Do you want to have a career at a conservative institution such a bank or a career in politics? If so, it’s probably a bad idea to have too much attack surface by using your real name.
Do you want to make as many connections with other people as possible? If so, using your real name helps. It increases the attention that other people pay yourself. If you are smart and write insightful stuff that can mean job offers, speaking and speaking gigs.
If you meet people in real life might already know you from your online commentary that they have read and you don’t have to start introducing yourself.
It’s really a question of whether you think strangers are more likely to hurt or help you.
Do you want to make as many connections with other people as possible? If so, using your real name helps. It increases the attention that other people pay yourself. If you are smart and write insightful stuff that can mean job offers, speaking and speaking gigs.
I think the best long-term strategy would be to invent a different name and use the other name consistently, even in the real life. With everyone, except the government. Of course your family and some close friends would know your real name, but you would tell them that you prefer to be called by that other name, especially in public.
So, you have one identity, you make it famous and everyone knows you. Only when you want to get anonymous, you use your real name. And the advantage is that you have papers for it. So your employer will likely not notice. You just have to be careful never to use your real name together with your fake name.
Unless your first name is unusual, you can probably re-use your first name, which is how most people will call you anyway, so if you meet people who know your true name and people who know your fake name at the same time, the fact that you use two names will not be exposed.
Exactly! He is so good example that it is easy to not even notice him being a good example.
There is no “Gwern has an identity he is trying to hide” thought running in my mind when I think about him (unlike with Yvain). It’s just “Gwern is Gwern”, nothing more. Instead of a link pointing to the darkness, there is simply no link there. It’s not like I am trying to respect his privacy; I feel free to do anything I want and yet his privacy remains safe. (I mean, maybe if someone tried hard… but there is nothing reminding people that they could.) It’s like an invisible fortress.
But if instead he called himself Arthur Gwernach (abbreviated to Gwern), that would be even better.
I think the best long-term strategy would be to invent a different name and use the other name consistently, even in the real life. With everyone, except the government.
What threat do you want to protect against? If you fear the NSA, they have probably have no trouble linking your real name to your alias.
They know where the person with your real name lives and they know what web addresses get browsed from that location.
You just have to be careful never to use your real name together with your fake name.
I could not do that. I study in university under my real name and my identity as a university student is linked to my public identity. The link is strong enough that a journalist who didn’t contact me via a social network called my university to get in touch with me.
On LessWrong I write under my firstname plus the first two letters of my lastname. That means that anyone who recognises my identity from somewhere else can recognize me but if someone Google’s for me he can’t find me easily.
I have no trouble having to stand up for write I write on Lesswrong to people I meet in real life but having a discussion with one of my aunts about it wouldn’t be fun, so I don’t make it too easy. I also wouldn’t want the writing to be quoted out of context in other places. I would survive it but given the low level of filtering on what I write on LW it would be annoying.
As far as self censoring goes I feel safe to say one of my aunts given that I have multiple of them. Anybody reading couldn’t reduce who I mean. Whenever else I write something about someone I know I think twice whether someone could identify the person and if so I wouldn’t write it publicly under this identity. Asking about relationship advice and flashing out specific a problem would be a no-go for me because it might make details public that the other person didn’t want to have public. Everything I say in that regard is supposed to be general enough that no harm will come from it to other people I know personally.
For example I want to write blogs against religion or against some political party, and yet not be at a disadvantage when applying for a job in a company where the boss suports them. Also to avoid conflicts with colleagues.
I study in university under my real name and my identity as a university student is linked to my public identity.
Good point. In such case I would put the university in the same category as an employer. Generally, all institutions that have power over me at some point of my life.
Generally, all institutions that have power over me at some point of my life.
This. The face one presents to one’s peers is justifiably different from the face one presents to amoral, potentially dangerous organizations. Probably the first thing that, say, a job interviewer will do with a potential candidate is Google their name. Unless the interviewer is exceptionally open minded, it is critical to your livelihood that they not find the Harry Potter erotica you wrote when you were fifteen.
I have both a handle and a legal name. The handle is as much “me” as the legal one (more so, in some ways). I don’t hesitate to give out my real name to people I know online, but I won’t give my handle out to any organizational representative. I fear the bureaucracy more than random Internet kooks. It’s not about evading the NSA; it’s about keeping personal and professional life safely separated.
It’s like when I lock my doors, a skilled thief would get inside anyway. But it’s good to protect myself against the 99% of unskilled thieves (people who could become thieves when given a tempting opportunity). Similarly, it would be good to be protected against random people who merely type my name into google, look at the first three pages of results, open the first five linked articles, and that’s it.
It’s already rather late for me, but this is probably an advice I will give my children.
Technically, I could start using a new identity for controversial things today, and use my real name only for professional topics. But I am already almost 40. Even if after 10 years most of stuff written using my real name would get away from google top search results, it probably wouldn’t make a big difference. And seems to me that these days link rot is slower than it used to be. Also, I wouldn’t know what to do with my old unprofessional blog articles: deleting them would be painful; moving them to the new identity would expose me; keeping them defeats the purpose. -- I wish I could send this message back in time to my teenage self. Who would probably choose a completely stupid nickname.
