Your name on the internet

[TimeLord]

So I was listening to the Australian Gamer podcasts again with Matt Yug and our very own Yahtzee. And they brought up a topic about Blizzard Real ID. [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20010022-1.html] Now I am aware this topic is from July 2010 but I am not actually discussing it. It is just a catalysis for my question.

The Escapist let's you put in your name into your profile, and by extension your location with varying degrees of accuracy, and have a picture of yourself. Also you can link to your Facebook page as well.

Do you like to be anonymous on the internet? Do you think that it is a bad (or good) idea to have your name freely available on the internet (for the point of this discussion, ignore Facebook, I only want to talk about forums) to be viewed by random strangers?

For example; my real name is Samuel (Or Sam) Broderick. I live in NE Scotland (land of the sheep and hills - Nuke it if you really want to). Now I freely admit that and do not really care who knows it. Privacy on the internet is not something I take very seriously.

 

[Serenegoose]

I care. Being online gives me a mask of anonymity which protects me from the bulk of discrimination that I encounter offline. Whilst I am pretty open about myself here, I only feel comfortable being so because I'm fairly integrated (I feel) in the community, and so am confident that I have little to worry about.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Meh. Anonymity is a fickle thing. You can hide behind a screen name if you wish, but if people want to find out your personal info there is little you can actually do to stop them.

 

[Lawnmooer]

I personally don't care who knows my name. If anything it helps for people to know my name, as people who stay anonymous will be stereotyped (I.E. That person is one of those anonymous douches lets treat them as such)

That and I've yet to meet someone with the same spelling of my first name (I'm English but have my name spelled the Irish way... I haven't a clue why, as no-one in my family has Irish connections/Is Irish...)

 

[CompetingMantis]

Never bothered me. If anything, if more people were to divulge their names and suchlike there'd probably be less trolling. It's much easier to depersonalise someone who's anonymous.

 

[Sun Flash]

Any secrets I have, I keep to myself, so no one, RL or OL knows, 'cept me.

for everything else about me, all you need to do is ask.

so no, I don't care.

As a note, it'd be interesting to see what would happen to /b/ if you had to connect a facebook profile to it, or use some Real ID gimmick. The butthurt would be immense. Last time it happened(for April fool's I think) Anon was not a happy bunny. But I was.

 

[D Moness]

For example; my real name is Samuel Broderick. I live in NE Scotland (land of the sheep and hills). Now I feely admit that and do not really care who knows it. Privacy on the internet is not something I take very seriously.

Problem is that a lot of times when you had a job interview. They will look up your name on the internet to see what you have done before. I am lucky my name is much to common for anyone to find things about me. Also some things i do post on the internet under my alias I do not want anyone to know. Yes i know a bit weird when you put it on the open web but still some things a company i wanna try and work for should not know(or should not care to know).

 

[BGH122]

I want to remain anonymous online.

There are numerous important issues which cannot be honestly debated in real life without presumptions being made about one's character and it is only online where one can safely debate said issues with a large range of people. Remove our anonymity and we will be forced to either stop debating things which oughtn't be mentioned in polite society or be forced to debate with like minded people and thus grow biased in absence of dissenting, equally anonymous views.

Online anonymity is more important to individual liberty, safety and the acquisition of truth and self-awareness (how can one be self-aware in absence of dissent, dissent that we're all too polite to put forward in real life?) than stopping petty trolling.

 

[AvsJoe]

I'm not anonymous on the 'Net. My home city (Windsor, ON, Canada) is on my Facebook and Escapist and I put my full name (Joseph J. Archibald) on every account with the username AvsJoe.

 

[Palademon]

I don't really mind. I prefer if people take enough of an interest to care. Sometimes I remain anonymous, but mostly on things I know I'm not going to use often.

 

[El Poncho]

I have no need to be anonymous.

 

[drbarno]

I prefer a screenname because my real name is far too common for you to be sure that it is me or just some random person with the same name as mine.

 

[Jumping_Over_Fences]

I enjoy keeping my identity a secret. I enjoy having secrets. My identity is just one way in which I am jumping over fences.

However, if one were to comb through all of my posts they would get an accurate picture of who I am and where I am from. I even believe I revealed my first name at one point. I just don't like having all the information in one place. It's too easy that way. It takes the fun out of it all.

 

[Geekosaurus]

It's not that I want remain anonymous it's just that I'm careful about to whom I give my personal information to.

 

[Serenegoose]

Discrimination? What over?

OT; I like my anonymity, but I also like the choice on whether to reveal my identity to others, as I have done to several people on this site.

I'm a transsexual woman. People don't generally have a problem with yelling random insults at me on the street, so the anonymity of being online is generally good for me, where nobody is going to fight me over my identity.

 

[Kimarous]

I like to maintain a degree of anonymity. I don't have any trouble mentioning where I am from or what I've been doing, but I hate the idea of giving out my real name (beyond initials) or posting a picture of myself. As such, I can't bring myself to use something like Facebook.

 

[TheHecatomb]

I don't see the point of it. There's no one on these forums that I will ever know personally, so why would I care about their real names?

Sure, some details like gender, age and country can be useful to a certain degree in certain discussions, but I don't feel an international gaming forum should get too personal. As a matter of fact I don't think anything on the internet should get too personal. Which is also why I'm very picky on who's allowed to be in my "friends" list on social networking websites.

But you can call me Ruben if you really must, sure.

 

[Firoth]

I personally don't care about my anonymity online. I am who I am, and I like who I am, and I want others to know who it is that I am. So, I'm very open about it.

But, I respect that other people don't feel so comfortable about such things, and feel more comfortable being who they are (or someone else) behind a little bit of a mask.

On the other hand, I hate people who take the anonymity that the internet allows as license to be total dick heads, just because they know there wont be any real life consequences to them or their (real life) name.

 

[Drakmeire]

I prefer to be anonymous so I can keep my social life and internet life separate. I enjoy being able to be able to discuss my life experiences without fear that someone I know will catch on and get mad that I'm clearly talking about them. though that has never stopped me from posting pictures of myself all of the forum if the need arises. I just see forums as a way to be who you truly are or who you would like to be.

 

[Mozared]

Aside from all the pros, anonymity is a good thing for the one reason that there aren't any real downsides to it. People mention 'anonymous people being dickheads', but really, over the internet, it's quite hard for someone to be a dickhead to you if you don't let them.

The only group of actually destructive people online I can think of are hackers who are in it to specifically target the innocent (not even all hackers are bad, mind you), and I reckon there's as much of those online as there are in real life.