Pugski Name Convention,

[newfydog]

I was going to use my real name, and include the last four digits of my SS# and my mother's maidens name in my signature. My dog talked me out of it.

 

[Philpug]

I was going to use my real name, and include the last four digits of my SS# and my mother's maidens name in my signature. My dog talked me out of it.

What bout "favorite game in 4th grade recess?"

 

[bbinder]

Good doggy!

 

[Danny]

I like the idea of real names. It will help me at gatherings, when I have trouble remembering real names vs screen names. I'm using my first name here, not because I mind people at pugski knowing my full name, but because I want people who google me in my professional life to get taken to academia.edu—maintaining the purity of that "brand," so to speak. The numerous actual names over here, even if they are just first names, helps give the place a friendly feel.

 

[Jeff N]

I'll be a little less anonymous here. But really, using your full name to share pretty much anything personal on the internet is a bad idea for a ton of reasons.

 

[bbinder]

I like the idea of real names. It will help me at gatherings, when I have trouble remembering real names vs screen names. I'm using my first name here, not because I mind people at pugski knowing my full name, but because I want people who google me in my professional life to get taken to academia.edu—maintaining the purity of that "brand," so to speak. The numerous actual names over here, even if they are just first names, helps give the place a friendly feel.

I always thought that we should all wear name tags that have our online handles when we are at gatherings.

 

[mdf]

I'm perfectly happy to ditch the real names and use handles exclusively.

 

[Tricia]

I'll be a little less anonymous here. But really, using your full name to share pretty much anything personal on the internet is a bad idea for a ton of reasons.

Can I assume that the N in Jeff N stands for Naughty or Nice?

 

[Bill Talbot]

I'll be a little less anonymous here. But really, using your full name to share pretty much anything personal on the internet is a bad idea for a ton of reasons.

Seriously? It's a SKIING site. Do you feel your DIN or BSL would be used against you? You like Salomon bindings and not Marker?
Maybe you bag lunch it to save money? I'm out....

 

[Jeff N]

Seriously? It's a SKIING site. Do you feel your DIN or BSL would be used against you? You like Salomon bindings and not Marker?
Maybe you bag lunch it to save money? I'm out....

My career for the better part of a decade was investigating mortgage fraud and most of my work revolved around information accessed online. Finding that a person I was looking into was active on a message board was pure gold- and that information got used liberally. Except for the stupid, Facebook isn't a very good resource because the majority of people limit the information they share to people that aren't their friend. Forums helped me establish where somebody was during a given period (which allowed me to use more focused searches in PI databases) and who they associated with. It helped immeasurably in giving me access to the thought process of the person. It told me what other hobbies and interests that person had, which gave me more information to search. It often gave me contact information or pseudonym/avatar names to continue digging. When I was in doubt of where to go next with an investigation, lots of times I would go back digging through forum posts. When I found some more information about a dude that I wanted to assimilate, I'd go back through forum posts. Forum posts got used in legal briefs drafted for the intent of giving our clients something actionable to be used in court.

You may feel that none of the above applies to you because I assume you didn't perpetrate mortgage fraud. But the companies that hired my firm to do this work wanted this work done on a vast swath of people who had defaulted on loans, and while they were more focused on the lender granting the loan than the individual, I know few people are even remotely comfortable with having their lives examined to the level that I was paid to do.

But really, for me the issue is that I trust THIS community more than I trust any random person that knows my name and wants to google stalk me. Some degree of anonymity here allows me to share things TO THIS GROUP that I would be uncomfortable with sharing with strangers- and while I have met few people on here personally, that matters.

In my "real life," I do a certain amount of public speaking and advocacy work. My current employment stems directly from that advocacy. I get asked to do a lot of paid and unpaid speaking gigs, sitting on panels, speaking at conferences, etc. Googling my actual name reveals plenty of hits related to that work, which serves as an online resume of sorts and makes other groups/organizations more comfortable with asking me to participate. That doesn't need to be cluttered up with how I feel about Salomon bindings, not to mention that MUCH MORE than skiing has been discussed in various skiing forums. For example, Bill, I've had past conversations with you that drifted well into the political, and my potential employers and associates just don't need to know what my (or your) political views are.

 

[Jeff N]

Can I assume that the N in Jeff N stands for Naughty or Nice?

Jeff Nasty.

Crap, I knew I couldn't keep my last name secret for long.

 

[Monique]

Jeff Nasty.

Crap, I knew I couldn't keep my last name secret for long.

That should be Jeff B. Nasty.

 

[Jeff N]

That should be Jeff B. Nasty.

What about Jeff R Nasty?

 

[Monique]

What about Jeff R Nasty?

Doesn't have quite the same ring ... if your initial is R, you must change it.

