Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 13:29:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Cat Meier <fairestcat at techemail.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Why I dislike LiveJournal
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

--- "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net> wrote:
>So I repeat:  why *should* people "spend a second to connect the names.
>Just like with any other alias."?   Most aliases are used by criminals or
>people trying to hide their identity for dishonest reasons.

I think we must hang out on rather different segments of the internet.

In most of the places I've "lived" online using an alias or at least having the choice of using an alias is pretty much standard practice.

The most common reason is privacy.  Someone googling my real name for job purposes doesn't need to know that I write and edit slash and post a lot of pictures of celebrities.  They probably don't want to know either.

I'll use as a hypothetical case a friend who works in the arts.  A google search on her real name would bring up a listing of her papers/projects/connections/etc. within her field.  If someone was googling her real name, this is presumably what they would be looking for.  A google search of her lj alias brings up her slash.  The people looking for her slash don't actually need to know what she does for a day job and the people looking for her day job are probably happier remaining ignorant of her slash.

Which ties into another reason that's fairly common in slash communities.  Homophobia.  The homophobic potential employer that comes across your slash.  Oops, no job.  Well, you might say, you didn't want to work for a homophobe anyway.  Except that a lot of people can't afford to be that picky.  If you've been unemployed for six months and can't live on minimum wage, you swallow your pride and work for the homophobe.  Last year, a Harry Potter slash writer was fired from her job after someone who was in an online fight with her sent her boss a link to her slash page.

Or the homophobic family member who finds your slash.  The devoutly catholic mother; the conservative republican brother.  Sometimes in the interest of family relations we keep things from our families because we're not willing to pay the price of them finding out, especially if the price is disownment or a loss of relationship.  Especially if you live with said family member.

One that is very much a factor for a lot of people I know that probably wouldn't even occur to you is stalking.  I really dont' want that person I meet in the "insert fandom here" community who reallllly loves my fic to show up on my doorstep one morning.  I really don't want one of the regular trolls slash communities get, who are typically male and often threatening, to find out my address so they can switch from threatening emails to threatening letters.

Actually, a lot of young women I know find aliases an advantage on non-fannish boards.  If you're a beginning poster on a gaming or tech board, maybe you don't want everyone to know that you're 21 and female.

Really there are a lot of perfectly honest reasons to use an alias online.  There are a lot of incredibly intelligent reasons to use an alias online.  They have nothing to do with criminality and everything to do with privacy and safety.

Most of us don't have the luxury of not worrying about what our employer thinks.  Maybe someday I will, but not right now.  Personally, my entire family reads my lj, fannish and real life combined, but I'm well aware that I'm incredibly lucky in my family.  I don't expect everyone to be that lucky.

Cat

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