Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 14:35:24 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Why I dislike LiveJournal
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
At 12:27 PM 3/23/05 -0500, Ted White 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.
So, what did Hal Clement do time for?
I can think of lots of reasons for using aliases on-line that have nothing
to do with criminal or dishonest reasons. Wanna see? If not, hit delete
now...
The following is an old response I made to someone in a newsgroup who had a
real problem with folks using "handles". At the time I was using
"Stormbringer" as my handle. It's not exactly germane to the current
issue, but seems to overlap enough to be worth including. I've edited it
to remove the flammables...
A few reasons why people might want to use a pseudonym...some of which I've
used myself, some of which I've only seen or can imagine happening at some
time:
1. To stand out in a crowd and make ID easier. For instance, my
name is "Mike". Every third person seems to be named "Mike", and it
can get confusing real fast when there are a half dozen "Mikes" in a
thread. If some use other names this is not a problem.
2. To convey something about their personality, appearance, temperament
or other information that isn't as obvious in cyberspace as it
would be in person. Names like "Big Bob", "Cutie Pie", "Biker Dude",
"The Listener", or "The Mage" are a lot more descriptive than
"Mary Joe", "Betty Sue", or "Leonard Bogg", which may serve as good
enough labels, but tell you nothing else.
3. To avoid unwanted attention. Many women use male names to avoid
every over-hyped teenager with a modem from pestering them to death.
Don't think this will happen? Try posting to a group frequented by
teens using a name like "Candy", "Susan", "Mary Ellen" or "Heather"
and see for yourself. Try the same group using "Sam", "Ben" or
"Donald" and compare results (this, of course, adds another reason
for using a pseudonym: education).
4. Because their "real" name is not something they like, or it tends
to attract jokes that they are sick and tired of hearing. Some folks
just use a relatively common pseudonym when this happens, and
"William" becomes "Will" or "Bill", and sometimes it's more extreme
and "Richard Face" (didn't make this one up...parents can be
cruel...) becomes "Randal Johnson" or "Bob Connor" (see? Not all
Pseudonyms in use are ones you would recognize as such...see why
it's so pointless to worry about it?).
5. Because they are famous and just want to be normal folks for a
change and talk to people without all the "Oh! I read your book!
Can you tell me how you came up with...", and "You bastard! My wife
heard your damn show on the radio and now we're getting divorced!
I'll kill you!" stuff.
6. For fun. Some people get very bored just being "Bob" or "Jane" or
"Frank", and they want to think of themselves as a "Witherspoon" or
a "Hawk" or "Galadriel" for a while and see what happens.
There are lots of other reasons why someone might use a pseudonym (did you
know that "Mark Twain", "John Wayne" and "Hal Clement" are all pseudonyms?
Mark Twain's real name was "Samuel Clemmens", Mr. Wayne was born "Marion
Michael Morrison", and Hal Clement was known outside of SF publishing
circles as "Harry Stubbs"), but I hope you get the idea. You can decide for
yourself whether you approve or not, but criminals aren't the only ones
with good reasons to use aliases.
In my opinion I don't care what name people use, so long as they are
consistent in its use, so I can associate a particular set of posts with a
single individual and not be misled into thinking it's a crowd of folks. I
prefer one I can pronounce, but that's not a requirement. There's one NG I
read where there's a person named "/*"...I tend to pronounce this
"Slashterisk", and it works fine. It's pretty certain I'll never confuse
him with anyone else!
If you really think about it, someone who calls him/herself "Stormbringer"
is hiding a lot less than someone who uses "Bill Roberts", since you will be
reasonably sure that "Stormbringer" is an assumed name, while you will most
likely be fooled by "Bill Roberts", thinking it's "real", when it really
isn't.
You can also run into trouble when your imagination fails and you jump on
someone for using a pseudonym when they are, in fact, using their own name.
I know of at least one guy named "Freff" (no other parts, that's his
entire name...legally changed in court), and a woman named "Tree" (another
name change). These are *not* pseudonyms, those are their legal
names...they're just not all that common, and folks who hate aliases are
likely to assume that they are not, but that's their problem and limitation.
What I find hard to fathom is why you care. I can think of a number of
half-baked reasons, but none that stand up to any logical analysis or
factual input. The only one that would bug me too, someone who keeps
switching names to avoid prosecution or to appear to be several people, is
not one that we an do anything about since they can always pick names that
sound perfectly normal and therefore are not remarked upon, so why worry
about it?
-- Mike B.
--
"Press to test." <Click>. "Release to detonate...."