Do you use your real name or an anonymous username when signing up for and using various online platforms—such as Hacker News, Twitter, Discord, and others?
I used to alternate. I would typically use my real name on comments or posts (even in IRC) when I wanted people to know that what I was saying was something that I was willing to put my IRL credibility and reputation on (i.e., I wasn't hiding behind a keyboard).
I also like the freedom to post my thoughts free of that reputational damage and see how people react, and ideally to understand why my thoughts and perspective might be wrong (and I know there's a certain implication there in modern times, and no, I've never done or said anything outright hurtful to people).
Then one time in 2016 I got "dox'd" for making a comment on Bruce Scheiner's facebook page during the 2016 election. The post merely stated that Bruce was allowed to comment on political topics (a previous commentor had said he should just stick to security topics).
I was then harassed at my workplace, with said commenter (presumably) claiming I was being racist and homophobic (I'm gay) via email.
Did you read the comment all the way? He IS hiding behind a keyboard like any sane person these days, because someone attacked him in real life over a legitimate comment.
My employer’s legal team threatened action after they found my personal site that contained free informational courses about the industry. The site specifically called out where information was sourced from, and linked to those publicly available places (from google/fb/etc - not my employer).
What these companies worry about is not free information. Their concerns are usually around company IPs, copyrights, reputation/branding...etc.
Do those risks exist? Sure. But it's silly to blindly forbid your employee's outside-business activities like this. However, in this job market, employers probably can easily find candidates that don't have problem with this silly restriction so they don't have incentives to allocate resources to deal with the headache.
A personal website may sound too "professional" to a legal person. I bet OP could post the same information on facebook/twitter without getting into any trouble.
No kidding, what an absolutely stupid thing to do as an employer. I (badly) want people who are so interested in the industry that they will research external information and write about it. The correct response for the employer should have been at minimum gratitude and encouragement. Threatening legal action falls under the old adage that "no good deed goes unpunished."
I had thought the same. My company is not US based and from a more authoritarian culture that does not promote critical thinking as much though. Unfortunately the hours, pay, and benefits are so good that I’ve simply learned to keep my head down and focus energy on things not work related.
They looked at an online community which moved from "easy anonymity" to "registered pseudonyms" to IDs linked to Facebook names/avatars (which they took as a proxy for "real names"). They found:
"Our results suggest that the quality of comments was highest in the middle phase. There was a great improvement after the shift from easy or disposable anonymity to what we call 'durable pseudonyms'. But instead of improving further after the shift to the real-name phase, the quality of comments actually got worse – not as bad as in the first phase, but still worse by our measure."
"What matters, it seems, is not so much whether you are commenting anonymously, but whether you are invested in your persona and accountable for its behaviour in that particular forum. There seems to be value in enabling people to speak on forums without their comments being connected, via their real names, to other contexts. The online comment management company Disqus, in a similar vein, found that comments made under conditions of durable pseudonymity were rated by other users as having the highest quality."
I'd like to point out that "defend my privacy" is only one aspect. For me there's also a kind of 90s-internet-idealism about how forums should work, ex:
1. Good ideas or truths shouldn't rely on the credentials of the person talking.
2. Less information can allow more freedom of expression in a community. (For good or for ill.)
So on one hand credentials shouldn't matter but I've found for large online spaces the energy of wading through bad takes turns me away from communities which could otherwise be interesting. Like I wish I could filter comments for things like "has a degree in biology" or "is above 25" since while good ideas can come from anyone practically some people are much more likely to have useful insights than others.
IMO there's a system-design question on the difference between:
1. Verified to be X (e.g. degree in biology or over 25)
2. Claims in their user-profile to be X
In practice, #1 would be expensive and hard to enforce, while #2 will get you most of the way even though it's on the honor system. Especially if it isn't used as a hard-limit on participation but instead as a convenience to others, and if you can see history to identify people who inconsistently change their own profile.
That said, for some discussions what you want it something people are unlikely to have needed to codify before, like "actually owns the same MacGuffin 4000 that I do."
I think Quora has features like you want. At least I've seen more people posting there with their real names and profiles than elsewhere. I think it makes the most sense in that context. I expect that in a normal forum with reply chains, people with verified credentials would be insufferable and appeal to authority a LOT.
I think one aspect of it is 'how complicated is your life?' I know queer/trans folks who were always anonymous because they were in the closet in their early life and needed that to survive, but the anonymity allowed them to connect with others that felt as they did. There are also trolls like this, who want to be accepted in their 'real' life but basically they find pleasure in tormenting others which they do so anonymously to avoid the repercussions of that behavior.
My online identity was pretty clear because both ARPAnet, and Sun Microsystems, required your username to be your actual name, and so pretty much all that was online and forever was tied to you no matter what. I've used anonymous names when playing online games because that community can be quite toxic. I counseled my daughters to do the same.
That said, I know an investigator who works for a law firm and they can pretty much unmask any name you throw at them to the real name, address, and other salient details. Which kind of weirds me out sometimes.
