h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was listening to some one talking about bullying and other abuses on the internet and the suggestion was made that if people were unable to remain anonymous this particular problem might be lessened.

And I thought about H2G2 and our pseudonyms. Not that there is a huge amount of bullying or abuse on this site (that I have noticed). If this subject has been raised before I would be glad of a link to the original thread(s).

Why do we hide behind silly names? Other than the obvious fun in creating silly names. This must have been a decision made in the early years and I would be interested in the history behind it and also how people feel about it today.

Well, to summarise what I think is still on my Personal Space ... it took about a year for me to alter my name here to one which is almost the same as the one I use in real life. But for that first year I was in any case mostly lurking - I switched to my almost real name at the point I started posting regularly. And I use another version of my almost real name on Twitter. I would use my *actual* real name, but it's important the people I work with can't find me.

So probably I'm the wrong person to be answering the question

Mol

I was a very late-comer to the internet world. I still only exist here in my annoying pseudonym, and on facebook where my friends are people who I actually know.

I initially joined this site under my real name, Ade Bowen, and then I wandered off for a bit. When I decided to give it another go I came up with hygiencidispenser, mainly because it seemed, and still does seem, that the idea of using your real name online is possibly the most shocking thing that you can do.

You'll get known for what you are as you go about the business of living

Here, if you post enough, you'll get known well enough no matter what name you use


What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

People who know me in real life, including those I've met at hootoo meets, know me by my "real" name. I see no reason for everyone else in the world to have it. I managed to conceal my sex for the first few years I was here until I confessed to being the Spearcarrier's mother.
When I joined, the great Douglas was still here and many people took names connected with h2g2 to show their support. I considered being a wanderer was my most important characteristic. Also, like Lee Marvin, I can sing only one note. Hence

I think perhaps an important thing on h2g2 is that people are not trying to hide behind pseudonyms for malicious reasons. A lot of the pseudonyms, because they have been around for far longer than most everything else on the internet, are more an expression of that person's reality than would be 'Colin Jones' or 'Janet Williams'.

I don't use my real name online other than when I am required to do so. I've already had experience with identity theft which ruined my credit rating, and cost me a small fortune in legal fees to clear up. That's my main reason for being anonymous online. It also ensures that my employer won't find me expressing any opinions that they feel are a conflict of interest.

I regard it as a differentiation between different parts of my life.
so I'm Baldbloke here and on a couple of other sites but I also have other identities on other social sites.

At the same time I'm real name me on work related sites and on sites where other users would only know me by my given names.

It is pretty easy for anyone who wants to put the time in to track my identities and join them up. however fellow hikers on here probably are not very interested in seeing a whole bunch of my work related stuff and work people are not going to be interested in what goes on here.

" It also ensures that my employer won't find me expressing any opinions that they feel are a conflict of interest. "

"I regard it as a differentiation between different parts of my life."

"A lot of the pseudonyms ... are more an expression of that person's reality than would be 'Colin Jones' or 'Janet Williams'."

Well said

I hide behind a silly name now, but originally when I set up online I didn't use my real name as I'd been a CBer when I was a young teenager and it was tradition not to use your real name - it had originally been an illegal hobby. I had it conditioned into me by my dad not to give out my real name (I was 12 or 13). All those perverts out there!

It kind of backfired on h2g2 as my fake name became my 'real' name in quite a short time to such an extent I now have to give it out on the criminal background check forms. :/

I chose the name I have now as so much had changed around here I didn't see why I should stay the same.

An interesting question. I think a lot of the pseudonyms here are much akin to a 'Pen Name' as many of us consider this to be primarily a writing site.

When I first logged on here, back in 2003, I spent several days studying the names others were using and carefully consider my own handle. Like Party, I was also a CBer and was used to 'handles'. I did not choose my name to hide, but to express my interests and location.

I do use my real name, or parts of it, on several other boards that I occasionally link to from here. I am not hiding, but I have established a presence here that I intend to continue

-as -

F S

The old story behind my 'name' is that Vicki Virago opened my account so I had something to occupy me while I gave up smoking

I was known as lil ol' me, which was eventually shortened to lil. Most of my online friends call me lil at the meets. And friends I've made call me that in RL too... Even Hubby has me in his mobile under this name!


lil xx

I keep LinkedIn as my official online presence. Here I can relax, but I still wouldn't slag off my employer online, no matter how much they deserve it.

Thanks for the reponses guys. You are right about the pseudonyms, they give us an air of mystery and glamour (forgive me Colin Jones whoever you may be).

