I'm about to start a website which involves Cramulus in the URL
I was going to use it as a platform to sell stuff and promote myself
but then I paused
is it wise to connect my Real Name with my Online Identity?
I'm not terribly worried about trolls finding out where I live or anything. What I'm really hesitant about is that employers could find out that I'm called Cramulus
and potentially, they could find this place, where they would be able to do a ton of datamining
that being said, tons of people I know IRL know that I am called Cramulus
I'm not really worried about employers finding out I'm a Discordian, I just worry about them finding out about my work ethic and illegal preferences through my posting habits.
but maybe I'm way overthinking this -- tons of people have connected their IRL identities to their shady online personalities and haven't gotten bitten in the ass
and i'm not even that shady
I don't intend on putting my IRL name on the website anywhere, but if you're really web savvy, you can figure out anything.
for example you could google image search cramulus and find pictures of me
or if you looked around for Discordian facebook groups, my RL name is easy to find.
So should I worry about this?
what do you guys think?
This is a tough call.
A lot of things can jump up and bite you on the ass but, for the most part, they don't. Don't see why online alteregotism should be any different. You could get hit by a bus.
worst case scenario:
a current or future employer finds out that i am Cramulus, reads this board, and realizes I post while I'm at work, like, all the fucking time
the "future employer" part might be remedied by changing my name on here while I'm applying for jobs? or ... maybe I'm overthinking this ?
You could mitigate this with creative dissinfo. Think AWS, jsut throw out so much other irrelevant noise that they can't say you are the ONLY Cramulus, or definitely doing that stuff. Even a few false cramuli, from different countries, set up with more relevance to common google searches would invalidate all but determined datamining.
I don't think it's a good idea. Y'know,'cuz we're kinda' like super-heroes, in a way. We hide our visage, select a new name, then try to change the world. Superheroes have to keep their identity secret, because any enemies they have would know where to find them, their friends, or family. Shit, look at what happened to Spider-Man when shit-head Tony Stark convinced him to reveal his identity. Nothing but problems. And I think Aunt May died... again.
I guess the question is how explicitly you're going to make this link between your two names. I mean, my real name is out there on my music, which includes the Spider Project, which links back here, which can be searched to link LMNO with my IRL name.
But most employers would stop after seeing my reverbnation site; they wouldn't follow me all the way back here, unless they were interested; and if they're interested in that kind of stuff, then they're not really a threat.
Is the name link important and is what you are selling legal?
My boss once asked if I was so and so on facebook and mentioned that my page is really blocked from a lot of stuff.
I gave him a sideways look and said "Dude. Are you stalking me? That's just weird" and walked off. It was never mentioned again.
I think employers or future employers that go through the trouble of finding your online personalities are fucking creeps. And I don't mind pointing that out to them.
Quote from: LMNO on June 03, 2010, 04:45:03 PM
I guess the question is how explicitly you're going to make this link between your two names.
Good question. I don't plan on making it explicit, but some careful google fu will always reveal the truth.
It would be much easier to link identities if you already knew my IRL name.
Quote from: Hawk on June 03, 2010, 04:46:47 PM
Is the name link important and is what you are selling legal?
not important
not illegal
some scary data from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/more-employers-use-social-networks-to-check-out-applicants/ ..............
According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com, 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates — more than double from a year earlier, when a similar survey found that just 22 percent of supervisors were researching potential hires on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The study, which questioned 2,667 managers and human resource workers, found that 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social networking site. (The survey has no margin of sampling error because it was not drawn from a representative nationwide sample but rather from volunteer participants.)
...More than half of the employers who participated in the survey said that provocative photos were the biggest factor contributing to a decision not to hire a potential employee, while 44 percent of employers pinpointed references to drinking and drug use as red flags.
If an employer finds the pics of me carving a blood eagle out of Elmo and considers it a BAD thing, then I probably don't want to work there.
In my situation, I have a quasi public-service job. It's the kind of job where I have to be careful about anything I put out for public consumption, even under my real name. That is why I try to be very careful about the crumb trail between RWHN and [insert real name]. But this place, the history I have here is still pretty important to me as an individual so I can't ever totally disown it.
So I guess as far as employers are concerned, it depends on the kind of work. If I were back in Retail Hell, I wouldn't care. It wouldn't matter to the CEO what I was doing as RWHN. But, the Feds seem to be a little more particular about those kinds of things.
It's still possible you would be found randomly anyway.
I was sitting at my cubicle one day and I get a phone call from one of my coworkers asking me to come by her cubicle. She was down the hall, so when I turned the corner I saw that a handful of my other coworkers plus supervisor were crowded around her cube. I walk up and they're gawking at me wearing a priest costume and playing my guitar with a cat-o-nine tails on stage.
This particular coworker was an old classmate of my ex-vocalist's fiancee, who took the picture.
Fortunately nothing happened but a laugh at my expense.
