kadyellebee

I’ve seen sites where they have integrated a registration aspect, most entries are for the populace, but some others are marked as being for the registered users only. Maybe that’d be an option, just to somehow integrate it into here.

I’m with you though. There are quite a lot of ways for people to find out my address, phone number, and lots of other identifying info, but I kinda resigned myself to living my life, and letting it be that way.

I have one domain I registered with a "privacy" filter - but it wasn’t for me. I have thought about somewhat masking my identity when we move to the woods of Maine this year... where it will be a lot easier to find me.

But, then I look back on everything that has happened since 1996 with that first email account and I think its pointless to hide. They’ll find you if they really want to. Case in point: I’ve had a real stalker- B was one of my best friends from high school and my dad gave him my information SEVERAL times, even after I told him I didn’t want any thing to do with B anymore. It got so bad, I sent one of my friends from college (now a state trooper) to put the fear of god in him AND filed a restraining order in our home state. I tried to file one in my new state, but since he didn’t live here my lawyer advised against it.

Long story short, you have to do what makes you feel safe. As for me, if one of my best friends can turn my life into a living hell, random internet/bloggy people aren’t nearly as scary.

My full name has been pretty public for a few years now, and I’ve never had anything bad come of it. The one thing that’s been kind of strange is that my biological father (my mother divorced him when I was a year old, so I never knew him) turned out to be reading my journal for a few months before I made first contact with him.

I agree with a lot of your comments about this matter. I suppose in the past I should have been more careful with my name online, but now that it’s out there, there’s no way to take it back. I’m okay with that, too...I’m not really worried about it. My mother is much more protective of her privacy - she doesn’t even use her own first name online, except on her church mailing list.

I bet our beloved Robyn understands exactly what you’re talking about, K!

I actually know of one blogger who had her name out there and then as time went on she saw the complications induced upon her home and professional life by people being able to Google her name. So, she shut down the one site, and started two new ones—one where her identity is known and is connected to her professional situation, and one where she is completely anonymous... she created aliases for everyone, including herself, that are very specific names for very specific reasons. And now she blogs and journals there. She sent a couple of people an email to let them know she was moving, but other than that, let it go.

I think if I was going to start over, I’d do it just like her—and choose maybe a dozen people to bring with me.

Interesting discussion (Meredith linked it). I’ve been using my full name online for a while, and haven’t really suffered any ill effects as such. In fact, it has allowed people who I haven’t seen for a long time to get in touch with me so perhaps that’s a bonus.

On the other hand, I try to be more careful with other details - things like my email address, and particularly my residential addresses and my phone numbers. I don’t want people stalking me.

I’m in the same boat. I’m thinking it’s the same friend’s post we’re talking about, too.

There have definitely been days I’ve freaked out that I’m so easy to find. When Pick Up Your Own Damn Socks got all the MeFi hubbub, they went and looked up the record and posted my name and information. Ugh!

If I could backtrack - I probably would. I’m with Neil - I try to keep the town I live in, place of work (though that was blown a few months back, and really - simply do a search for my full name and there it is anyway) and so forth kinda quiet. And I definitely censor myself because my full name is out there - I never know if family has stumbled on it or whatnot. It’s a fine line - most of the time I don’t care, but there are definitely moments of panic.

I think I’ve become almost too secure on the internet. I have my full name and the city I come from, plus pictures of me, on my personal website. So far, I’ve to suffer any ill effects on that. I’m not paranoid. I think if I was to get a stalker, then even if I didn’t put any personal information on, he or she would find the information out anyway (much harder, but can still be done).

As well, celebrities have their faces and full names all over the place. Plus it’s easy to find out their home addresses, too.

The only bad thing that has happened to me thus far is when I had this seperate journal site that only a few people were supposed to know about: and then my crush at the time found the page and saw all my writing about him. In grave detail. I was so horrified by it all, and paranoid, that I even went to grave lengths to get my website and past websites blocked on the Wayback Machine (archive.org). but that wasn’t a stalking situation: that was just me being embarassed situation.

I’m careful not to mention much or anything about work. That’s about the only thing I’m truly cautious about. I’ve met a couple of people online in real life, so that sorta has also warped my sense of safety. Because so far, all my experiences have been positive, so I don’t worry much... worrying would just make me turn my back to something I love like the 'net.

Having my blog open & public has only given me a smack in the face once, when the boss saw a post, not only made during work hours, but showing an IM log saved during those same hours.

However, it does annoy me at times that there are some aspects of my life that I would like to talk about, but dare not. While I’m not usually one to keep secrets, there are some things that various readers should not, will not and cannot know. I like the idea of a seperate blog under a pseudonym for such situations, just so long as the connection is never made.

I wouldn’t worry about the "what if" though, evidence suggests you are far from being thought of negatively by anyone. What If’s.... gonna have to blog about those soon.

Take care of yourself.

i change my mind all of the time about how i want to use my name online. when i first started blogging i gave the site to all of our families and kevin’s parents, after 6 months, totally freaked out about something i wrote, it got big, bag and ugly and i pulled my site. i moved it elsewhere and didn’t give them the address. however, because of that, i keep my last name off of my personal blog. i don’t mind people knowing my last name, it is on our janeandkevin site, but on my personal blog, i like to keep that away from prying eyes so that if someone was searching for me, they could fine our janeandkevin site, but not the other one.

I think it is a different situation for each individual. I am easily found by my first name (mad props to you for helping me to get Google to love me!) and my first and last name - so while job hunting, it’s frustrating to know how easily they could find my blog. It’s a site of low controversy though, and most of my work-related rants are password protected. However, as I look forward to possibly working for myself, it’s ok if anyone can find me online - I don’t mind at all. It is a matter of how it fits in to my life as a whole. For you, it works well - and for others, it doesn’t.

Now that I’m working on starting my "naughty bits" soap business, I keep debating if I want it connected to my blog or to Sudsalicious - or if I want it to stand on it’s own. Decisions, decisions. I will probably link it to my blog though - as a business, I believe in identity disclosure so people can contact me - and my blog is all over Google and easy to find.

I’m just bummed that I haven’t had an Orkut invite. Is that silly of me or what? *giggle*

I worry about this from time to time and think about what people I know or once knew are going to say. Yet, at the same time, I think about when am I going to stop living my life for other people and start living it for me!

Thankfully if you you do a search for my last name with my first name, you aren’t as likely to find my site as if you just do my first name.

I try to keep my last name, hometown and place of work out of my blog. I do reference all in protected LiveJournal entries, which are also filtered to different levels of friends. And a couple of weeks ago, I obtained a private mailbox for domain registration and other correspondance. These are not perfect measures, but they offer some level of comfort.

Having said that, I know that if I searched for my full name, I’d have a few more pages and blog entries to repair!