So, would you write that if you had to sign your real name?

Well, I don't want some people on here knowing my real name, so I am Mame. As for your other questions, Yes, I would stand behind what I said in person. I'd say it to your face, for sure. Asshole.

Disappointed to so learn


Me too

Who, me

My no. 1 Son inadvertently gve me my username and I’ve long wondered whether I shouldn’t use a pseudo. My No. 2 Son in fact wants me to because I embarrass him. He is right so I intend to get one for postings he might not approve

No, I have that distinction. Then you might be No. 2 but I doubt it

Seriously doubt it

Well put Joe

Don’t be too hard on them Joe, they know not what they do

Yes a real temptation. I’ve been known occasionally to get pretty raunchy too but I regret it

By all means

Sometimes in spite of the vitriol they have something interesting to posit

Good q

I’d avoid any such confrontation since I’m such a coward

No no Joe, some of us, many perhaps, like hearing from you

MAme:

I am rolling up my sleeves, clenching my teeth and my fists.....
go ahead...(quivering lip) Make your move!


Joe(wait. I have a phone call)Nation

Yes.

It was you, Dale.

Joe(mind like a fishnet)Nation

I am flattered

I tell people my real name when they've earned the privilege of knowing it.

... in real life, too. Half the people I meet think my name is Demosthenes Publius.

Cycloptichorn

Said weasels likely don't give a damn about my name. But, I don't mind if it gets out. Readers of my profile likely could figure it without help. And my facebook friends all know. I have made a fool of myself on line more times than a few. Which makes me fairly ordinary.

Hi Jonathan! As you know, the name I use here is a shortened version of my full first name on FB. This is what a lot of people call me.

Like here, as I do on FB, and for that matter, on the internet in general, I'm always reasonably careful as to what I write. My thinking is that you never know what will come back and bite you in the butt.

One thing for me is that I abhor confrontation, whether it's on the internet, or in person.

Like it or not, what you say on the Internet is there forever, for all to see.

I say quite a lot of what I say here in private, but there are are folks I don't say this stuff to, as well.

I shall remain Drewdad, thanks.

I have no desire to see my real name up here, I have enough trouble where I live.

but I will stand behind any of my posts face to face.

and I may start traveling at will soon...

I joined in 2004. At the time I was new to the internet. They forced me to use e-mail at work and assigned me the name wandeljw (my last name followed by my first and middle initials). Being the dork that I am, in 2004 I thought I was supposed to use that name for everything on the internet. (I did not own a cell phone until 2011 -- I had thought cell phones were just a fad.)

Excellent questions, Joe.
I'm sure there'd be a lot less vitriol if people were somehow forced to say their piece to the flesh and blood person they were trying to flay with words.

My name is Jan Blount. And I try not to say anything here I couldn't say to anyone's face, but I'm as guilty as anyone of letting the anonymity enbolden me sometimes.

I first started hanging out here on the Internet as a member of Abuzz. That was, I believe, back in the late Pleistocene Era. My first nom-de-net was, in fact, a truncated version of my real name. My name on Abuzz, at first, was Andrew Mikel. Andrew is my actual given name and Mikel is the first half of my surname (the second half is 'sons' for the truly morbidly curious). Those of you who are old enough to remember the furor when we were all told in school to 'remember the Maine' will also recall that there came a time on Abuzz when the troll activity had gotten so bad everybody was posting their member number as part of their name icon/avatar and a number of us took this opportunity to subtly change our screen names. (this, if I remember correctly, was where e-Beth became ehBeth). I chose to rechristen myself Merry Andrew, doing away with the awkward 'Mikel' at the end.

It had nothing to do with hiding my identity, everything to do with euphonics and a sense of the rightness of things.

When the original handful of us moved over from Abuzz to this site, I kept the Merry Andrew identity (akaRoger had suddenly decided to become just plain 'roger' ). About a year and a hlf ago, maybe due to a chnage in e-mail addys, the hamsters that run the treadmills of this site suddenly refused to recognize the Merry Andrew persona as a legitimate member. So Merry Andrew became Lustig Andrei. It's still the same dude, charming, disarming and even lazier than Joe (face it,Joe!) Nation.

Now, to answer your questions, Joe -- I doubt that I've evr posted anything on the 'net that I didn't sincerely mean (at least, at the time I posted it). Would I sign my real name to it? Betcha arse. You wanna find me and get even, you know I'm on an island and can't easily lam out without some prior planning and prep. So, bring it, babe, bring it on.

Yeah, Mr. J. I'd stand right in front of your face and repeat every single thing I've said. Wanna make something of it?

I will NOT give out my real last name on the Internet. It's a very rare last name. Any joik could find me with ease. Dealing with enough joiks already, thanks.

BTW, I'm noticing that the people who are responding here are not the people who have much to hide, what-they-say-wise. I could just be hallucinating, though.

And the thread is still young.

I was in a profession, landscape architecture, well regarded by some, for many years, where you needed errors and omission insurance to survive legal pursuit. Most every firm I knew back then went bare, except the very majors.

We had to get it once (highway design, contact with caltrans) and the cost was a killer, not to mention the paperwork.

The catch was you can't let it go and I seem to remember I am liable after death.

No one has gone after me or that early boss after hundreds of projects, some large, me working for him or on my own. It can be some large project or small project, someone whose sidewalk cracked twenty years later.

This is paranoia - people have been fine with our work, which is good after long years. But those of us who went and stayed bare have mixed feelings.

My later business partner had a suit against her, but the State Board came down on her side.


ossobuco is me, not a figment.

Which is ironic as Facebook owns Instagram.

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2012/09/06/facebook-instagram-deal-finally-done/

There are some people in this site who are SO rude - the Unibomber kind of rude: overly intelligent assholes.

They should not reveal their real names.

FB name: Sue Sanderson-Williams

So do their sock puppets, who spend quite a bit of time talking to them, because because few others want to.

I think the issue is intent as a poster, more than the name issue ...
Most A2Kers who are committed to the long haul (as posters here) would never write some of the tripe that passes as comment or argument by long or short-term trolls (for want of a better word) ... those whose forum identity is based on a desire to shock, who relentlessly push their particular agenda (often the same "issue", over & over & over (!), no matter what the actual subject of the thread is), who twist facts to push their "case", dismiss or ignore perfectly valid counter-arguments to theirs, willfully misinterpret what others have said, or regularly use aggression, insults or denigrating put-downs ("liar!") & resort to patronising & personal ( & often) sexist abuse, etc, etc, etc, to "win' the argument ...

Such posters would never dream of using their real names, for pretty obvious reasons. Nor would they dream of saying half the things they say online in "real life". They might get punched in the nose, or laughed at, or be considered a bit mad, even by the more tolerant.
But then, neither would quite a few serious long-term posters use their real names, for completely different reasons, like protecting their privacy. Which I think is perfectly valid on the internet.

The difference, as I said, is intent on a forum.
I can spot a short-term troll a mile off. They'll do their best to make a big impact by saying completely outrageous, ridiculous things, then vanish into the sunset when people tire of them & cease responding. Probably to reemerge with a fresh username & more rubbish later...
The abusive long-termers .... well only they know what their getting from their online behaviour. I sometimes wonder why serious posters bother continually responding to their "arguments".

But in answer to your question: would I use my real name here? No (for privacy reasons) , however I've had the same username on both Abuzz & A2k for years now ) which happens to be half my real name, minus the surname). But I think those A2Kers who have interacted with me online for a long time via my posts, know me anyway. Same thing with so many other A2Kers. I feel like I know them & their intent as posters , too.
Whether I know their real names or not.
...