Do you trust a person more if they post under their own name?

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Lantern Jack

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Ah, the direct approach! I admire that in a man in a mask!

That is Danny Devito's Oswald Cobblepot exchanging catty remarks with Mike Keaton's Batman.

Really, how can you trust someone's integrity when they're ducking behind a bulwark of anonymity?

On the other hand, there's a reason why all phone numbers in filmdom are 555-!!!!. Because if you inputed a real number, about a thousand crazies are going to punch it in, just to see what happens.

The same thing with the Internet: Put your true self out there, you're going to be solicited by some truly strange characters, truly.

Personally, I've posted quite a bit with my real face to stage left (that's not me over there, it's James Frey, but thanks for thinking I can grow a full beard with my testosterone reserves on empty), and everybody here knows my name is Joshua, but that's not the same as having the brass balls to announce oneself as "William Haskins", because you don't know my last name and, unless you pass me on the footpath and possess a photographic memory, you're likely never to peg me.
 

poetinahat

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Let me ask you this, O Students of the Paradox:

Who's more likely to tell the truth: a total stranger whom you'd never be able to track down - who therefore has no reason to worry about your vengeance, or someone you know well, who has to deal with the fallout to your damaged friendship long after the 'honest feedback' has come and gone?

Not saying strangers are more candid than acquaintances; just saying the premise ain't ironclad.
 
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Cathy C

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While some people have a legitimate professional reason to post anonymously (Ms. Snark, for example, or Jaws on our own board,) I have to admit that I will trust the advice of people who use real names (or at least link to their real/pen name) more often than a board name. People can say anything, or claim any credits to back up their views. But without proof that their system/example/sample worked in the real world, it's all just smoke.


But that's just me... :)
 

johnnysannie

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Unless you plan to write under a pen name at all times, sooner or later, you will attract some "truly strange people" who have seen your byline and find you. I have been a published, working writer for more than twenty years and this is true.

Although I post under johnnysannie here, I also have a link to my blog in my signature which is under my name so it's not hard to determine who I am.

As for the question, do I tend to trust people who post under their real name or have their real name available - yes, I do. I've had too many weird comments posted to my blog by "anonymous" and now moderate comments.
 

Maryn

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I consider myself lucky to have been using a screen name when I upset someone online (at another site where I'm a volunteer moderator). He made death threats against me and the site's owner.

Now, I know the guy was just really angry. I also suspected he was mentally ill and off his medications. He may never have intended to carry out his threats, but when his wife emailed everyone in his address book asking if anyone knew where he was and said he'd left all his pills at home but had taken the gun, I was so glad he didn't have my real name.

This guy scared the bejesus out of me. (He did return home, got medical help, apologized to the two he'd threatened, and died a few months later.) Add to that experience the fact that my erotica occasionally nets me some really scary-sad-freaky-dangerous fan mail, and I'm not sure I'll use my real name on anything.

If that choice undermines my credibility here, tough.

Maryn, which is someone's real name, but not mine
 

rich

ROCL, Haskins.

I'm not sure I can do anonimity and still refer to my website containing published pieces. Oddly, I've done some posts in the past in which a folk or two found threatening. Never really understood the threat, but apologized for the misunderstanding. I thought the situations were more in the minds of the beholders.

I do know a guy who calls himself John Pelligrino who freely admits that it's not his real name. He's likeable and I completely trust him. (He put together my website, and still has my passwords. I haven't changed them.) He even published in "Wired"--"The Amazing Rocket Car in the Cliff" using the same nom de plume.

The nuts tend to pick on mostly women. Shame, but true.
 

William Haskins

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yeah, i've never really worried about it. in all actuality, aside from some pretty vicious hatemail, i've only been threatened by lantern jack himself. i can live with that.

the irony of it is that if some nutcase ever decided to come after me, he'd find a batsh1t crazy freak-demon who would make any degree of his own insanity look like amateur night.
 

eldragon

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the irony of it is that if some nutcase ever decided to come after me, he'd find a batsh1t crazy freak-demon who would make any degree of his own insanity look like amateur night


That sounds like a walk in the park for me. I'm married to a Serb.
 

Maryn

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Yeah, the William Haskins I found here looks like he totally fits that self-description... Although he is letting a girl push him around.

Maryn, puttin' on her pushin' gloves
 

rich

Hell, I'm married to an Italian--It's kind of a Jewish-American princess with a stiletto.
 
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Deleted member 42

Cathy C said:
While some people have a legitimate professional reason to post anonymously (Ms. Snark, for example, or Jaws on our own board,) I have to admit that I will trust the advice of people who use real names (or at least link to their real/pen name) more often than a board name. People can say anything, or claim any credits to back up their views. But without proof that their system/example/sample worked in the real world, it's all just smoke.


But that's just me... :)

Jaws, like me, is not really anonymous. He links to his Web site, for instance, which has his name and data.
 

veinglory

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rich said:
I'm not sure I can do anonimity and still refer to my website containing published pieces.

You publish under the same false name ;)

I have actually had people think 'veinglory' is my real name, go figure.

A real name impresses me more if I have seen it on a book jacket and genuinely think this guy is *that guy*. Otherwise it's the taste of the pudding that counts.
 

Yeshanu

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I don't trust anyone who posts under a screen name.


Um, yeah. I should tell you that my real name is Galadriel. Or maybe it's Arwen.


In my dreams, anyway.


(Seriously, it's the quality of the post that counts IMO, and how much interaction I've had with the person on the boards that counts, not whether they post using a real name or a screen name.)
 

rich

Women don't deal with weapons as gross as concrete. They deal with pin-pricks (NPI) more appropriate to their skelo-muscular accouterments. It's a staying-power that exposes a male to feelings of inadequacies--something like whipping a towel off the sucker after he's just been rescued from an icy pond.

Of course, I'm above all that.
 

jdkiggins

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kappapi99

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I think one needs to be careful about putting personal information out in the web. For something like AW where part of the reason is to network, I think real names are fine, but in other forums, I have no problems with people using nicknames.

Plus, after a while, an online nick name almost becomes a regular nick name...most who know me from other forums know me as one of two nicks...this one or "Lorn." So I guess after a while it sort of becomes moot, no?

I'll post this synonymously so nobody knows who it is...
 

Perks

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Kind of an interesting thread and I hadn't thought of it before. I trust, to the extent I can, based on the intelligence of the post, regardless of the name. I find the avatar oddly influencing.

I'd never had a screen name before. My real name isn't very interesting. Although 'Perks' has been somewhat of an albatross as it seems to have often been misinterpreted to indicate I have a perky personality (oh how some will laugh) or perky... nevermind (nobody better be laughing at that one.) I simply picked it in anticipation of the benefits I'll receive with some moderate success doing what I love. So far, still wishfull thinking, but I've found plenty of perks to being an AW member.
 

brokenfingers

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Do you trust a person more if they post under their own name?
Absolutely! Which is why I post under my real name.
 
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