Posting Under an Alias
As somebody who does in fact post under his own name (a failure of imagination rather than a principled stand), this wouldn't preturb me particualrly. However, most people here do appear to post under an adopted screen name. Would youu object?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10543100.stm
Post edited by Tom Gale on
Comments
that said, forum rules are forum rules, and if you don't like them you don't have to use said forum.
I'm not registered under my full name anywhere, but on one forum I use my Ham Radio callsign. From that you can get my full postal address easily... From the links I post in my sig etc you can get to my blog, and from there anyone with time to waste could work out where I live.
It all depends where you're posting of course, if I register on a forum full of nutters I don't put any of those identifying things anywhere :)
From his facebook account I got is town and within 40 mins I'd got his address by finding the house on Goggle Earth and matching the picture with street view.
So it's quite easy for someone to find you and track you down, even by things you might say in a forum alone.
However, I feel having an anonymous user name is represents an extra hurdle in finding out too much information about someone. As in some one could not just drop by and work out it was me on here.
For example, if one or more of my students knew I was scottie UK, I'm sure they would have a laugh at my expense. Especially with some of the videos and images I've posted on here.
psj3809
Pete Smith
11 High Street
High Wycombe
HR1 1PR
DOB: 12/1/1971
(Keys under the door mat if i'm not in)
Alarm code: 1241
Bank details: Sort code: 11-22-33, Account number: 3214141 Password: fluffybunny
Excuse me, you left out your bank security questions/answers. We'll be needing those too, if you don't mind...
Password: password
i just typed your name into the search function and found you quite easily.
:-P
But to be fair you can get someones email address from ebay if you win something off them and need to send them money etc. It normally lists their home number etc as well.
But would be weird if on a forum everyones name was their first/last name instead of the usual handles which has been used since the net began (it seems)
you've posted your name on here too. :p
That having said, I can see a problem with a site such as WOW, which attracts a high proportion of young teenagers, in terms of online safety. It would be much easier for kids to be targetted by nefarious types once they are using their own names (it distinguishes boys from girls for a start). So I'm not really in favour for it there for that reason alone.
I can see that it has its benefits in the right place though.
Should be a few good youtube game nerd fights when one turns up on the doorstep of their forum rival.
Hang on a minute that's not your real bank details you liar.
For a start your sort code is: 14-92-50 and your account number is 6031769. Then you missed our the 3 number security code on the signature strip which is 371.
In all seriousness in something as male-dominated as gaming as soon as a female raises there hand they're bombarded with all kinds of filth and lewd comments. Using an alias is one way for them to hide their gender.
Or stab them to death like that loon from a few months back did when he got beat at Modern Warfare or whatever he was playing.
Yeah giving out peoples real names on the internet is a really smart idea :lol:
My name is on our company website and so far no crazy internet folk or irate customers have been trying to stab me.
Lots of names are out there without mad stabbings going on....you can get a book of names from the telephone company too...it's not a new concept.
The point is if your name is out there you are less likely to 'act the dick' which could lead to 'mad stabbings'.
If you went crazy ape shit at someone in the store and call them all the names under the sun as some of these idiots online do... are you more likely to get stabbed in the store than if you didn't?.......accountability and no ability to 'hide' behind the screen.
I think it's reasonable enough..you don't HAVE to post/sign up if you don't want too and clearly unless you are completely stupid you will be more careful in what you post...everyone wins.
beanz plays WOW. :p
No I don't..never have. (I playED Everquest! free on a private server) RAWR
im sure it was you who said you did. someone here plays it. we need to find them and eject them. :D
People who go crab fishing shouldn't throw stones :p
Same here (for the last 12 years in fact)
Nicknames are not safe either, I spoke to one person only the other day who didn`t know about my past work, I mentioned someones nickname in passing, and he said " what ********** ******** ? " ( his real name ) he then said " yes we have him banged up for life on a murder charge ".
Then again you dont have the name Beanz on your company website either so most people would not be able to link the two names.
Without actually wanting to challenge anyone to try, you'd be very har pressed to track me down from just my name. There are quite a few Tom Gale's out there including a famous car designer and some twonk who has set-up tomgale.com to tell the world about his love of comics. Facebook is another thing altogether. It seems purposefully designed to help people from your past reconnect with you; I don't want aything to do with it.
That's the whole point of associating them....If I posted meaningless nothing posts the association wouldn't matter would it...if I posted 'I'm going to beat the life out of you you effing idiot' all the time it would matter.
Behave and the association means nothing....Linking them does nothing other than linking them...if you are afraid of the link then you are afriad of something you have posted being associated with you...
Probably because it's a company website.
really I've never heard of it what's it called? Sounds useful :p
I suppose you're right I'm not going to sign up to WOW forums cos' it doesn't interest me, but hypothetically speaking I'd like a choice in weither or not I used my real name if I did.
I tend not to treat people online as just text on a screen, although that may be cos' I'm in my 30's and really have no desire to go off on tirades of swearing and threats at people I've never met before, and probably never will meet (unless they track me down and stab me? ;)).
Really what it boils down to is another form of censorship, if a forum has trolls the mods can remove them, or other users can ignore them.
personally i dont like too much info about me online........but i do let quite a bit through, my forum name features part of my real name anyway lol
So what is more likely, someone hunting me down for selling a piece of equipment that fails and takes out $30k of other equipment attached to it.
... or hunting someone down and stabbing them for calling me/him a dick in an online game.....
surely I'd be more at risk :)
It's a bit like people who don't like to use their credit cards online (my dad for example) but happily hand it over to a $7 an hour idiot in the store (who then transmits it over the internet with the added bonus he could harvest your number/details from it).
False sense of security.
http://www.attackvector.org/invasion-of-privacy/
That makes me laugh. I know quite a few people like that. Heard many stories of dodgy blokes in petrol stations cloning cards etc. If it happens it happens. My postman nicked my cheque book years back, bank sorted it out. My parents wont put their details online but are quite happy to write cheques or use a card at a petrol station.
If it happens it happens. Lifes too short to start worrying or spending 12 hours deleting posts from a forum etc to cover your history. Jesus, would take me about 4 months to delete mine !