If you think that the work you produce online is crap and people you care about will dislike you for it, than having a permanent record of it is bad. If you think that the work that you produce online is good than having a permanent record of it is good.
You might say that some people might not hire me when they read that I expressed some controversial view years ago in an online forum. I would say that I don’t want to increase the power of those organisations by working for them anyway.
I rather want to get hired by someone who likes me and values my public record.
There a bit of stoicism involved but I don’t think that it’s useful to live while hiding yourself. I rather fear having a lived a life where I leave no meaningful record than living a life that leaves a record.
You might say that some people might not hire me when they read that I expressed some controversial view years ago in an online forum. I would say that I don’t want to increase the power of those organisations by working for them anyway.
How far from the normal are you? You may quickly find your feelings change drastically as your positions become more opposed. I don’t want to work for organizations that would not hire me due to controversial views, but depending on the view and on my employment prospects, my choices may be heavily constrained. I’d rather know which organizations I can choose to avoid, rather than be forced out of organizations. ((There are also time-costs involved with doing it this way: it a company says it hates X in the news, and I like X, I can not send them a resume. But I send them a resume and then discover than they don’t want to hire me due to my positions on X during an interview, it’s a lot of lost energy.))
Conversely, writing under my own name would incentive avoiding topics that are or are likely to become controversial enough.
If I do most of my public activity under identity Bob but the government knows me as Dave, someone can still misrepresent me as I’m acting as Bob by misquoting things written under the Bob identity in the past.
If I want to prevent permanent records I would have to switch identities every so often which is hard to do without losing something if you have anything attached to those identities that you don’t want to lose.
It depending on how vocal and how controversial you are being with your internet persona. There is always the chance that you’ll acquire the ire of an angry mob...and if so, you’ve effectively doxxed yourself for them.
Being open with your name doesn’t automatically mean that phone numbers and your address is also public.
For most people I don’t think the risk is significant compared to other risks such as getting hit by a car. I would expect it to be one of those risks that’s easy to visualize but that has a rather low probability.
Being open with your name does mean that your phone numbers and address are likely to be public. Saarelma is a little more protected than the average, since Finland’s equivalent to WhitePages is not freely available world-wide, but those in the United States with an unusual name can be found for free.
That’s separate from the “ire of an angry mob” risk, which seems more likely to occur primarily for people who have a large enough profile that they’d have to have outed themselves anyway, though.
Should I not be using my real name?
Do you want to have a career at a conservative institution such a bank or a career in politics? If so, it’s probably a bad idea to have too much attack surface by using your real name.
Do you want to make as many connections with other people as possible? If so, using your real name helps. It increases the attention that other people pay yourself. If you are smart and write insightful stuff that can mean job offers, speaking and speaking gigs.
If you meet people in real life might already know you from your online commentary that they have read and you don’t have to start introducing yourself.
It’s really a question of whether you think strangers are more likely to hurt or help you.
I think the best long-term strategy would be to invent a different name and use the other name consistently, even in the real life. With everyone, except the government. Of course your family and some close friends would know your real name, but you would tell them that you prefer to be called by that other name, especially in public.
So, you have one identity, you make it famous and everyone knows you. Only when you want to get anonymous, you use your real name. And the advantage is that you have papers for it. So your employer will likely not notice. You just have to be careful never to use your real name together with your fake name.
Unless your first name is unusual, you can probably re-use your first name, which is how most people will call you anyway, so if you meet people who know your true name and people who know your fake name at the same time, the fact that you use two names will not be exposed.
This seems to be what Gwern has done.
Exactly! He is so good example that it is easy to not even notice him being a good example.
There is no “Gwern has an identity he is trying to hide” thought running in my mind when I think about him (unlike with Yvain). It’s just “Gwern is Gwern”, nothing more. Instead of a link pointing to the darkness, there is simply no link there. It’s not like I am trying to respect his privacy; I feel free to do anything I want and yet his privacy remains safe. (I mean, maybe if someone tried hard… but there is nothing reminding people that they could.) It’s like an invisible fortress.
But if instead he called himself Arthur Gwernach (abbreviated to Gwern), that would be even better.
What threat do you want to protect against? If you fear the NSA, they have probably have no trouble linking your real name to your alias.
They know where the person with your real name lives and they know what web addresses get browsed from that location.
I could not do that. I study in university under my real name and my identity as a university student is linked to my public identity. The link is strong enough that a journalist who didn’t contact me via a social network called my university to get in touch with me.
On LessWrong I write under my firstname plus the first two letters of my lastname. That means that anyone who recognises my identity from somewhere else can recognize me but if someone Google’s for me he can’t find me easily.