> That said, I know an investigator who works for a law firm and they can pretty much unmask any name you throw at them to the real name, address, and other salient details. Which kind of weirds me out sometimes.
My concern is stuff that can get you in trouble can change. Jews in 1920’s Germany probably(?) didn’t think there was any reason to hide that they were Jews.
Valid, but, as I have learned, if someone really wants to find me, they probably can, unless I am willing to go to extraordinary lengths to remain anonymous, and I just don't have enough time, left on Earth, to warrant that.
Also, I kind of enjoy being the type of person that chooses not to go dark.
Real name for LinkedIn, GitHub, and my website. Everything else is a nonsense name, often varying. Varying mostly because it's fun to have a goofy name on a platform (like mine here on HN).
Years and years ago, I used my real name on Reddit. I've since deleted that account, but I'd absolutely never use my real name on something like Reddit.
If I’m networking with other mostly-realname people for professional purposes or writing something to support my professional identity, it’s real name and what I post is carefully curated.
If I’m working on a hobby, it’s a pseudonym that someone who was really determined might be able to trace back to my real identity.
For any other expression of opinions in public forums, it’s pseudonyms all the way.
The official HN policy[1] tries to maintain balance between managing content and privacy. But when it is trivial to access archived HN content [2] [3], it is not worth the risk.
random websites - hide my real name, mostly to avoid tracking
where I think it's safe and want to present my views transparently and think something positive could come from it, my real name.
That is so far the case here on HN, though I've been reconsidering that, since recently I've been harangued whenever I've mentioned my business/app in comments - having my business called scammy and so forth. Then I go and see who is doing the haranguing and often it's a profile that does not have a real name, and has a zillion karma for some reason even though you go through their comments and a lot of it is a bunch of negativity being spread and that makes me a bit miserable.
I'm curious about this question, because my app relates to games, and on one hand I really like the idea of real names (esp given my personal experience e.g. above), while on the other hand I see a huge % of comments here preferring anonymity, and generally get the feeling that 'real names' is perceived as too serious for gaming - that the expected thing would be pseudonyms/handles/avatars. One direction we've gone in is that if you want to monetize/earn money on our app, then you need a real name (verified with ID). But any suggestions/ideas very welcome.
My real name is too long to comfortably use (well, at least I'm not Kamehameha III), but my usual username is loosely based on my real name and it's probably really easy to link me to my username.
I don't mind people being able to find out about all the stupid stuff that I said when I was younger because I wouldn't have much interest in those who don't understand that people can change over time.
Pretty much always fake. While the “risk” of using my real name is probably small, there’s also very little benefit to me personally if people knew who I really was, so why bother.
Exceptions: Github, maybe Stackoverflow, but it’s been a while since I’ve posted there.
I grew up on the internet in the 90s and early 2000s and the general rule then was not to give out your name and info. So I just keep following that.
I proudly use my real name and I'm glad to discuss any subjects that I write about online with people offline, and vice versa. I've been online since the previous millennium and the times that I've been endangered by my online content has been zero.
That might not be the right choice for everybody, but it has proven a good choice for me.
I mostly use shortened versions of my real name. For instance, here it's my first name and the first two letters of my last name. Other places it's my first name and the first 1 letter of my last name. I prefer a short username (jealous of rms and esr and others who "claimed" their initials successfully), so I try to use these two short variations the most. But sometimes they're both already taken or they're too short for the service I'm signing up to, so I might add a few more letters from my last name, or use the first 1 letter from my first name and my entire last name. I'm sure people could figure out who I am, with varying degrees of effort depending on how much I've shared on the site and how long I had to make my username, but at the same time I try to avoid using my name in full without any shortening, to at least make it harder for the laziest bad actors. There are a few niche places (such as boardgamegeek) where I don't mind my full name being out there, because the community is largely pretty focused on a single subject and fairly non-problematic (compared to many other places, including hn).
For the evolution of how I arrived at this: I started BBSing as a teenager in the 90s, and there pretty much everyone used handles instead of real names. So for a while I used a particular handle, until I decided I was embarrassed of the name, so I chose another. Eventually in the late 90s as email (and the internet in general) became a lot more common I was embarrassed a bit when I'd give my <handle>@juno(or wherever).com email address out to people, so I set up an email with my real name. Then I figured since I was already providing an email with my real name when signing up for places, I might as well use my real name for account names. But, like I said before, I prefer a short username, but someone was already using my first,middle,last initials that way, so I started using "joem" as many places as I could, which was easy at first, but became much harder as time went on and I had to expand to my current system noted above.
Definitely the anonymous username where possible. There are exceptions here and there (well, mostly LinkedIn and job hunting sites), but for the most part I prefer the username.
There are a few reasons for this:
1. My username is actually less common than my name is, so it's more likely to be available on a service and less likely to get confused with everyone else.
2. I've always been taught that you should be careful with your personal info online, and consider it a good opsec to be such. Why give random strangers information that they can use to track you down for god knows what reason?
