Personally, I'm glad to share my identification with certain individuals on a selective basis, but not just anyone on a public Posting/Commenting site.

Being an Objectivist in today's world is not necessarily a popular stance, and to be honest my privacy, or loss of it, is a right that I protect as much as I can. There's far too little of it left today.

My reason for not using my real name is, I think, justifiable. Thirty years ago I was publicly identified as a vital technical expert for strategic warning systems, and shortly thereafter was the target of an attempt on my life (obviously unsuccessful) by the KGB. I remained in the field of space based sensors, contributing to missile defense and intelligence communities, and was advised to keep a low profile.

It's been a long time, and the Soviet Union is no more, but I've occasionally had repeated incidents that would indicate I've been remembered. You can chalk it up to paranoia, but I remain cautious.

I assume some here just don't care about what others think; some just use whatever name they were assigned by some entity like AOL, with no significant reason. I was just curious, and would also be interested in why a nom de plume is so disturbing to those who've mentioned it.

I published my books and all my commentary under my own name, mainly for publicity purposes. Some reasons I have an alias, which I do not use here, is to say things in a hostile environment without them coming back to haunt me/my family. Yes, I've been threatened for my commentary and even one time someone tried to run me off the road. Got to love a liberal.

Oddly using a nick or handle rather than your real name doesn't bother me. There are valid reasons to do so, safety reasons as well as others. In the case of someone that has been spending time on forums and BBSs as long as I have, it is far more normal than using your own name.

For me when trying to judge whether an inflammatory post is just a tossed bomb or a sincere disagreement other factors come into play.

Age of account - trolls and pure bomb throwers tend to be new accounts, they go away on their own or get shown the door pretty quick here. Thank you for that, moderators.
Prior contributions - are their other contributions normally inflammatory? Or is this a hot issue for them
My prior interactions with them - Good, Bad, None?

The internet is a great facilitator of communication. At the same time it also compromises communication in the sense that virtually none of the emotion or attitude is apparent. That lack makes it easy to misconstrue intent and meaning.

And also, there are some people we just cannot get along with in any group, for whatever reason.

Bottom line, I give people a certain amount of benefit of the doubt.

This nick I've been using for 20+ years, for what its worth

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was by my fifth grade English teacher. After intercepting a note passed between two girls, she posted it on the bulletin board -- to their embarrassment. She said, "Don't put anything in writing you don't want posted on the bulletin board".

I've taken that advice to heart. In the digital age, there is really no such thing as anonymity and so to keep in mind that what I write is being posted on the bulletin board I always use my own name.

Of course since my son is named after me I tell him that it's so that he gets the blame.

My name is Herbert David Shapiro and I was named after my mom's grandpa. The name in Hebrew is "Chaim Dovid" which means "Life Beloved." I was born in 1934 the year of the lowest birthrate in the 20th century, which makes both me and Ralph Nader and my wife rare people. And I don't care who knows it. I have been putting my name in front of lost and punishing causes for over 50 years, so what the hell. I became an Objectivist 56 years ago and it's been a bumpy but satisfying ride. And so, who are you and what is your relationship to Flash Gordon?

I may not agree with all of your postings, but I completely agree with your reasoning for a pseudonym, DrZ.

My screen name is "ProfChuck". I chose that because that name is also used on my other social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. My real name is Charles Ivie. I am a retired scientist and educator. I worked for NASA for over 35 years and taught astronomy, physics and mathematics at several universities and colleges. I am not ashamed to be a strong supporter of objectivism and Ayn Rand's principals. As a scientist they make more sense to me than most political and economic philosophies.

I have wondered why so many Gulchers keep their location secret in their profiles.

I am Mimi to my family. :)
But, I have used different usernames for different sites. Sometimes for security reasons, sometimes just to be whimsical. Depends on the purpose of the site.

Now-a-days, employers can demand to check you social media posts. As much as I don't have a problem with my posts, they might.
Further, if you use your real name, the can just search for your posts without your permission.
Where I work there is a push for us to add "social media sweeps" for physicians by insurance companies. Not always their post, but patients posts/comment on physicians.
There are a few of us resisting that.
We are fast becoming a society of "socially anti-social" people.

I don't have an issue with revealing my real name, especially because I do not post a lot, I'm polite when I do, and I have nothing to hide, besides. That is just my opinion and I don't blame anyone for not sharing their true identities.

I've used Zero throughout my life.
For several years I introduced myself as such but these days it's just a screen name and pseudonym.
Imparted by one of my first Great Mentors, I am very fond of my "other" name.

But, of course, there is also privacy.
We are stripping away all vestiges of boundary and personal space in this age of social media. I resent it and I resist it.
I have every right to keep my private-life private. Including (especially) my political views.
I am not quiet with my beliefs but I choose the venue.