And like many of you I am deeply suspicious of the interweb and the potential problems of what is essentially graffiti on the front wall of the town hall.

I am always reminded of a remark made by someone whose name I have forgotten and therefore sadly cannot properly attribute, that the internet was a gift to the English as they could finally talk to people without the risk of having to socialise with them.

The original conversation I had heard was about Twitter and Facebook which by their inclusive nature attract the best and worst of people, luckily this site seems to attract a strange sub section of society who tend to avoid abuse when possible and at least try to make it elegant when not.

As a child one of my ambitions was to create one thing, an idea, a song, a poem, a story, perhaps even a legend (stop now) that would survive me and note my brief existence. Then I realised that despite my presence in the Guide I would be like Homer (the Greek guy not the one from Springfield, Doh!) my name revered but no one knowing who I really was.

I have now come to terms with that situation. If in future years my submissions to this site amuse, inform, distract, or inspire then my work is done, my ambition achieved. When I am dead I will fear not the heat of the sun or winter's chill blast and cannot possibly know if I am feted or reviled by future generations.

So what need is there for anyone to know who I am? Unless they want to declare a public holiday and celebrations for my birthday. August 31st if anyone is looking for an excuse to party, although I gather from interactions on H2G2 excuses for parties are redundant.

I use Paulh everywhere on the Internet. It sounds like a name you would encounter at Alcoholics Anonymous, which I've never belonged to. However, I like the idea of being straightforward, without any pretensions. But I enjoy some of the imaginative names that other people use here.

I chose my name here for what I was - chemist turned IT-interested, so it became Alchemilla Digitalis. Which also are two different flowers.
Mostly also to not be hunted out and harassed in real life. Because when I was young, the internet was potentially very dangerous...
Now, I'm not so hesistant to be my real name, but I feel better for saving that for Facebook and LinkedIn, and staying as Milla here.
Started for safety, stayed under pseudonym for sentimental reasons, I guess.

I used to use another name on h2g2, back in the day when the internet was anonymous and no one revealed their real names, Ok 2001, and I kept that going until 2013. Until the GMC decided that doctors couldn't be anonymous online any more. I think it started when they had some doctors reported to them for 'improper behaviour on the internet' aka trolling, also they don't want people to say 'I'm a doctor, and you clearly shouldn't vaccinate your child' without being accountable for the consequences of it.

But my old account had posted quite a lot of things I didn't want liked with my real name. So I went back to an old sock puppet, and put my real name on the home page.

I'm on twitter and facebook with my real name, I guess it's the way things have to be now.

I don't feel comfortable about using my real name online in 'public places'. That's why I'm also no member of facebook or anything like that. I don't have issues with this in smaller groups to which not everybody has access. I would probably also not have problems with my real name being on h2g2 if not everyone who is not even signed up could read it. Many people here know my real name anyway.
When you type my name and the town where I live into google you won't find me, and I consider this to be a good thing.

When I signed up on h2g2 it took me over a month to find a name which I felt comfortable with and by now it's as much a part of me as my 'real' name. Later I added 'da Quirm' because it just seemed to fit to my personality.
There's another name which I use in onine games and it's also part of who I am.

Although I use screen names also to hide my real identity it has nothing to do with hiding my personality. I don't act differently when I use different names.

>Although I use screen names also to hide my real identity it has nothing to do with hiding my personality

I actually think that is a very important distinction. I've seen a bit of discussion online - and at least a couple of articles on Slate et al - about how anonymity can bring out the worst in people. I think we have all been witness to that now and then. But in my personal experience I've also encountered people known by variations on their RL names instead of totally anonymous handles who have carefully cultivated online personas bearing little or no resemblance to their actual personalities. I think coming across as who you truly are says more about your trustworthiness than whether or not you limit access to your personally identifying info.

While I don't like using my real names, I don't try to hide my personality either. The only major difference is that online I tend to swear less than in RL.

For some people, it's actually a very important safety feature to *not* use their legal names. (I'm not saying "real names", because the lines around which names count as "real" are, really, rather blurry. Any name you're known by is arguably a real name. And some people are known better by their internet handles than otherwise.) See the kerfuffle around the "real names" policy on Google Plus. What that really meant was "a name which looks 'normal' to an American engineer", which is not at all the same thing as a "real name".

Some people have stalkers. Some people live under oppressive governments. Some people have very very good reason to be anonymous online.

I'm not anonymous, really. My Internet name is derived from my own, and I'm fairly open online about my real name: you only have to ask. But I still like the atmosphere that comes from participating in a community where 'nyms are the norm. (A few such communities, actually.)

TRiG.