Especially in a world where death threats, swatting, people trying to get you fired and extremist lunatics are a reality.
3. I just prefer traditional pseudononymous sites and forums over modern social media, and going by a username keeps that feeling alive just a little longer.
I luckily came up with a unique username in the ‘90s. I use it everywhere online . Nobody has tried to impersonate me, at least not yet. It makes me easy to find. It makes it so people who see me on one site know it’s almost definitely the same person they saw on other sites using the same name. It makes it easy for people to contact me if they want to.
If I were to use my real name, it would actually be more confusing because other people share the same real name. It’s not super common, but by no means is it unique.
Of course it takes hardly any effort at all to link my username to my real identity. I understand fully the risks of not being entirely anonymous online. Thankfully it has yet to be a problem. And if there were to be a danger, I wouldn’t rely on something as fragile as digital anonymity to protect me anyway.
Anyonmous name, cycling accounts every once in a while. It's getting annoying on reddit with subs having karma based rules, each new account is harder to start contributing with. Might just stop with the next one, I'd go without but you can't see the fun nsfw stuff without one.
Always aiming for anonymous as one can be from mid 90s so real life and online did not overlap. Since I'm no longer working I am less worried. Back in the days when I had a sharper mind it seemed I couldn't help, more often unintentionally, rock boats, in real life ... and watching petty retaliation coming in sideways though some totally unrelated aspect meant to cause me some difficulty - involving what I did for a living - meant it was entirely natural and reasonable to keep my real name out of any public online discussions.
I suppose in my case, both? I use my first name everywhere, but keep my last name private.
The theory behind it is that my first name is common, and having that one common element shared between so many people that make usernames creates a barrier to gathering information easily. If my name was too unique, then it would be easier to find and identify my activity, but as-is, I am not the only person on the net with my username, so anyone performing research has to spend extra time weeding out those people.
Also, I generally don't post anything I wouldn't stand behind anyway.
I mostly use my real name, largely as a consequence of doing so back when I was first exposed to the predecessors of the internet in the 80s and wanting to establish a reputation for myself. I tend to be either dhosek/Don Hosek (for more tech-type stuff) or dahosek/D. A. Hosek (for more literary/artistic type stuff). I do occasionally use pseudonyms for things I don’t want to be associated with my own name, but I generally avoid doing things I don’t want associated with my own name online.
I use too many anonymous usernames. I've been meaning to get around to unifying them at some point.
But I don't recall the last time I used my real name (on something other than things like banking). It's a combination of an overabundance of caution (I'm almost certain that one user who threatened to report me to the FBI and swat me wouldn't go through with it, but I'd prefer peace of mind) and my uncommon, probably unique, first and last name combination.
I started BBSing in the 1990s where everyone used an alias. I like the name GWBasic so I use it everywhere I can. You don't need to look to hard to figure out who I am.
One of the things that I like about the internet is that you create your own persona, and that starts with using a name you make up.
That being said, I use a real name on Facebook and LinkedIn; and where it's "generally preferred" to use real names.
In certain places like Bluesky I use my real name.
Here, I'd only ever be anonymous because I'm not in control of my content, I can't edit or delete comments. I could only post throwaway comments in a place like this.
When I was on Reddit I was anonymous because it's not a serious place.
Anonymous usernames. Grew up in the 90s so I have a pretty high level of paranoia about exposing my real identity on the internet. The alias I've kept the longest is my gamer identity tied to my steam account.
I, perhaps unwisely, use the same username absolutely everywhere. Basically the only exceptions are places which don't use usernames, like Linkedin, or which predate inventing the username.
Even though in the past I always used aliases online, mostly now I use my real name and avoid posting stuff that's controversial, it's mostly dev and security stuff anyway.
The Mad family has a long and storied lineage, and I'm proud to have inherited the both my grandfather's and great grandfather's names, Washa and Djeff.
real name is attached to most old things - im an old fart and got on the internet when such things were safe. Anything created in the past 7-8 years i use something made up.
Anonymous username, as real name is, uh ... I had hippie parents. Kind of a hapax legomenon. Rotate usernames, trashing old ones fairly often. I started the rotation after an employee of my then-local ISP blabbed my IRL name in IRC, even after I had pestered them to shut down crap like finger. Guy was kind of a petty douche who thought he was untouchable.
Shame for him I kept track of him, every so often. Guys like that accumulate a long list of potential "who did this to me?" candidates after so much time, and after a decade they tend to forget. I didn't.
I also like the freedom to post my thoughts free of that reputational damage and see how people react, and ideally to understand why my thoughts and perspective might be wrong (and I know there's a certain implication there in modern times, and no, I've never done or said anything outright hurtful to people).
Then one time in 2016 I got "dox'd" for making a comment on Bruce Scheiner's facebook page during the 2016 election. The post merely stated that Bruce was allowed to comment on political topics (a previous commentor had said he should just stick to security topics).
I was then harassed at my workplace, with said commenter (presumably) claiming I was being racist and homophobic (I'm gay) via email.
Since then I've never used my real name.