 

[Bill Talbot]

Jeff N

Well alright then!

I don't have any problem with speaking my mind, be it types of skis or something REALLY stupid and meaningless like the illusion of politics. But I do not get into areas I consider actually personal online.

Gotta watch out for the thought police

 

[James]

Aren't there companies now that are making links to anonymous user names? Like at some point your real name gets associated with all sorts of anonymous postings.
None of this matters until it does and then it does.

You may feel that none of the above applies to you because I assume you didn't perpetrate mortgage fraud. But the companies that hired my firm to do this work wanted this work done on a vast swath of people who had defaulted on loans, and while they were more focused on the lender granting the loan than the individual, I know few people are even remotely comfortable with having their lives examined to the level that I was paid to do.
.

 

[Monique]

I don't see any harm in putting a modest smokescreen between your legal name and your online presence. James, I notice your username lacks a surname. Making it common as dirt. So uh, why are you arguing this?

 

[SBrown]

Can I assume that the N in Jeff N stands for Naughty or Nice?

Neither.

 

[Jeff N]

Aren't there companies now that are making links to anonymous user names? Like at some point your real name gets associated with all sorts of anonymous postings.
None of this matters until it does and then it does.

Probably. I think people are complacent about this because they feel nobody would care enough to dig deeply enough on them to do things in ways that would impact them. And that may be the case now, but people are working furiously on automated tools that tie all type of information that can be accessed publicly together in such a way that it can be accessed instantly.

One such tool is Accurint https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=accurint

For roughly $20, accurint will give me:

Every alias and AKA it has found you using. Sometimes I have found nicknames here that then led me to forums or other online posts, but that is rare.
Every address it has found associated with you. Imagine every company that has ever sent you a bill. More than a few are willing to sell their mailing lists, so it is rare that an adult lives somewhere that hasn't been captured.
Every other person that has been associated with those addresses at times contemporaneously with you.
Every phone number associated with you.
Everyone else associated with those phone numbers.
Every vehicle registered under your name.
Everyone else associated with those vehicles.
A list of possible relatives, their addresses, and telephone numbers listed to those addresses.
Everyone else associated with those addresses.
Every traffic ticket and criminal charge.
Every piece of property you have owned, how much you paid, who you bought and sold it from, and their contact info (this info is readily available from most counties for free).
Email addresses you have used. I think they get these from credit reporting bureaus. Your credit information requires specific authorization, but the additional information you provide to somebody pulling your credit (like where you work) is fair game. This is what leads me to forums because a lot of people like to list their e-mail addy on forums when buying and selling stuff.
Your employers and positions.
Any business you have ever been associate with in any type of ownership capacity. (this is also free online public information in almost all states, provided by the secretary of state).

Worth noting is that the above gives me a lot of data, but little context. For my job, forums were great to fill in context like few other sources. Why? Because on Facebook you are largely interacting with friends and family and many of those relationships have some real-life or off-Facebook component. An internet forum is mostly self-contained where all information you are sharing with your peers happens in that forum, so you get an ENORMOUSLY greater amount of exposition in posts. You don't tell your family how many sisters and brothers you have and what your dad did and where you live and where you live as a kid but you offer this information up whenever you need to be understood to people that don't know these details and a forum is full of that.

The amount of data available is going up, and the cost is going down. Right now, most employers probably do a google/facebook search for you, but I know some are using services like this, and as more employers become aware that tools like this exist, I am sure more will jump onboard.

I never used a service (accurint or its competitors) that provided me with forum usernames, probably because right now there is not a good place to aggregate that data. But I bet somebody out there is prying at those relationships in the data.

There is big business in the information game, and the process is moving towards more automation so people don't have to pay me to dig it up. The more automation, the more convenient and the lower the costs, which make it more likely that somebody will be pulling reports like this on you.

One final note on this subject. As part of a mortgage loan, you sign an authorization that allows, over the life of the loan, a large number of people (the lender, any lenders your mortgage is assigned to, mortgage insurers, escrow companies and others) to pull your (current and former) credit records, obtain your (current and former) employment and income, obtain current and former bank account information, and present for verification any piece of paper you presented to obtain the mortgage, which is a LOT. If you have a mortgage out for 20 years, that authorization you signed 20 years ago can be used to basically get current information of your whole financial life, even to entities that never had it in the first place- like the guy contracted to investigate your loan file for fraud by the mortgage insurance company you have never even spoken with. I don't know what you should do with this other than get creeped out by it.

 

[Tricia]

FWIW, we've said it before and will reiterate, we like to have people use their real names especially pros who want to join in to reach out to the members, but we don't and won't make it mandatory.

Whatever you do, embrace the vibe and share your passion for skiing.