moksha wrote:There is always the chance you are placing yourself in harms way by breaking anonymity. Look at the threats and retribution used against Mr. Crockett by using his real name. The irony is that he sought to implore others to put themselves in the same harms way by using their own real identity. You never can tell when someone will carry perceived religious slights to the extreme and forget about turning the other cheek.
Mr. Crockett has an idiot for a lawyer and he took his advice.
a.k.a. Pokatatorjoined Oct 26, 2006 and permanently banned from MAD Nov 6, 2006
"Stop being such a damned coward and use your real name to own your position."
"That's what he gets for posting in his own name."
2 different threads same day 2 hours apart Yohoo Bat 12/1/2015
surely you have to be considering the ramifications of using your real name with all the BS talk from the other board? You did a good thing and put your name out there and I admire the effort and risk you have taken. Are you worried about all this litagation talk even though you did nothing short of good?
MsJack wrote:Using your real name on a message board.
The good:
1. It's easier to build up credibility and trust with the communities you post in. 2. You're more likely to get offers for other types of publicity and writing work if you carry out your activities under your real name. 3. People cannot accuse you of being an "anonymous coward" and only saying the things you say because you're free from accountability. 4. You're immune to being irritated by people who live to "out" anonymous posters.
The bad:
1. Easier for creepy people to stalk you. 2. Your real-life friends and family may Google you, so you'd better either not talk about them or be prepared to deal with it if they do. 3. Some people may attempt to use your online behavior to cause problems in other areas of your life, whether you deserve it or not. 4. It's easier for people to ad hominem you.
I've only known one blogger who was disciplined by the church for his online posting activity, unless the rumors concerning John Dehlin being up for church discipline are true. That would make two.
On the other hand, C. L. Hanson has been blogging about having sex in the BYU library for years and can't get anyone to excommunicate her to save her life.
lostindc wrote:I admire those who openly use their actual name on message boards focused on Mormonism. I sometimes want to do it myself but I fear the backlash. For one, I know that I would likely get crushed by local Church leaders if they knew my cafeteria/ethnic/NOM style. Second, I imagine the Will Shriverlesyers of the world can do damage via the world wide web.
Have any of you fellow posters thought about using your actual name? If you have used your real name have you suffered?
I posted for a long time using my name, such that just about everyone here knows my name. For the most part it wasn't a big problem, but it became one when someone started sending threatening emails to my wife. I'm not bothered when people go after me anymore, but I don't like the idea that I'm putting my family in the crosshairs of potential nutjobs.
It's a catch 22 to use your real name. Clearly people actively publishing in Mormon Studies have much to gain with name recognition but for the average Joe, like myself, there is little to gain and I prefer not to lose my privacy.
The only person in 10 years that I've told my in real life identity to is David Bokovoy because he thought maybe he knew me from my time in Cambridge. I doubt he remembers either of my names.
I'm worried that if I post my real photo and name, everyone, including men will start commenting on my hotness and that just won't do.
Oh for shame, how the mortals put the blame on us gods, for they say evils come from us, but it is they, rather, who by their own recklessness win sorrow beyond what is given... Zeus (1178 BC)
Using my real name helps put my emotions in check. It encourages me to be more civil on the forums. Although I may still be an ass at times, I know I'd be much worse if I were protected by a pseudonym.
It's a terrible idea, especially on a religious forum.
V/R Dr. Cam
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.