Comments on: When commenting, why do some people use a profile name and others use their real name? Does it matter which one I choose to use?

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 08:29:22 +0000

Thanks, it teach me a lot!

By: Firefly sb

Firefly sb — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:23:53 +0000

Thanks for helping me settle a quandry. I’m a newbie and am very hesitant about throwing my identity out into the ethos where it might be grab for evil/bothersome purposes. Now I can think of my online identity as a unique way for others to recognize or remember me and not a way to “hide.”

By: Bobbelur

Bobbelur — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:41:11 +0000

The Bobbelur nick is a persona/character build over some years. I blog and comment and visit forums/discussion board under that nick, so to me it is almost the same as my own name. As many might have found – when meeting fellow bloggers irl, I do respond to the nick as well as my own name.

By: cb

cb — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:26:18 +0000

I use an alias because I write about work and don’t think it would be looked favourably upon and as the profession is quite tightly knit, I don’t want to be identified. I wish I’d picked a better alias though but now as I post and comment with it, it’s sticking around!

By: jennyonthespot

jennyonthespot — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:53:37 +0000

I sign “jennyonthespot” – so many Jennys! I also do it for brand and since it’s the title of my blog – it just makes sense. Good post.

By: Florinda

Florinda — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:26:27 +0000

I use my real name when I comment, since I also blog under it. It’s an unusual one (I’m not aware of any other bloggers with it), and I like to be consistent.

By: Jo

Jo — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Melanie, thanks for the post, it has answered my question.

By: Dawn @ My Home Sweet Home

Dawn @ My Home Sweet Home — Mon, 12 May 2008 18:49:37 +0000

When I first started blogging, I was wary of using my real name and I signed as “Mommy Dearest.” Now, I’ll admit that I’ve pretty much purged my house of wire hangers, but really this was just a joke nickname my mother and I used. I realized over time that some people took it the wrong way – differently than I’d intended – so I sucked it up and started using my real name.

Although I don’t know many other Dawns in real life, there do seem to be some other bloggers; therefore, I leave comments as “Dawn @ My Home Sweet Home.” That way I’m using my name and distinguishing myself from the other Dawn bloggers at the same time.

I just posted about WordPress gravatars (http://myhomesweethomeonline.net/?p=1014). That’s something that is easy to set up and displays an avatar on WP blogs with the gravatar plugin installed (I just installed that plugin on mine and two other blogs over the weekend).

Good post!

By: jessica @pianomomsicle

jessica @pianomomsicle — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:08:03 +0000

i started writing jessica @pianomomsicle in comments so i can distinguish myself from other jessicas. It seems to work nicely. Just pianomomsicle didn’t give me a real name, either. i like the combo of the two.

By: Brad K.

Brad K. — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:11:38 +0000

The name you use is part of your online ‘appearance’. In real life, choosing to wear jeans, a suit, or a sweat suit tells the people you encounter how you prepared for this encounter, how you view the role you are playing, and to some extent how you view yourself.

Online, how you sign yourself tells people something about what role you see yourself playing, like a mask. Or a sweat suit.