My co workers already know I'm not a standard model ape. The chainmail in the back of my car, wearing a kilt to charity walks, and appearance at work in riverboat gambler garb sort of blew that image up. Then again, I work among freaks, and they are comforted by knowledge that I have a wicked life outside my corporate persona.
I wouldn't connect them, but, I'm a little paranoid about this kind of thing. And there's a difference between general weirdness like Richter there and issues a future boss might have with you smoking weed or whatever. Weird is interesting while weed might just be the factor that knocks you off the list of candidates.
If you're worried about it, I'd refrain if I were you.
Use just Cram, or you attached to the full name?
or come up with a new handle for more professional nature
for the longest time only a few people knew who NARF really was on IRC
first, the URL is too awesome NOT to get ;-)
second
> for example you could google image search cramulus and find pictures of me
this is a one way connection. i should worry about the ones that connect you IRL to Cramulus, not the other way around. considering jobs, that is.
also, this website idea is an idea for you to make money and start a company, right? so if that's the case you wont have to worry about employers, because you'd be your own. the idea being, you can probably keep your real identity far away enough as long as this website idea doesn't hit it off real awesomely good, and then you won't have to worry about employers anymore, because that's (part of) your goal, right?
I say, just to fuel/disengage (both, yeah..) your paranoia, do some periodical vanity searches for your real name and see how far you can follow the threads.
disclaimer, this is just speculation, I never been in a situation like this, so finally it'll be your call.
What 000 said. I have a very public "public" life, and while I maintain a modicum of distance between the two, my private life links pretty easily to my public life; but not vise versa. In other words, I am way more afraid of my customers/fans/colleagues finding this place via my real name than I am of you spags finding my real life through this place. A good way to prevent that is by flooding the internet with "real name" based information, so that anything that links you to Cramulus is on the 5th or 6th page.
I think Trip hit the nail on the head. The best way is to see how far you can get at the moment, and see if it is a problem at all.
Also, RWHN made a good point, it depends on what area you would be applying for.
Cram, I just googled your IRL name (or, at least the one you use on facebook), and aside from your obituary (my condolences, by the way) the only non-professional stuff that came up was two Larp sites. The rest weren't even you, I don't think.
When I googled Cramulus, almost everything that came back was erisian.
I think that if you linked the two and someone did a search on your IRL name, it would be pretty hard to dig through the other *** ********'s to get to Cram.
I'm Khara everywhere. It's my name. If someone wants to give me shit about it from work, well I will be more than happy to get into the whole freedom or religion thing and I'm sure there are more than a few law firms who would love a juicy case. My boss, for example, knows who and what I am. He just gives me odd looks on occasion. As long as I do my job and do it well, what can he say.
I don't think you would have too many issues Cram, religion is a very touchy subject and most employers will avoid it every chance they can.
It's not like you are preaching the faith in the lunchroom or anything. So as long as whatever you are doing is legal and not violating any kind of non-compete issue, you should be fine!
I use my legal name for professional/academic things. People who get close enough to me IRL learn I want to be called Kai. However, Kai is a very very common name. The extended version of that is NOT. However, I don't use that name here.
It would take some major stalking to find the links between IRL and Online. They're out there, but any job I apply for isn't going to do more than google my legal name.
welll it is not set up yet,
but I am now the proud owner of http://cramul.us
Quote from: Cramulus on June 03, 2010, 04:17:51 PM
is it wise to connect my Real Name with my Online Identity?
No. It's probably one of the dumbest things you could possibly do unless you are independently wealthy and/or do not give a fuck.
That said, I'm pretty sure there are ways to obtain a site without revealing your IRL identity.
Quote from: Cramulus on June 04, 2010, 07:19:38 PM
welll it is not set up yet,
but I am now the proud owner of http://cramul.us
I approve, whatever you end up doing with it. Personally, I have no problem that my holy-name and my irl name can be connected with a little legwork. I realize that some people do and respect that (I have had someone from here who I randomly connected the two, who asked me to keep that in confidence, and I have and will continue to do so. Pope's have reputations to uphold, Ratzinger notwithstanding).
I do think that the urge is more about managing different social networks and not wanting them to bleed into each other. (I also have a New Zealand telecom company squatting on the word 'Telarus' and fouling search results, but I've had it longer than they have. :evil:)
If I'm going on Safari or anything more than that, I choose a different handle.
I'd also like to note that having these tenuous connections allows me to require the Court and Prosecutor to refer to me as "Episkopos <insert holy name>, or Your Excellency" (hey, Episkopos is equivalent to Bishop, yah?) during verbal argument, but I'll probably follow that with "But you, Your Honor, I like you. So the court has permission to refer to me as Brother. I think that the Prosecutor's jaw muscles would appreciate this."
Quote from: Vladimir Poopin on June 04, 2010, 10:54:26 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on June 03, 2010, 04:17:51 PM
is it wise to connect my Real Name with my Online Identity?
