’m always very aware that what I write could be read by anyone I know or have known. My rule is that I can tell as much of my story or my opinions as I like, but other people’s stories are their own to tell.
I could have gotten fired from my last job for some of the things I wrote if the wrong person had read it, which is why I eventually quit, because all I was doing was telling the truth about myself, and if that wasn’t acceptable to my employers, then maybe I shouldn’t have been working for those people.
My mother was NOT a fan of my blog, and we had several painful confrontations about it, but I decided that if the price of parental acceptance was me keeping my mouth shut about who I am and how I see the world, then I would just have to live without it. My parents and I no longer speak, for many reasons that go far far deeper than my blog, so it’s freaky to think that they might be reading it, but you know what? I’m over it, and that’s been tremendously freeing.
Blogging has coincided with a number of other radical transformations in my life all geared towards being more integrated and not keeping secrets and not having distance between the public me and private me. For me, blogging under my own name has been essential, even when it led to painful consequences.
That’s me, so I wouldn’t want to generalize that to other people. I lived too long being afraid of being found out. I didn’t want to feel that way about my blog.
Heh. This was my first post on my blog, and is in the sidebar, even—Why La Lubu?, so folks who don’t know where the name comes from can say “a-ha! I wondered what a Lubu was!”
See, I find communication by writing difficult. It’s not a matter of not knowing the right words or how to use them, but of being able to bring sensory imagery into the print—if that makes any sense. I’m more comfortable with the immediacy, nuances and physicality of in-person communication. I think “La Lubu” as a handle provides a pretty good foundation from where I start—indicates a little more of where I’m coming from, without having to go into a whole dissertation or autobiography. It provides clues to the “real me” the same way my physical presence does.
My given name wouldn’t have the same effect; my mother has an ethnic first name that she hates, so she gave me a bland, unassuming name popular in ths Sixties (though less popular amongst Italian-Americans). I, in turn, am not so fond of it—funny how that works, no? I’m not as assimilated as my first name might indicate. Also, there the identity theft thing; I went through that a few years ago, and it was a huge PITA to resolve. Using a nickname won’t prevent that from happening again, but I think it does lower the risk somewhat, just like using an unlisted phone number and not posting your name on your house (practices which usually go unquestioned, especially for women).
I deliberately leave enough details in my posts and on my blog so that fellow tradespeople in my area will instantly recognize me, and “Lubu” is somewhat known in my Local; brothers will ask how “Lubu” is doing and why hasn’t she posted lately, LOL! So, it’s not exactly a state secret. And I always make a practice of not saying anything online, anywhere, that I wouldn’t be comfortable hearing on the evening news.
Ha…”antiprincess” just seems to suit me. It evokes my personality way better than “Heidi Parsons”.
but fuck it - I got nothin’ to lose. I can’t imagine that those who simply can’t tolerate a minute of my shit on my best day will suddenly fill their hearts with respect and admiration now that they know my name, or view my posts with less suspicion and cynicism than they already do, or whatever it is that Ann Bartow was on about.
Mine is a nickname my dear father gave to me when I was less than five.It’s what he called me all my life.
I use pseudonyms for many of the reasons others have already given…to protect family member’s privacy, to protect myself against being followed ’round the net, and to protect my own privacy…I was interviewed for a couple of newspaper articles a few years ago, you could find me if you wanted, were you to link me with them.
Another thing that I do is have a different name for each forum I am on.One other name is a nickname my husband gave me, another is the name of a family pet who spent the last few weeks of her life curled in my lap wherever I happened to be sitting, and she was in my lap when I joined that particular forum. Should I get into a sh*tstorm about something somewhere, I dont need my name dragging unwanted attention to other, unrelated forums to cause trouble for others.
Each and every one means something, and become part of our identities.
I post with my real name and not out of hiding.
I can do so easily, as I do not live in the USA and I am not an US-citizen.
Living in USA I surely would choose anonymity to protect myself and my family.
Coming to this thread a little late - I use a pseudonym because I want to be able to write about things without them being connected to my professional persona, so the goal is if someone were to Google my real name, they would not find my online persona. I don’t really mind if people who read my blog figure out who/where I am (many/most of my regulars probably have), I would just prefer not to have, say, a search committee Google me and come up with everything I’ve ever said online. Plus, to be honest, when I started blogging, the blogs I read were all pseudonymous, so it seemed the thing to do.
As for why “New Kid on the Hallway” - I was starting a new job, and felt like I was entering an ongoing blogging conversation, so I felt like the new kid. Now, New Kid has just become like any other name to me - a collection of sounds/letters that doesn’t really have any independent meaning (kind of like if someone is named Faith or Charity, after a while it just becomes a name, not an actual concept).
Sideshow Collectibles had an impressive line of Spider-Man 3-related busts and models on display at Toy Fair 2007.
These included cool Spider-Man and Venom mini-busts which will retail for $45 when they become available in the 2nd
Quarter of ‘07, an even wilder posed Venom statue that will be available in the 3rd Quarter for roughly $190 and a
giant Symbiote Spider-Man Bust that will also be available in the 3rd Quarter for twice that amount.
Interesting information. Pheromonally induced alterations in gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) pulsatility allow for a lifelong causal linkage among olfaction, neurotransmission, autonomic responses, luteinizing hormone/follicle stimulating hormone ratios, steroidogenesis, neurotransmission, and hormonally induced behavioral changes.
Evidence from human studies that suggests we produce and that we are not exempt from prenatallypredisposed mammalian olfactorygeneticneuronalhormonal relationships involving pheromones, genes in GnRH neurosecretory neurons, and the influence of GnRH secretion on levels of other hormones
Hi. I find forum about work and travel. Where can I to see it?
Best Regards, Michael.