Non de plumes

Why do some contributors to the forum use a non de plume rather than their name?

What do they have to hide?

What are they frightened of?

Were they CB addicts in the 1970's?

Why not ...

no nothing to hide

frightened of nothing

nope

Dave

Edited By Steambuff on 12/10/2012 15:50:34

Why do most members of this forum not bother to give profile details ??? It is allways handy to know roughly where folk live for the purpose of swaping bits, buying and selling things Etc., I oftan see things for sale ,that i might like to buy , too heavy to post,only to find that the cost of travel would be far too much.

Cheers Derek. P.S. Nothing to hide myself !

Well thats assuming your name is not really Ric Clarke

JasonB, who logs into too many forums he can't be bothered to type the rest of his surname.

Shouldn't that be Nom de plume?

Identity theft is always a worry for the sensible minded...

Hi

Maybe they can't find a pen

Jim

Sorry of course it should be Nom de plume.

However flushing out some interesting answers so far!

My Nom de plume is Coalburner (CB) nothing to hide, still a CB radio addict, burn coal in engines etc etc.

I often sign my posts with my given name.

It's a forum thing, don't get hung up on this

CB is shorter than...

Graeme

I thought it is the English way, not to give your name until it is a bit more personal?

I have many interests, Model Engineering, Steam Engines, Electronics, Programming, Ham Radio, Model Airplanes, Biology, Astronomy.....

Many of these interests seem odd to a lot of people. I do not have anything to hide, but I don't want people to just google me and find out all about me in seconds. I actually think the name people put on themselves is more telling than the one they were given at birth (Steambuff, CoalBurner...) and more easily remembered. My 'name' is from my early model airplane days when I was just as bad at flying as the fully laden bird Skarven (Cormorant?).

Kai

I am very happy to show my engines and my models to other model engineers and other experts even if it is to be criticized, but I do not like to show what I do to people who know me and who know nothing in model engineering and generally laugh at it (poor morons).

so there is nom de plume

Worry not, Ttelips Noedeg. The secret of your real name is safe with me.

Pete

It matter not a jot to me if someone wants to use a pseudonym/avatar/N-d-P or whatever, what I would appreciate though is if they would at least use a Christian name as a signature at the end of their post.

There are many times I have wanted to reply to postings but get put off by not being able to 'address' the person properly.

Maybe I'm old fashioned (I like capital letters and full stops in sentences) but find it hard to reply to 'firestoker' or whatever.

Ian P (Phillips actually but there are several Ian's here)

I can think of several reasons:

Genuine shyness - anonyminty can let the less confident post without fear of embarrasment.

Job prospects - OK we are less likely to make career limiting comments than teenagers on facebook, but if you have a distinctive name

Public profile - some members may have jobs or roles where they would prefer their private life kept separate from their public life.

Domestic harmony - I'm sure most wives would prefer us to be here than on dodgy websites, but some folks may want to keep their workshop budgets to themselves!

Privacy - these days its possible for postings here or elsewhere to be linked up to other details. would you be happpy to get personalsied emails selling products based on what you posted on here?

For me, like Skarven, there's a lot about my professional life on line. I don't want to have to follow the same 'rules' here. For example, I have strong views on some political issues, but working for a charity I have to present my views in an objective non-political way.. Not using my full name means I don't have to litter my posts with disclaimers and the freedom to comment on foolish politicians who one day I may need to have a civilised discussion with.

Neil

How much of my name do you require? it gets a bit of a mouthfull to have all of a person's name. I have some Indian friends whose first and last names wouldn't fit in whole page let alone the space provided.

On an international forum I had just assumed Skarven was a regular foreign name, and I am used to thinking of Mr Mandrel by his forename presuming it to be a jocular comment on his stature.

No prizes for googling up my ID but you earn a fruit pastel for knowing where I got my nickname without using the internet.

I'm called Shirley on weekends

Shirley not.

There are good reasons to remain reasonably nameless on internet forums, it might be very surprising to you how much information could be built up around you using your real name all over the internet.

And funnily enough my nickname DOES come from CB use sort of. I became a truck driver in the mid 80s and I did use a CB, not through any craze but simply because it was a useful tool at times to find out what was happening on a road.

When I chose my nickname I chose Lonewolf which is a biker term for one who does not ride with a particular group which applied to me at the time. And then when the time came and I needed a username for various forums etc I used it again which has over the years been shortened to Wolfie.

Its actually possible that more people know me by the name Wolfie than by my real name

Mine is the name I went by when I was deep diving...my blood was constantly in this state!!

Ian, surely what you should ask for is a first name? The world is full of non christians and non believers. What is wrong with a nom de plume, it is afterall a name under which you write? A pen name or rather a computer name in this case.

I think that the correct term is 'given' name - and I'm just as bad, according to my mother, who never calls me Steve, although the rest of the world does. I just prefer the diminutive form. And as for my middle name... we're not going there!