Why I put my real name to everything I write – now

this is an interesting thing ... to "hide" or not. Pen names literally started as ways in which some one could take up a pen, write what they really felt and not get hung,drawn and quartered for it ( literally !). Now it seems that pen names are ways for us to role play. personally I use my real name. Though I did one interesting experiement. A couple of years ago I started a Facebook account under a false ( pen ? ) name. I put down a few whacky thoughts and "pictures" of my fake self. I did nothing to try and accrue friends except to initially invite three people I vaguely, vaguely knew. I had a simple policy ... never refuse to accept an invitation, never comment or reply to any messages. And yet I soon had 500 "friends" , some who kept sending 3,4 5 messages etc. They were obviously interested in "me" even though I had no content.

I guess my point is / was that I am amazed that people will today trust anybody for no reason. I could create pen names and say anything and people are going to believe it. So in my own way I think it's quite daring to be honest enough to not use a fake name. And if that means no cred ... well I am years past having much anyway

Shessh, I am a bit late on this one but in short my surname is mega ubiquitous as well and I used to be more focussed/aware about keeping different 'lives' seperate (something I'm less focussed on these days). That said, the psuedo does use my real first name to help attain a small degree of realism and 'that' typically serves as a sufficient connection for real world purposes (how do you do and that).

Hey Hugh! Horses for courses really. I'm enjoy being out there though.

depends on what context.. twitter, fb, my space,. etc.. real name.. for authenticity purposes..

but i used to post under my nickname.. a few yrs ago.. on sites such as itm, residentadvisor. etc.. alias.. chogsta

Great post, Mark.

I tend to put everything online under my Joely Righteous name, but its always tied to my name, I make no attempt at annonymity.

The main reason for this is that I want to make myself easy to find and in Australia we have a famous cyclist as well as a professor of psychology who both have a whole load of content online.

I play no character and there is, in reality, no difference between Joely Righteous and Joel Pearson. Its just a name that stands out from the crowd.

hey mark, just saw an friendfeed page of Chris Messina's via @scobelizer - similar to this thread and thought u might like it if u haven't seen it already. mostly they're talking about facebook and comparing posts on other sites made with real names or avatar names.

http://friendfeed.com/e/6cd6cda0-1a65-9bd1-3e82-bca0e9a120ca/My-name-is-not-a-URL/

via http://friendfeed.com/factoryjoe

With a name as common as mine, you do tend to look for inspiration in a "pen name". Mine has been with me since the 90s when I first got online, so it fits me well, and includes my real life nickname amongst friends/family, aka "Bear". That being said, professionally it is important to be known as Sean, so in general I try to use a combination of both.

I used to write under my avatar's name when I was mucking about a lot in the metaverse space. Not out of any wish to conceal my identity really, just because that was the space I was most active in online and I guess at the time it made sense. When I stopped doing that I went back to my real name and have blogged under my real name pretty much since I started although I still use Innovationfeedr as a handle sometimes...

I guess I kind of feel like using my real name makes me think about what I'm writing (do I want to see this on the net in 5 years? what if X saw this post?) and I agree with Zac, using pseudonym is like an anonymous comment...

Because my real name is so common (25,000 Robinson's in Australia) that it really does not matter what I called myself I would still in someway be annonomus. Do a Google image or Facebook search and unless you had meet me in real life then I could be one of 1000's of Michael Robinson's.

Hence, why I also believe that there has been the trend towards unusual first names being given to children over the past 10 years. The internet has made people who once felt unique, common, and therefore we look to make our children a little more unique (eg names like Apple, Hoola, Ruby [making a comeback], Eve, Aiden, Aidan, Ayden, etc etc)

Still, I think it was Ology when he ran Soul Clap that asked me when I ran in a phone order, "Is that your real name?", my answer; "Thats the name on the credit card". And thats all that mattered.

Hey Mark,

I made the conscious decision just over a year ago to attach my name to all of my web-published work, after many years of hiding behind a screen name (NiteShok).

This wasn't a hard decision, given that I'm now capable of discerning when and where to comment, so as to present a consistent online image, or personality.

Luke - I think there are heaps of reasons. It's not necessarily about fear. Why do people put on costumes for a fancy dress party? Are they afraid? I am quite happy to stand by every single word I type and yet I want to create characters and express other bits of me that don't all have "Matt Moore" stapled to their foreheads. What a cringing coward I must be!

WorldNomad - "I guess at some point we all feel the need to take ownership and responsibility for what we say"

I understand where you're coming from with this but I'm a bit worried that we get so caught up in being responsible that we end up self-editing too much. Which is the death of interesting writing for me. Down that road lies a lifetime of penning posts entitled "6 simple ways to make money on the internet" or "11 surefire tips to get people to like you". Arrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is there ever a real reason to use an alias on the net any more?

Are you afraid of what you are writing? If so, you probably either should rethink it or you should stand up and be counted with your opinion.

You persona will come out through your own writing anyway.

..and Mark we know you just wanted to be famous!!