I have no trouble having to stand up for write I write on Lesswrong to people I meet in real life but having a discussion with one of my aunts about it wouldn’t be fun, so I don’t make it too easy. I also wouldn’t want the writing to be quoted out of context in other places. I would survive it but given the low level of filtering on what I write on LW it would be annoying.
As far as self censoring goes I feel safe to say one of my aunts given that I have multiple of them. Anybody reading couldn’t reduce who I mean. Whenever else I write something about someone I know I think twice whether someone could identify the person and if so I wouldn’t write it publicly under this identity. Asking about relationship advice and flashing out specific a problem would be a no-go for me because it might make details public that the other person didn’t want to have public. Everything I say in that regard is supposed to be general enough that no harm will come from it to other people I know personally.
A conservative employer, less skilled than NSA.
For example I want to write blogs against religion or against some political party, and yet not be at a disadvantage when applying for a job in a company where the boss suports them. Also to avoid conflicts with colleagues.
Good point. In such case I would put the university in the same category as an employer. Generally, all institutions that have power over me at some point of my life.
This. The face one presents to one’s peers is justifiably different from the face one presents to amoral, potentially dangerous organizations. Probably the first thing that, say, a job interviewer will do with a potential candidate is Google their name. Unless the interviewer is exceptionally open minded, it is critical to your livelihood that they not find the Harry Potter erotica you wrote when you were fifteen.
I have both a handle and a legal name. The handle is as much “me” as the legal one (more so, in some ways). I don’t hesitate to give out my real name to people I know online, but I won’t give my handle out to any organizational representative. I fear the bureaucracy more than random Internet kooks. It’s not about evading the NSA; it’s about keeping personal and professional life safely separated.
It’s like when I lock my doors, a skilled thief would get inside anyway. But it’s good to protect myself against the 99% of unskilled thieves (people who could become thieves when given a tempting opportunity). Similarly, it would be good to be protected against random people who merely type my name into google, look at the first three pages of results, open the first five linked articles, and that’s it.
It’s already rather late for me, but this is probably an advice I will give my children.
Technically, I could start using a new identity for controversial things today, and use my real name only for professional topics. But I am already almost 40. Even if after 10 years most of stuff written using my real name would get away from google top search results, it probably wouldn’t make a big difference. And seems to me that these days link rot is slower than it used to be. Also, I wouldn’t know what to do with my old unprofessional blog articles: deleting them would be painful; moving them to the new identity would expose me; keeping them defeats the purpose. -- I wish I could send this message back in time to my teenage self. Who would probably choose a completely stupid nickname.
How about a publicly accessible collection of everything you did or said online that is unerasable and lasts forever?
“I hope you know that this will go down on your permanent record”
You don’t name a threat.
If you think that the work you produce online is crap and people you care about will dislike you for it, than having a permanent record of it is bad. If you think that the work that you produce online is good than having a permanent record of it is good.
You might say that some people might not hire me when they read that I expressed some controversial view years ago in an online forum. I would say that I don’t want to increase the power of those organisations by working for them anyway.
I rather want to get hired by someone who likes me and values my public record.
There a bit of stoicism involved but I don’t think that it’s useful to live while hiding yourself. I rather fear having a lived a life where I leave no meaningful record than living a life that leaves a record.
How far from the normal are you? You may quickly find your feelings change drastically as your positions become more opposed. I don’t want to work for organizations that would not hire me due to controversial views, but depending on the view and on my employment prospects, my choices may be heavily constrained. I’d rather know which organizations I can choose to avoid, rather than be forced out of organizations. ((There are also time-costs involved with doing it this way: it a company says it hates X in the news, and I like X, I can not send them a resume. But I send them a resume and then discover than they don’t want to hire me due to my positions on X during an interview, it’s a lot of lost energy.))
Conversely, writing under my own name would incentive avoiding topics that are or are likely to become controversial enough.
No, I name a capability to misrepresent and hurt you.
If I do most of my public activity under identity Bob but the government knows me as Dave, someone can still misrepresent me as I’m acting as Bob by misquoting things written under the Bob identity in the past.
If I want to prevent permanent records I would have to switch identities every so often which is hard to do without losing something if you have anything attached to those identities that you don’t want to lose.
It depending on how vocal and how controversial you are being with your internet persona. There is always the chance that you’ll acquire the ire of an angry mob...and if so, you’ve effectively doxxed yourself for them.
Being open with your name doesn’t automatically mean that phone numbers and your address is also public.
For most people I don’t think the risk is significant compared to other risks such as getting hit by a car. I would expect it to be one of those risks that’s easy to visualize but that has a rather low probability.
Being open with your name does mean that your phone numbers and address are likely to be public. Saarelma is a little more protected than the average, since Finland’s equivalent to WhitePages is not freely available world-wide, but those in the United States with an unusual name can be found for free.
That’s separate from the “ire of an angry mob” risk, which seems more likely to occur primarily for people who have a large enough profile that they’d have to have outed themselves anyway, though.