pseudonyms

Andy Sparrow

Active member
I like very much the general principle of this forum, despite the predicatably negative comments on uk.rec.caving. I have one major complaint however; why the pseudonyms? Who are these effectively anonymous moderators? To me it gives the whole site a flavour of immature superficiality which can only be to the detrimanent of this forum. So, please, reveal yourselves, use real names, and then maybe this thing will take off......
 

SamT

Moderator
On the one hand I agree with you - there is an air of anonymity - not by design though.

Im sarge aka sam townsend - eldon pothole club. I was dubbed sarge down our dig by the fact that I was always bossing everyone about.

But hang on - we're cavers - every bleeders got a nickname - go to any stomp or meet and its "Hi - meet bog, moose, dunka, and toogood - oh and that fat lad over there is bubba :wink: " .

I think this type of forum is far nicer to browse/post that the .rec type of boards. It may never be as popular or large as some of the equivalent climbing sites - rocktalk and ukbouldering. but then thats caving (and long may it stay that way). The uptake is slow but hopefully as news spreads it will become a valuable place to advertise and share information.

most people have a proper E mail address that you can post a private message (pm incase like me you wondered what pm was on the site) to if you want to make proper contact.

The moderators are only there to remove obscene / extremely offensive / dangerous posts.

see ya laters

Sarge
 

bubba

Administrator
Andy Sparrow said:
why the pseudonyms?

Thanks for your comments Andy - this issue is one that is often raised on forums, and although on the one had I can see your point, the reasons that I use a pseudonym are twofold:

- It's a bit of a laugh and if anyone really want's to know who I am, then I'll tell them in private.

- I don't want my name coming up in posts on here, or on search engine results that link to this board. Why? Mainly because I don't want my workplace/prospective employers/people with a grudge/etc to know everything about my leisure time. Some employers see "extreme sports" as a big negative.
 

bubba

Administrator
Also,

- It offers a layer of privacy against those who may disagree with my opinions or want to track down my real identity for any reason. There's a lot of strange people out there in webland.
 

underground

Active member
I think I must agree with bubba on this one Andy. From a personal point of view I choose an anonymous pseudonym because I wish to remain anonymous to those who would wish to find out who I am.

Were I to get into a discussion on a face to face basis, then I would be happy to voice my opinion and debate openly, As I would know who I was talking to.

The problem with the WWW is that as bubba points out, there are some strange characters out there, and I would not necessarily feel happy giving my opinion and identity to all and sundry, particlularly if the issue were contentious. You just don't know who you're dealing with.

Particularly as the caving community is relatively close knit, it wouldn't be too hard to locate someone should you so wish. Or to come across them in a commercial scenario, and find that an opinion voiced on a message forum caused one to take business elsewhere.

But of course, I would happily enter into a discussion with someone should they want to contact me privately and i felt comfortable doing so. It's just a matter of giving oneself the option of objectivity.
 
C

chris castle

Guest
Are things really that bad? Can anyone give some examples? I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but I must say this sounds like paranoia. Sorry to bring in rec.caving again, but some of the characters who so annoyingly use it as a chatroom quite happily sign their own names. Pseudonyms do have a rather sinister air in a forum, quite unneccersarily in this case.
Oh well, maybe it does'nt really matter, I hope the forum succeeds. I have a few topics I'd like to have a mature discussion about, and as I do not have a pseudonym I can only hope the "strange characters" keep away!
Chris
 

bubba

Administrator
It does smack a little of paranoia I agree, but in my mind it's a healthy paranoia. It could also be argued however that to view the use of pseudonyms as "sinister" is equally paranoid!

One important point that I think people often forget regarding forums/chatrooms etc is that when a poster uses a real looking name, many other people automatically believe that person is who they say they are. In many cases this is no doubt the truth, but as this is just the virtual world, there is no assurance of that whatsoever. How do I know you're really "Chris Castle"? I don't. At least the use of a pseudonym clears up that issue once and for all. You could say, "well, check out my email address, etc", but as we all know, that's just as easily spoofed as any other online information.

Please don't for a minute that I automatically suspect you of being someone else, but to offer a real example of the above, on one of the other forums I run, there are at least two people who use completely false, but real looking names - I know this, because I know who they really are, but nobody else on the forum does. This is not a problem, it's just another way of using a pseudonym, but in some ways I find it more disturbing than if they just used a handle instead.

To offer a more general example, I have posted to many different forums over the years, and some of these have involved posting regarding topics that would certainly be of interest to an employer, and not in a good way. If I search on a particular pseudonym in Google, then I many of these postings are instantly to hand to any interested parties. If I had used my real name, then my real name would be associated for ever more with those postings, which to my mind is undesirable.
Now, I can see how you'd see this as paranoid, but I currently work for a company that specialises in information gathering on individuals, and although they don't scour the internet for information, it's not outside the realms of possibility that they, or some other interested party might do in the future.

Personally, I think it's desirable to retain as much privacy online as possible, within reason. For someone who really wanted to find out who I am, it wouldn't be very hard just by making a few informed enquiries. To me it's about balance. I want to have a degree of freedom in what I post online, but I don't want to broadcast my name everywhere, nor do I want to be so paranoid that all my online activity is carried out via 10 anonymous proxies, using anonymous isp accounts, etc, etc.

