Handles and Anonymity

[womzilla]

In the recent discussions of psuedonyms and anonymity, I haven't seen anyone mention what I think of as one of the best reasons for using a handle: distinction.

There are at least a dozen other Kevin Maroneys in the United States; I bet there are a couple dozen more in County Claire (the ancestral home of the Maroney name). As nearly as I can tell, I'm the only Womzilla anywhere in the world. Thus, when I create a user account at one of the many fragmented pools into which online discussion pours, I just grab womzilla and go with it. It makes it easy for people to recognize me-in-particular, and it's very portable.

That might be obvious, but I haven't seen it discussed, so I'm just tossing it in to the discussion. Nothing to see here; move along.

(I'm continuing to recover from the surgery. I no longer come home completely exhausted every night. Yay my nose.)

ETA: Of course, as soon as I hit "post entry", I see a comment by anton_p_nym that makes much the same point. And correcting some editing errors. Sigh. More tired than I thought.

Comments

[sarah-ovenall.livejournal.com]

I have the opposite situation myself: I'm the only Sarah Ovenall in the US, pretty sure I'm the only one in the Western Hemisphere and possibly the only one in the world. (I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least one in the UK though.) I have an ordinary-sounding pseudonym which I use sometimes, just so I can post silly things, geek out on my favorite TV shows, or whatever without worrying that a potential employer (or my parents) will find it someday. The pseudonym is a comedy show character and occasionally people recognize it, but mostly it seems to be accepted as a real name. Which is one of the reasons I find all the angst over pseudonyms a bit foolish -- we assume any name that sounds normal is a real name, but there's no reason to do that, even with people you know in person, if you haven't seen their ID.

Yay for your nose!

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

I don't want my students following me home.

Anything I would say in an important discussion, though, I would be willing to say under my own name.

As thin as my pseudonym is--it's practically identical to my email address on a major website--I would be very unhappy if someone were to deliberately blow my cover. The fact that this is considered a fair tactic is reason enough for me to consider abandoning Livejournal, or lock it down MUCH more tightly than it already is.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

There are probably as many good reasons to use handles, pseudonyms, and anoynyms as there are people who use them. I was just pointing out one that I hadn't seen discussed enough.

nellorat also doesn't want her work following her home.

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

My handle is unique, as far as I know.

There was a time when I was hampered from posting about work (where I am now, still) when I was profoundly frustrated about it, because the guys at my job knew about Hindsight Aforethought/my LJ. It took a real psychological toll, but they learned about my writings while I was between stints with them, and who knew I would ever return there? I went back expecting it to be a few weeks.

That's the only occasion I wanted to discuss personal stuff online and felt constrained from doing so. Most of the personal stuff I would feel like venting about online is too personal even for my friendslist.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

It isn't considered a fair tactic, as shown by the amount of blowing up over it. It's something that can happen, though I think it's pretty rare.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Yes. It is, in fact, considered a shockingly bad tactic by sane people.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I guess there's a certain something to that, for some folks. For me, strangely, it doesn't come up much.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I always wonder about that. There are at least five people in the US with my first and last names. One is a small company's VP. One is a teacher. One has a webpage for Bondage Barbie (no idea if this is the VP, the teacher, or someone else entirely). If a prospective employer were to Google me, I think they'd actually get a weirder imression from my real name than from my nom.

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I am the sole Jonathan Schattke in the world, so also being the sole WizWom is redundant individuality.

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Although my real name is not terribly, terribly common, still when I google it I get a (sadly very boring) folksinger--male; a bassist in a metal band in California (male); and a rugby player in Ireland (female), among others.

Fun as it is to contemplate life as a transgendered bassist, I like it that when I google my handle, everything that comes up is actually me-related.

Another thing I like about handles: most names are done TO you, birth names by parents and nicknames by relatives and friends. On occasion you can make a break--going off to college and dropping that "Tootsie-muffin" your dad saddled you with, frinstance. But you can't just go up to real-life friends and co-workers and announce, "Cheryl just isn't working for me anymore. Henceforth I am...MADAME AWESOMECAKES!!!" and have people actually OBEY. So, this option to create your OWN name, based on your own grownup interests, and have people CALL you by it...it's weirdly empowering.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I laughed so hard I startled the rats. Thank you.