Sure the scoundrel hides his face during a cowardly attack, but the honest man has reason for prudence as well.

And, just to have it asked - how in the hell does this violate some OBJ principle?
I consider myself educated on the subject but there is always more to learn - so educate me.

Interesting question. I am in agreement with Zenphamy... "I would be glad to my identification with certain individuals on a selective basis... there is a lot of ID mining in internet age...It may be sound advice to be cautious....'trust but verify'.

my best male friend -- currently living here with us --
dreams of being a "naught" like the characters in the
old tv show "max headroom." . the reason is twofold:::
first, the stuff which is put on the internet is effectively
eternal -- it can come back to bite you. . and second,
the more you are exposed to the world, the more
you may be at risk, 'cuz the bad guys look for marks,
here.

if I just mention that tomorrow is "land taxes" day,
or that we have a tree farm, it reveals that we can
afford to pay land taxes, and if you add that to the
other stuff which I have revealed, you can track us down
and, well, you know the rest.

thus, anonymity is a value. . even to objectivists. -- j
.

There are many objective reasons why one would use a pseudonym here. Ranging from physical threats to overzealous would-be employers, to basic preference for privacy and making it more difficult for crawlers to tie one's posts in disparate arenas together to identify you for example. Some people have a mental block to ideas if they know some of your unrelated opinions and thoughts. By operating under a pseudonym you can preserve the purity of context it sometimes takes to get through to people. How many times have solid, objective, and reasonable commentary been dismissed based on unrelated factors such as the author's skin color, background, or other demographic?

Curiously, in a sense Galt turned his own name into an effective pseudonym as illustrated by the phrase "Who is John Galt?" and how it became somewhat mythologized and genericized. This produced the heavier impact when he revealed himself. We've seen similar occurrences in actual American history. Sometimes the content is more important than the author or their identity.

That is my two cents worth anyway. For my handle here, it is a bit of branding and a pointer right at my real name - which people normally assume incorrectly. ;)

allosaur is short for Allosaurus, Latin for "different lizard."
I don't quite fit in anywhere but at least I'm not a vegan.
I was using that moniker before I showed up here where I have revealed my really for really real name from time to time..

Never gave it a thought...too many with my name so I am forced not to...kinda like the olduglycarl, it's honest and no one else would be willing to admit they got ugly with age.
My name is Carl by the way and I use my full name in publication of my book.

Never would of thought anyone might consider a screen name not objective...where's that coming from?

I've always used this alias for everything I do online, from blog comments to games to Facebook. No particular reason, it's just something I do. Whether anyone thinks it makes me less an Objectivist I care not a fig.

A real name is one that a person chooses, this may be different from a name chosen by parents.
A name used by a bank or tax or welfare dept. for such business purposes may not be a real name for other purposes.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
"Call me anything but call me in time for dinner".

Use of pseudonym has a long history of reasonable use. So the question is to me rather baseless. I use my own name but I would have no qualms at all if I felt I had good reason not to do so.

The name I use here is one have used before and can be easily trace to me. I don't think at the moment I have much too fear in using my real name but I have grow fond of this handle. I don't think using our real names is important since objectivism as an idea is more important than putting our names to it.

About a year ago I was somewhat involved in fighting a law here in California. Thousands of us were trading facts and research via facebook. IMMEDIATELY after the net neutrality act was signed (may have been a coincidence) we noticed that websites we were referencing that had data that supported our cause literally started disappearing from the web. It happened about a dozen times over about ten days. Then, somebody pointed out information on the websites for St. Jude and John's Hopkins. I commented on a Friday that they can't get rid of those because people would really notice (huge sites). By noon they next day they were both heavily edited (altering the info we had referenced). I share this here as an example of just how frail our privacy is and how frail this source of into (the web) is. My only regret is that facebook uses your name. It all caused me to really evaluate...

Adding...this is why I am very open about my desire to never conflict with our government. I'm all about going Galt. I'll make Ghandi look like Mike Tyson.

There are a lot of very real reasons to use pseudonyms here. With the way things are these days if someone were to say something here that pissed off some regressive social justice warrior, and they were to act on it that would be a problem. The sad fact is we now live in a world where the media and in plenty of cases the law would protect them. So, when evil is being practiced in the open it is the good who need to go underground. We are the philosophical pirates. As for me, I use my real name. Accurately finding me past that is just hard enough to prevent most folks from actually knowing where to throw the brick.

Oddly enough, I use my real name on most sites. But I'm starting to move away from the practice because it's dangerous. Here it's initials-only because spelling it out would likely convince a few, very loud, people that I'm here to troll, which I'm not.

The admins know.