Phew!! All this said, if anyone really is bothered by this, then I'm quite happy to tell them who I am via mail/pm.

I hope I've explained myself here, so please feel free to discuss whatever you want on here.
 

Andy Sparrow

Active member
Thanks for the replies and feedback everybody. Well, it's a free world and we are all entitled to our views and to the right not to use our real name if we so choose, but, quite honestly, the arguments presented to justify pseudonyms are, in my opinion, complete cobblers. Those perusing the forum who have not yet registered will have to make their own judgement on this isssue - I hope they will agree with me and Chris Castle and that those choosing to use pseudonyms will be a tiny minority.
 

bubba

Administrator
Andy Sparrow said:
... but, quite honestly, the arguments presented to justify pseudonyms are, in my opinion, complete cobblers....

Why? Please explain why you think we're talking crap.....I've yet to hear a good argument that would persuade me to use my real name in the public domain.
 

Andy Sparrow

Active member
Why? Please explain why you think we're talking crap.....I've yet to hear a good argument that would persuade me to use my real name in the public domain

Calm down now... I didn't say you were 'talking crap'. What I said, in effect, was that the arguments presented for pseudonyms are, in my opinion, totally unconvincing. We shall have to agree to differ. Anyway, it at least provoked the first vigorous discussion on this forum.
 
J

Jonathan T

Guest
There is a half way house as usual, just use your first name with maybe the first letter of your last name. It's a bit more personal than 'speleoboy' but still anonymous enough for most situations.
 
C

chris castle

Guest
I was going to let this drop, but as Bubba (or Blubba) went to the trouble of such a detailed explanation it would be discourtious not to reply. The trouble is, I'm probably of the generation above you lot and I am not used to anonymity, and yes, it does seem a bit sinister to me. It's a generation thing, but if that's the way the yoof of today wishes to behave, I'll try and get used to it.
I'm not convinced by these arguments. I take Bubba's point that he has to be careful in his job, but few of us work for MI5 or whatever. On one hand I'd be interested to hear about any unpleasant experiences anyone's had; on the other we should be discussing caving matters! Therefore that's the last you'll hear from me on this topic, I'll have a stir on more relevant matters shortly.
Chris
 

bubba

Administrator
chris castle said:
yoof of today wishes to behave....

Youth?! I wish mate, I wish......

At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter, so let's just live and let live. Look at any other forum and you'll almost certainly see a mix of real and not real names; it's just the way of the web....
 

ianball11

Active member
I can see why everyone uses nicknames, it's cool. Could it be Mr Sparrow that you have a hidden agenda in that you want your name every where as caving is your livelihood and as much exposure as possible is good for you so putting yourself in the public domain is a easy thing for you to do. Not everyone wants to be remembered, they just want an answer to any questions they have.

And another thing is my name is the same as the guitarist in Gomez. When they were really popular about 99' I got about three emails a week asking for autographs and saying they really liked my music! Not exactly demented nutcases but it made me think about who I give away my personal details to.
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
I only found this site recently, having just got access to the web etc.. At first sight it would apppear that nothing much is happening on this site or am I looking in the wrong place? Are these things just flashes in the pan and then game over?

Or perhaps, like me, you prefer actually going caving rather than nerding.
 

bubba

Administrator
Cap'n Chris said:
I only found this site recently, having just got access to the web etc.. At first sight it would apppear that nothing much is happening on this site or am I looking in the wrong place? Are these things just flashes in the pan and then game over?

Or perhaps, like me, you prefer actually going caving rather than nerding.

Patience is a virtue :wink:

This site hasn't been going very long at all, and good forums that don't allow guest posts (to weed out the crap) always take time to build up and get going. At the end of the day the more that people put in, the more that everybody gets out.....keep posting and keep the place alive!
 

cap n chris

Well-known member
In retrospect I was actually looking in the wrong place - I didn't understand how the site functioned; now I do and now I know there is life out there... not as much as could be desired but at least the feedback and topics contain sanity rather than insults. As long as everyone has a positive approach to the forum then it should prosper.

Just to be topical I ought to point out that I rather enjoy being a sudonim `cos it keeps the locals guessing and has something of a sinister element to it... also it seems to do away with egos quite well... forcing you to base your impressions on the content of the message and not the writer.
 
E

eyecave

Guest
i think they are great........as long as the person isn't being vulgar, threatening or other such ridiculous behavior i see nothing wrong with them ...because i think they make the speaker much less inhibited when speaking......the moderator of the discussion group is the enforcer......it iz their job to discipline the unruly...... i am not that paranoid about society and will readily and eagerly share my real name and such with those who need to know....... But i see nothing wrong with remaining somewhat anonomouse.........i also think we should all be responsible enough to control our anger, to remain civil and be able to talk about our differences without drawing swords.....
 
K

Ken Passant

Guest
I think Andy S. Is right as is Chris C. (are your real names Hubba & kap 'n kiss) WHO ARE YOU WHO WHO WHO........................
 
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