No. It's probably one of the dumbest things you could possibly do unless you are independently wealthy and/or do not give a fuck.
That said, I'm pretty sure there are ways to obtain a site without revealing your IRL identity.
I think it wouldn't be unwise to connect your IRL name with *an* online identity. That way people will be less likely to spot your other online identities.
I would do a bit of Net Fu, and find out everything you can about your Boss. See what flavour Porn he likes to peruse during working hours. What facebook groups he is in, etc.
And maybe his Boss too. See what dubious shit they get up to online. There's always something.
And I mean, it's not like you are involved in any acts of terrorism, (I trust) or Loli-luring. And then when you have something stinky on your Boss, your concerns over what he thinks you get up to, will pale into insignificance. (Hopefully) And may even see you fast tracked higher into the corporate structure. I mean, it's not really blackmail, just career insurance. (The word "blackmail" has such negative connotations, don't you think?)
But still, go careful with your name online. Or somebody might steal your identity, and ting! :scared:
This is one of the times where I'm glad to have a fairly common name. Googling my first + last gives 5 pages worth of a former journalist. It would take a huge amount of searching to connect my IRL name with this user name. And if an employer is paranoid to search that deeply then I probably wouldn't want to work for them in the first place.
Quote from: Telarus on June 04, 2010, 11:44:34 PM
I'd also like to note that having these tenuous connections allows me to require the Court and Prosecutor to refer to me as "Episkopos <insert holy name>, or Your Excellency" (hey, Episkopos is equivalent to Bishop, yah?) during verbal argument, but I'll probably follow that with "But you, Your Honor, I like you. So the court has permission to refer to me as Brother. I think that the Prosecutor's jaw muscles would appreciate this."
"Yes Your Honour, I am known, in certain circles as as the Great Beast, 666, but in regard to the purposes for which we are here today,
you may call me Little Sunshine" :evil:
I'm the only 'me' on the internet. And I have an email that is my name. And there was email sent from that address by idiot freinds that were fucking with stormfront.
So now a search of my name (thankfully now, three pages in...) makes me look like a white suppremicist. Which is not fun. But that said, I haven't ever had issue with that, even when I was running for a political position.
I own two sites; one is my name, the other is placiddingo.com, and I know that somewhere that'll connect my names. But also, I want to release my writing under my own name, and am not sure how that will go. So i've done the same thoughts.
Cram, to be honest, I think it's a good idea, and genuinely suspect you're one of THE prominent Discordians of today. I think in the bigger picture, the real issue you're facing it beyond the name.
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on June 05, 2010, 10:15:03 PM
This is one of the times where I'm glad to have a fairly common name.
Carol Channing is a popular name?! I thought it was just the two of you?
Quote from: Cramulus on June 03, 2010, 04:17:51 PM
but maybe I'm way overthinking this -- tons of people have connected their IRL identities to their shady online personalities and haven't gotten bitten in the ass
you are under thinking it, I act under the assumption that I am going to be datamined by potential employers so I make it very easy to find my facebook and a few other sites where I make myself appear like a well adjusted model candidate. I have a separate twitter account and stuff specifically for the unsavoury or meanspirited shit I do online.
Quote from: Hoopla on June 07, 2010, 04:35:02 PM
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on June 05, 2010, 10:15:03 PM
This is one of the times where I'm glad to have a fairly common name.
Carol Channing is a popular name?! I thought it was just the two of you?
SUPRISE!!!
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(http://67.59.181.151/admin/images/CarolChanning_main.jpg)
I think the fact that you're worried enough to ask about it is a sign that you shouldn't do it.
Google and other search engine people continually have their nose to the grindstone, so it's probably going to become easier and easier to find people on the web.
I wouldn't give employers the option to find any information about me on the web since you never can be sure what kind of closeted religious nutjob one of your bosses may be.
So you won't know how much you've pissed them off if they do datamine you.
And if they fire you because they have political/religious blinders on, they'll be careful to say it's because of something they can't get in legal trouble for, like poor work performance or some other hard to disprove trumped up bullshit.
It's kind of like coming out as gay. Yes, there could be future repercussions with narrow-minded employers, but on the other hand it might make you a more obviously better fit with employers you would enjoy working for more anyway. Dunno. Double-edged sword and all that.
I have never sought a career in the corporate world so my perspective is different; I have chosen a life a little closer to the lunatic fringe, and the longer I live here the less concerned about it overlapping with my professional life.
Surprisingly relevant to this, a buddy just lent me his collections of the Marvel's "Civil War" story arc, about superheroes "Coming out" about their identities, if they should be required to, and the repercussions.
I can't see ever officially or totally linking my online stuff to IRL. I'm pretty close under the "Richter" persona, but I use pen names and minimal detail for just about anything else.
good idea, it is bat country after all.