Pen-names were used to hide the writer not for themselves but judgmental audience. Ie Women wrote under mens names to ensure audience would actual read the work rather than dismiss based on sexist reasoning. Tism wore(wear?) masks to protect their corp identities.

I write under both. only to prtect the guilty & innocent — me.

Probably wasn't until I developed a full blow twitter habit did I think about this question. I knew I wanted to tweet / blog about what I did in my job as that's become ( some would sadly) a huge passion. I decided if someone had to sit through my drivel they deserved to know the fool behind it !

I guess at some point we all feel the need to take ownership and responsibility for what we say.

when I first started using bbs & avatar based worlds (early 90s) & then the www, I used Alia then AliaK (when too many Alia's popped up - (from dune)). then I kept using it for music (dj)/net radio & the club night & internet as that's what most people i was speaking to knew me as (people from going out/dance parties & music/arts gigs etc). plus I liked to keep online & going out lives separate from work - not sure why - it's not like I had anything to hide/worry about. it was just the other half of my life. by then I had (still have) a website using that name so it was attached to that (but these days it feels more like a personal blog + occasional listings which is different to what it used to be then). on most mail lists I tend to use my own name these days. and facebook was really the first social site where I used my real name - when I first signed up I didn't realise my name details would be my username. but it was ok as that's where my different friends' groups met up - some people knew me as AliaK and not my real name and others knew me as Kath or Kathy. & I tend to keep fb for people I know or know of from going out/projects. the videoblogging list & projects I tend to use my real name (sometimes a mix) - they (actually a project late last year) were the reason I started using twitter after creating an account prior but not using it. so initially I used AliaK, but a couple of weeks back I've changed to my real name as it matches the emails I send and comments on blogs etc. & I made a new AliaK to hold the name. when I was doing more of the music/arts projects I tended to feel that AliaK could do things that Kath/y couldn't - I think it was a confidence thing. Kath/y was used to working hard & long hours at work, whereas AliaK could have more fun :) it was a way of separating the two sides - part of the balance. these days the line between both has blurred more I guess - it's more of a see-saw. not sure if this explanation was clear enough - I'm both names so I guess I use each when it suits.

/stream_of_consciousness_thoughts

i never knew you MC'ed mate!

it's an interesting discussion. when i used to write articles on music etc I started using an alias then just used my real name. DJing wise I played for 6 years under my real name.

With comments etc I generally try to use my real name but often my wordpress account defaults to talkingdigital

I'm lucky enough to have a rare name, and a very unusual spelling of that name. I was however going to use a seperate name for Sonixtrip to avoid cross over. Hasn't happened yet, but we'll see. Will also be using a totally anonymous name for a secret blog and online community.

I have generally put my name on everything I do coz I have an absolutely enormous ego.

But I remember back in the mid-90s creating these multiple, elaborate online identities (one was a dolphin who'd escaped from Brighton Aquarium) just because I could. It was fun.

To extent these creations got dropped because I became much more comfortable with myself. However I'm starting to get back into the idea of multiple identities (tho they're not always appropriate). It's easy to get very "granola" about this stuff and go on and on about authenticity. And yet people fail to be authentic even to themselves. We're complicated and contradictory and I'm interested in ways of accentuating this stuff rather than suppressing it or labeling it childish.

Its funny, I was thinking about this the other day. I use a made-up name, not for any kind of anonymity, but just because it became a bit of an online habit. Stems from my first hotmail address - my name wasn't available, so I started inventing titles for myself and seeing what I could get. Once I had something that worked (i.e. that wasn't taken everywhere else), I started using it everywhere. I just realised I've been using this alternative name for about thirteen years...

I've started moving towards using my real name more often, but it definitely comes down to the environment/community I'm participating in. Twitter and (some) other social networks can include business contacts, so I use my real name.

I guess it comes down to the reason you joined the community and what you wanted to get out of it as to whether or not you use a pseudonym.

I started blogging under an old nickname, but decided to change after a month or so, probably for career reasons. But in terms of accountability and authenticity, I feel like it was a good move.

A sseudonyms is just as bad as an anonymous comment. ;]

My preference use to be to use a fairly ambiguous nickname, that really meant nothing to anyone, not even myself. When i got into writing a blog, i really had to think about this and go do i want to be some random nickname in the crowd, or do i want to be myself. The eventual result was be myself, and i think that it does the same for me as you, it brings more to my writing because, i am putting my name on the line, not just some random nickname i created to hide behind.

Moving forward everything related to professional activity is going to be real name. I'd rather be known as a guy who does a bunch of related things than dilute my efforts by trying to manage several different identities across different areas.

The exception is the occassional participation in completely unrelated forums which is rare these days anyway as I'd rather spend my downtime doing other things.

Reasons why I use my real name:
1. Honesty - this is who I am and what I have to stay
2. I know that once a comment goes up it never comes down, so it forces me to step back and ask "do I really have something valuable to say?"
3. SEO effects - there's actually a few Andrew Dever's, one is a priest and one is a murderer so yeah :-)

p.s you had a radio show called "The Mothership Connection"? Awesome...Parliament and Clinton are still up there with the best.