Most of you have screen names that are basically impossible to search for on the broader internet. Kyriakos, for example, is a not uncommon Christian name among Greeks, to say nothing of downtown and Antilogic.
Some of you do have screen names that can be searched for with relative ease and precision.
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Most of us have probably put our internet presence together in drips and drabs, not being conscious of building a holistic identity. If you had to do it all over again, knowing what you know now, would you select a uniquely identifiable name that could be searched for easily, or something that permits you to blend into the background? Would you select the same user name across multiple platforms or vary it up?
I just did a search of my CFC username, and discovered that in addition to here, people can find me at a writing forum and a Roman history forum. I go by "Valka" at Alpha Centauri 2 (a SMAC forum whose link is in my sig) because that forum's software wouldn't recognize the apostrophe. And since most people in our Civ community know me as Valka anyway (as does the admin of that forum), it's okay.
Anything in that Google search involving training dragons has absolutely nothing to do with me.
It was a hoot to come across the "birthday potato" photo someone posted a few years back for my birthday.
As for using the same identity everywhere, I've discovered that unless you're someone who never picks up enemies, it's best to have a variety. I've considered changing my username on a few sites after having acquired a couple of stalkers who tracked me using the name from the forum where they knew me and finding me on a couple of other sites, under a couple of other names. Some of my posts from CFC were copied/pasted into the blog one of them has, accompanied by some rather twisted, nasty commentary.
There are not many people on any forum who know my RL name, though I suppose it's probably not that hard for a determined person to find it. I have been completely honest in my RL location and age since I don't see any reason not to be and it's hard to be myself if I'm hiding stuff like that. I've emailed with a few folks here, and those are the people who know my real identity (along with anyone with whom I corresponded in the round-the-world camera project).
I've consciously made the decision to unify my usernames across all social media. I used to have the (personally considered) bad habit of being a ghost in almost all ways. I'd permanently remove all traces of my past every few months, over and over again. As a result, I have no photos or documents of my childhood. None of my projects exist anymore. There isn't a trace of my life from before the age of 17 besides a couple remembered usernames on old forums and this forum as well (since I changed my username to be my unified name).
It got bad enough that at one point, the government itself thought I wasn't a real person. It definitely drove home the point that being nonexistent in any records was a poor decision since I don't want to die having contributed nothing to the world. Having a unified social media profile means that even if I delete everything, there are still traces to be found here and there. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but thus far it has been better for my self-progress than simply continuing to intentionally not exist in any meaningful way.
I've had the experience of being thought dead... because a utility company got me mixed up with my grandmother, who really is dead. Our names are very similar (her first name is my middle name) and we lived at the same address for decades, while she was alive. So when she died and there was an issue with the account, I got a letter stating that my electricity was being cut off because I was dead.
For an online presence... well, some of what I've written is gone, usually not by my preference, but there are some forums that do this obnoxious thing called "pruning" and they don't care about the quality of what they dump, just what date it was posted.
You still use a username to identify your FB profile URL.
I've been thinking about changing my username for some time now. Like many on the internet I've come to be dissatisfied with the username I picked out for myself when I was 14.
It's not very considerate to change your username after I've finally learned how to spell it.
Not considerate at all.
Really. If you change it, I'm going to be very unhappy.
Hmph.
