Anonymity and Code Project

[PIEBALDconsult]

(It's really just a trick to get more Reputation points for file downloads. :-D )

[_beauw_]

I don't really understand that, either, but I have realized that members here have widely divergent goals for the site. There are a lot of people (like CDP1802, I think) who want CP to be something like Facebook for programmers. Personally, that's not my goal here. I like being able to present information in article form. I like the article posting and update wizards, I trust the site to actually hold on to what I post, and it seems well-indexed by the major search engines. I will generally not post anything here that I wouldn't write in a journal article, school or work assignment, etc., with my own name on front. My feeling is that there are better outlets for that sort of thing. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and CDP1802 was a good member here. However, I do think that the people who have decided that CP is a social media site detract from our ability to be taken seriously. I would like to get some credit (in the hiring process, for example) for my work here, just like people get credit for working on open source projects. All of the personal and political junk that people post here just gets in the way of this goal, and I wonder why they can't (or won't) post such things on sites that are explicitly dedicated to that sort of thing.

[Jorgen Andersson]

John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:

I followed that up with "Menstrual Psycho". That might have been the last straw...

Because it was so vague that it could describe half the population?

Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak. List of common misconceptions

[jschell]

Karl Sanford wrote:

For those on here with pseudonyms, why do you do it?

Of course for certain reasons someone who is smart and who has decided to be anonymous wouldn't tell you that it was an alias nor would they tell you why.

Karl Sanford wrote:

I'm just having a hard time thinking of a scenario where you would stop coming to this site after 4 years just because someone found your true identity.

You do know that just because someone has a condition that leads to them being labeled insane it doesn't absolutely mean that they are stupid nor that they are incapable of formulating and carrying out complex plans?

[Nagy Vilmos]

My name is just too damned long. I have used "Nagy Vilmos" for years, when I first came to Hungary one of the guys at work called me "Big Willy" and that morphed into Nagy Vilmos. For work / business stuff I always use WilliamNW, the rest of the time it's Nagy Vilmos. Except on twitter, there I am @GinAndBacon just to be different.

---

Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. Drink. Get drunk. Fall over - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre I cannot live by bread alone. Bacon and ketchup are needed as well. - Trollslayer Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb - they're often *students*, for heaven's sake - Terry Pratchett

[Bassam Abdul Baki]

That too. :-D

Web - BM - RSS - Math - LinkedIn

[Michael Kingsford Gray]

Slacker habit, is my guess.

[cmger]

lol, that gave me a good one...

[Sentenryu]

well, Facebook let's me use "Mito Thiago Lourenço" as my username and never complained... maybe because it has my real name in it...

I'm brazilian and english (well, human languages in general) aren't my best skill, so, sorry by my english. (if you want we can speak in C# or VB.Net =p)

[Sentenryu]

Well, when you start using a pseudonym as a child and sudently everyone only knows you by that pseudonym, i guess i has morphed onto your new name... Of course, the name that i use here isn't this pseudonym, this pseudonyms is "Mito", that is portuguese for "Myth". I just use "Sentenryu" here because i don't feel like using "Mito" in a english website (or because it's already been taken, i can't remember...) Want to know who i'm? just do a search for "mito_tcl@hotmail.com", it's the same e-mail everywhere, it's not that hard to find me... That all aside, it's just better to use a pseudonym. real names are boring. (in case you are wondering, yes, i had a employer who called me "Mito")

I'm brazilian and english (well, human languages in general) aren't my best skill, so, sorry by my english. (if you want we can speak in C# or VB.Net =p)

[Gary Huck]

I don't know; I don't remember why I did it when I signed up. Sorry. GamleKoder is Norwegian for "Old Coder". -Gary Huckabone

[thomas michaud]

Actually any online identity... --For those on here with pseudonyms, why do you do it? Is it out of fear, just for fun, your real name was already taken by somebody? Do you do it so that you can bad mouth people without them knowing? Are you a celebrity and you just want to be a normal 'Joe'? Are you evading the law? Is it just a reflex and you don't care if somebody finds out who you are? Are you Batman? --I'm just having a hard time thinking of a scenario where you would stop coming to this site after 4 years just because someone found your true identity. Can't speak for others, but nope, never was trying to avoid the law. Not a celebrity. The use of handles is something ingrained into me back to my BBS days. Nowadays, sometimes I follow it now...sometimes not. But anyone that values their privacy -- wants to stay anonymous -- wants to be able to simply walk away. They tend to use the pseudonym. And sometimes (such as _why_the_lucky_stiff) they completely walk away.

[BrainiacV]

Companies I work for, have worked for, may work in the future, may object to my comments. Not that you couldn't reverse engineer it, but it prevents the casual, oh, let's see how he really feels about the places he's worked for because we can't have anyone say what they really feel...anywhere!

Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.

[DerekT P]

So what is reality anyway? I post on numerous fora (work and non-work) as DerekTP, and many people in real-life who knew me from fora and have since met me still only know me as DerekTP. (Plus, I have a long and confusing surname so even professionally I don't use my full "legal" surname, only part of it, only using the full thing for taxes, wills, birth certificates, genealogy websites etc.). So to me, CDP1802 was his real name. I guess if everyone refers to you as "that prat from Human Resources", then that is your name, and if you choose to post under your "real" name of "Fred Bloggs" then that's as much an anonymous post as CDP1802 or DerekTP or anything else. I don't use my full professional name since, whilst I don't mind other developers realising that I am NOT an omniscient demi-god of all things code related, and therefore can ask questions here with a clear conscience, if my clients were to realise this things might be tricker at rate-renewal time. :laugh: DerekTP

[Bruce Patin]

Sometimes what I post turns out to be politically sensitive in some way, which could affect my job or my relations with my friends and neighbors. Sometimes what I post belies my ignorance of the subject, which wouldn't be good if a prospective employer searches on my name, even if the post leads to my ignorance of that subject being rectified. For those reasons, I usually use a username that isn't directly related to my real name in a casual web search. If someone looks hard enough, they are likely to find a connection, but I will own up to what I have said in those cases, since it is obviously very important to them. Sometimes I would like what I post to be easily connected with my real name, so that I get credit for knowing something and helping others. That is the main reason for my using my real name on this site, but even so, I recognize the need to be careful of what I say here, while I might not be so careful on sites on which I use my cryptic pseudonym. Sometimes I won't get that desired credit, because I've used my pseudonym on some site, and I occasionally think about changing that somehow.

[SeattleC]

I use a psudonym because... I want to contribute technical opinions and personal experience of (supposed) value, but I only have limited time to invest in posting here because it doesn't pay the bills. I am known sometimes to make mistakes. I am known sometimes to have opinions that are not complimentary of managers, CEOs, competitors, and potential future employers. Every employer who has interviewed me in the past 5 years has googled my name to see what my footprints on the web look like. If I used my real name, I would have to check and recheck every fact, censor every opinion to be sure it was safe for every possible future employer for the next 20 years to read, and think about the signal sent by every wisecrack. This would be quite tedious. I do have a blog, under my True Name, which is checked and censored in this way. I can only afford to post to it occasionally. When I was young and stupid, fortunately before every item on the internet was permanantly archived, I said some young and stupid stuff. I would be quite embarrassed if some of that stuff was available for employers to find. There's a photo of Sarah Palin dressed as a hooker(?) for halloween. When she posted that photo, she never dreamed she'd be running for a major political office 20 years later. I don't want to have a Sarah Palin moment some time in the future, even if it's just at a job interview. I can't believe the stupid shit my children say on Facebook, and they are actually pretty mild. I've warned them it will come back to them some day. The world just doesn't need to know you had a row with your girlfriend named Heather and thought she was a bitch, forever. It doesn't. What happens to the children who get infatuated with Nazi uniforms or think the president is so stupid somebody should shoot them. That stuff used to dissipate into the ether and be forgotten, but not any more. This year it might land you on a no-fly list and you'd never know why, or maybe you don't get a call from a great employer and you never even know it was because you were snarky on the 'net. So yeah, I use a psudonym. If you don't you're crazy.

[Reelix]

Back in the days of old when I purchased Diablo 1, my real name was taken when I registered on Battle.NET. So I subsequently used the name of my (At the time) favorite cartoon character - Felix the cat. That was also taken. A bit of thinking later, I changed a letter, and used Relix - Which was also taken. One "e" later, and I've been using the same nick for many many years :) The last time I used my real name (Facebook) I was banned since my surname is the surname used by an annoyingly popular vampire movie trilogy family :sigh: . I subsequently changed my Facebook name to something blatantly fake to spite them, it was accepted, and life continued on its merry way :)

-= Reelix =-

[H Brydon]

That is exactly correct. I have been posting for about 20 years now and almost all of my old posts from 2 decades ago (which I thought would have a lifetime of about a month) are still around. Some of my work I am proud of but I made a few mistakes. I probably couldn't run for president now.

-- Harvey

[Member 4608898]

I just never bothered to changing the name given to me by CodeProject. I have used my actual name on some sites only to find that I'm not allowed that name because someone else has exactly the same name as me! They tell me that I'm already on the system when it is the first time I've been on the site. Nowadays, I just don't bother: I'll use whatever name they give me. It is useful to have your real name if people spell it correctly. Some employers actually do internet searches on your name to find out what you're up to in your spare time. I've actually been asked at an interview about an article I wrote for CodeGuru in 2002.