This is probably not the right section but I think I'm not allowed to post into the Internet section as I am not Level 1 member...

anyway, I was interested in hearing opinions regarding whether it's a good or bad idea to use your real name when submitting articles to websites, obviously I'm talking about 'real' articles, not forum entries or comments to other articles... and of course I'm assuming you are not spamming or copying and pasting!

I found various opinions about that on the web, the main reason for using your real name seems to be:

- if you are serious about what you write and you know what you are talking about, you may eventually get popular in your field, by then it'll be hard to switch to your real name if you used a pseudonym before and people may wonder why you did it and if it was really you behind those articles

on the other hand the most relevant reason for using a nickname/pseudonym would be:

- keeping your online and offline lives separate minimizes the risk of 'cross-contamination' if you make mistakes in either one and/or you are not ready to share details between the two

So what you guys think about that? does anyone have any relevant experience that might help sort that out?

thanks in advance

I think it's not a good idea to use your name in Internet articles, unless, of course, a copy of the same article can be found offline.

The trouble, as far as I can see, is that putting your name on online articles associates your identity to that article. If ever, by chance, new breakthroughs disprove your theories or your opinions happened to change, as humans are wont to do, you might find it difficult to retract what you have said. People who know you and your online article might quote your past mistake. "Oh, weren't you George, the guy who made an online paper discussing the possibility that the moon might be made of 8 different kinds of cheeses? Oh, sorry, my name is Neil Armstrong. Pleased to meet you"

Well, I never had much faith in humans, as a species, so I don't believe anyone out there has an intractably permanent opinion on anything. Put your thoughts down on paper and they could serve as evidence for people in the future to take you down with. Post it online and put your name there and you have pretty much dealt the same degree of doom upon yourself.



If you really are serious about what you write, why on earth would you even be concerned with popularity? So what if you're popular only by your pen name? Would it hurt you a lot that you're not that popular offline? That is, of course, if you are really serious about what you're writing.



Ah, yes. This was what I was talking about

I agree with you on that... I also had the same thought! and I think there's nothing more traceable and permanent than online content in the google age

What those pro-real-name people claim is that you can actually use your past articles and contributions as a kind of resume to boost your credibility, but yeah I think you can do that as well if you use a pen name, if you need to, as long as you can prove you were the author of that content... I believe you can do that somehow...

so should we just create a different 'pen name' every time we change opinion??

I use my real name... most of the time. Whether it's a serious web site or not. Well, yeah... Janissary is not my real name but I registered here before I decided to use real names.

When you google my name, Im the top 2 pages :) :)

Opinions change over time, sure. But Im not afraid of my past judgements. I can gladly say, yeah... back in 2006 I was wrong. After all, we are the sum of our mistakes :P :P

Anyway, what gets online stays there forever!! So if you are going to use your real name, dont write things that you dont say in real life and always re-read your posts ;) Remember, whole world is gonna see it... including your boss, your neighbours, your future work contacst :) :)

I dont think using real name will be a problem... as long as you are awere of the things above but can you awere all the time ;)

Oh, I forgot...
Hello,
My name is Özhan Sözer :~)

This post has been edited by Janissary: May 29 2008, 07:48 AM

Well I'm a smith so It will be hard to find out who I am , my first name is less common but there is still lots of my name. I think it's okay unless your name is something like:

Jehovah Fittzgerald and there is only one of you, people here know my name and I'm okay with that, I'm more worried about people knowing where I live to be honest!

well I think it's quite likely no name in the world is completely unique... sure some are more common, like yours perhaps as a privacy/safety concern, it shouldn't be hard to find anyone in the world nowadays if someone really wants to, at least this is what movies make us believe, and probably the person's name is not even the most important thing to identify somebody (think for example of a registered mobile phone number... that's pretty unique;))

apart from this concern my initial question was more like from a 'business' point of view, and restricted to 'articles' or similar (not blogs, forums, etc.). Does it bring more benefits or make more damage to one's hypothetical online or offline business? I guess anyway it highly depends on the specific case and probably different field might show different behaviors...

Usually I am using my real name on the Net. But it depends on each web sites. For example serious and important sites like Trap17 , I am using real name, but other sites not important I am only using my nick name.

But I think this is not important, because if anyone who is from intelligence can investigate your IP or logs from your DSL provider and you can be detected with your real name and also your home address can be found if you haven't changed your proxy server so IP. (But changing proxy server decreases the Net speed.)

If you are a good man, there is no danger to use your real names. But if you are dangerous for the Net , you will not survive much because of powerful intelligences.

Good luck...

You be surprise how how many people use their real names, I know every major news outlet uses their real name and a lot of people use their real names in portfolios and what not. It is the matter of how much information you put on your website as many people place their phone numbers and stuff like that on their site. It is a matter of caution as it don't take much these days to find out who you are, and so the question becomes difficult to answer because of the situation that would require to have your name listed, but of course who says it has to be a real name, as it is not hard to make up a fake one, like Marion Jefferies or Bobby McCool.