Disclosing Identity on Forums

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

I did simultaneously experiment with an alter ego for a few years, but that turned out so messy I definitely gave up on such experiments for good.

Aha! So that WAS you!!!

Yeah; I thought so, too. Just confirmed my suspicions.

The worst thing that can happen in REAL life, I feel, someone I don't know might be like "JON/TATTRAT? 'Statch you?" and I will be like, "ummmm, do we know one another?", and the rest is the rest.

You know the thread where we were talking about a certain Hawai`i columnist and her sweetie on vacation in my burg? I'm sure we saw them walking around the neighborhood of their hotel a couple nights ago - but I didn't want to stop them and say "are you xxx and xxx?," as we hadn't been in contact yet (we have been since, by e-mail.) I think that would have been just too creepy for them.

However, I'm also one of those people who is incredibly easy to find, and my careers and activities have long been in the public eye. From time to time, I get "recognized" (more often by voice than by visual) by strangers - it's even happened in foreign countries.

If given the chance to meet, face-to-face, with people that I know only from HT and other fora (even those with whom I've had arguments), I would take it. Last time we were on O`ahu, I got to meet several HT'ers, and I hope there will be future opportunities.

[jkpescador]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

You mean Zarquon is not your surname? Dang how am I going to look you up in the white pages.

PZ got twitter, gps, and live streaming going sometimes. You can almost find where he is in realtime.

I'm guessing there is one an only one Auntie Pupule. If there is another out there ... what you like beef with ours?

I actually came to HT to support PZ's venture. I would lurk. Often times I would e-mail him something to post. He would encourage me to post. Eventually I posted.

I have gone to HT lunches twice. Wow the characters online are still characters in real life.

I think some of HT's origins lie with PZ's BBS background. When USENET was more popular several of us would post to alt.culture.hawaii with our real names. Eventually it became soc.culture.hawaii or s.c.h. s.c.h. was known for having f2f gatherings. There was a plaque at Gordon Biersch honoring their meeting place if I recall. I never went to those meeting but I think from back then PZ was posting pictures of them somewhere online.

Welcome to HT ... nice to meet you online.

[tutusue]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

[...]When USENET was more popular several of us would post to alt.culture.hawaii with our real names. Eventually it became soc.culture.hawaii or s.c.h. s.c.h. was known for having f2f gatherings. There was a plaque at Gordon Biersch honoring their meeting place if I recall. I never went to those meeting but I think from back then PZ was posting pictures of them somewhere online.[...]

Ah, yes...the ACH Lynch Mob meetings at Gordon Biersch!!! And, the SCH picnics at Kapiolani Park. HT's Helen was usually the one who ended up organizing the picnics. Fun times 'til 2 participants ruined the spirit of the gatherings. Ca-ca happens and people move on.

When I first got my online feet wet in 1996 I was invited to join an email list hosted by PZ. IIRC, Albert the Panther nominated me for inclusion!!! The one prerequisite to joining was the invitee had to write and post a haiku! That email list is still in existence today altho' active only in fits and spurts. And it is still hosted by PZ...I think! The majority of us have met irl and the group has been thru birth, death and everything in between. Of course, an email list isn't public like an online forum. Still it has fostered many friendships.

[scrivener]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

This is an issue I've had to deal with and evaluate as I've exited and entered different phases of life.

In high school, I was a handle on local BBSes, but people knew who I was and I didn't try to hide anything. I first met online friends in real life at a Magic Island picnic put together by the sysops of the Off Broadway BBS. That board was my first taste of online relationships, and that picnic my first face-to-face meeting with online friends. I was hooked on both; that was in 1987.

When, a few months later, I was voted in for membership at Saimin, I got to meet lots and lots of people, because we had get-togethers just about every week. Although I am in contact with my Saimin friends not nearly as often as I'd like to be, I consider them some of the best people I know.

As someone mentioned earlier, the USENET made it even harder to stay anonymous, even if I'd wanted to: My first USENET-enabled Internet account was attached to my UHUNIX email address, which included my first initial and last name.

But then I became a teacher, and then I really had to think about things. I hadn't been as open online as Ryan, but I was also going to be held to a different, perhaps unfair but certainly understandable standard. On the other hand, I couldn't divorce myself from online life and wouldn't have anyway, because throughout my career I've tried to teach my students (and their parents) to be responsible citizens wherever they are, including on the Internet. The mall is a dangerous place for irresponsible parents and their young kids; it is less so for parents and kids who take reasonable precautions. I thought it was imperative that I model such behavior.

So for most of the past thirteen years, I have led a SORT of dual existence: My IRL-only relations knew me only by my real name and my real identity, which included some online presence. My online-and-IRL friends knew me as both, and that was cool.

But then "scrivener" and the real me became inextricably linked when I started writing puzzles for the Star-Bulletin. I was hesitant at first to formalize the relationship, but "scrivener's sudoku," a title coined by Blaine, was too good not to use.

So in that one move, I decided I was going to have to fling myself wide open, just as Ryan, Craig, and Blaine have done. I keep an online journal and might have to move it to an anonymous space (meaning, one whose url doesn't contain my name), on the advice of an administrator, and I have been formally disciplined for some of the things I've posted in a public space. I've taken my discipline without complaint, figuring that this relatively new public space includes not-yet-settled protocols for personal and professional behavior. Whether I'm ahead of or behind the wave remains to be seen, I guess: Will we all be who we are online, eventually, or will there be some kind of backwash, as with the MySpacers who now keep their profiles private for IRL friends only? Too soon to tell, if you ask me.

[helen]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

but I really do enjoy reading most of the threads and I think most of the HT posters are sincere, good people.

The number of people who post to HawaiiThreads is a very small number compared to the number of people who read HawaiiThreads. As I write this post there are 75 people using HawaiiThreads. 9 are actual members and 66 guests. The guest can read any post on HawaiiThreads.

[Peshkwe]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

I've been online for so long, Nikki, that it'd be impossible to hide my identity at this point. And, while I'm not terribly overt (no family photos on HT that I can recall...except my avatar <g>), I tend not to post things I might regret later. I don't diss my in-laws 'cuz I don't have any and, so far, the boss hasn't fired me. And, to my boss I say this: you're a goat feltching, boxcar skulled pea-brain in the tertiary stages of syphilis b!+¢h.

Aaaaah...that felt good. Now I need to ask for a raise!

As for Tattrat...it appears to me that he hasn't given all the details so I doubt he's compromised any potential but unlikely legal action. He's new to Hawaii and for now HT is his local family. I probably woulda done the same thing.

Hee...is that gonna become the official HT dis?



I'm not too worried, it's not like any or you reprobates are gonna show up on my doorstep any time soon....particularly now the cold is starting to set in.

If ya did I'd prolly just feed you anyhow.

[tutusue]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

Hee...is that gonna become the official HT dis? [...]

Oh, you came forth with more than that one...and I thank you for that! As I mentioned in the other thread, the n-bomb looked tame by comparison!

[cynsaligia]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

there are regular HT posters who choose to remain anonymous for a myriad of reasons, and not because of any inability to stand up in real life for what they say online, or any other kind of cowardice.

not that anyone was implying:

real life integrated fully with cyber life = beau ideal of all things forthright

vs.

real life kept separate from cyber life = sneaky, yellow-bellied bastardic troll

[Peshkwe]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

Not a troll, just a forum weasel.

Most old posters familiar with a board and forums in general who aren't afraid of being who they are, whether using a nick-nym or not, are usually consistent in how they post. They're the old wolves and they take care of the newbies, teaching em the ropes like cubs and cuffing em when they get out of line but never going for the throat. Kinda like Aunty Lynn.

Then there are the weasels. The folks who post to aggravate, they nip and run. A weasel is different from a troll 'cause they hang around, a troll usually doesn't take up housekeeping in any particular forum.

[Peshkwe]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

Oh, you came forth with more than that one...and I thank you for that! As I mentioned in the other thread, the n-bomb looked tame by comparison!

I can come up with more if ya ever need em. Although I really want to see what y'all can come up with on that trivia thread without help first

[infinitypro]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

Although our faces are cutoff in our profile pics, those are our real mugs. NOE & NEENZ are our real names, though not the one typed on our social security cards. We are active addicts (well, really it's just me NEENZ, NOE is more of a supporter) of different social networks and use the same mugshot.

IRL or online, I feel a sense of responsibility for my actions and words, in being a positive example for my children, respecting the privacy of my family, and being a good person overall.

And as I mentioned in another thread, if anyone does recognize me at the store or Mall, please don't hesitate to call out NEENZ! I am known for my hugs!

As far as our children, we limit and monitor their online interactions, if any, as we would IRL.

[Menehune Man]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

I have let loose with personal info over the years, without going all the way.

Like where I work, neighborhood I live in, photos, my poetry, first name, full name,
what I ride, and even my email (previous).

Haven't had any problems and haven't worried about any harm from it.
But then again... I ain't a cute little girl.

[scrivener]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

And as I mentioned in another thread, if anyone does recognize me at the store or Mall, please don't hesitate to call out NEENZ! I am known for my hugs!

Note to self: NEVER, under any circumstances, call out the name "Neenz."

Geez. There is too much hugging in this world.

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

I'm wavering about going to the HT Christmas Party. Part of me really wants to go, and the other part thinks that it might be too revealing. Niki, if you want to meet some HT people, (and my educated guess is that you work for a privately owned company and not civil service) then the annual Christmas Party is the way to go!

When is the HT Christmas Party?

Aj

[infinitypro]

Re: Disclosing Identity on Forums

Note to self: NEVER, under any circumstances, call out the name "Neenz."

Geez. There is too much hugging in this world.

And a LOL chuckle.

NOTE TO SELF: Give SCRIVS the biggest hug ever!

Umm...but on to more important things please sir, like the other thread it's after 9!