Real Names

[TxBrew]

What are your thoughts on "real name" communities.

Facebook, Qurora, etc. seem to be going that way where you must use your real name as your user name.

Do you enjoy still using a handle or do you wish communities like WMT would adopt real names as well?

 

[Julie]

ROFLMAO, I use my real name as my user name. I think places like Facebook are fine for using your real name because you set the controls on who see it. Places like WMT members would feel more comfortable having to use their real name since they have no control on who sees their name.

 

[Runningwolf]

For the sake of the members I prefer to use a handle than a real name here. Many people are introverts and would not feel comfortable posting if they had to use their real name for the entire world to see.

 

[Sammyk]

I use a "handle" I have a huge online business breeding and shipping koi plus a commercial greenhouse pond plants we ship. I do not want my customers to know what I do in private because they already know too much about my private life. I would not be here if real names were required!

 

[Watchdog]

I use a handle here because most people cannot pronounce my last name correctly. :> Otherwise using real names wouldn't bother me like facebook

 

[Bartman]

As terrorist winemakers on WMT, we value our anonymity! (at least *I* still worry that my wine may cause blindness or death...)

 

[winemaker_3352]

I use a handle here because most people cannot pronounce my last name correctly. :> Otherwise using real names wouldn't bother me like facebook

Yeah I am in the same boat - user handle is shorter and easier to pronounce.

 

[GrandpasFootsteps]

I strongly disagree with "Real Name" requirements online. Everything online is tracked. If I see you on the street and introduce myself and we talk about wine, then that conversation is gone after we part ways. Online, everything is recorded - forever. The data mining capabilities of systems are so far beyond what most people understand and can comprehend. Every digital message online is stored - that includes emails sent in the clear on web mail servers like google, hotmail, and yahoo (it is in google mail's Terms of Service), Facebook, WineMakingTalk, Reddit, etc. The data that is tied to a real name (a lot of it is now) can be mined to make an incredibly accurate profile of you as a person. Where you live, where you work, how much money you make, what you buy, your hobbies, your political leanings, your travel, when you are home, etc. Is there a sinister conspiracy behind this? Is the government collecting this information and watching you? Maybe. The more immediate concern though is some corporations are gathering all this data and using it to build these detailed profiles which are then sold for marketing, advertising, and sales purposes. This is the model of Facebook and Google already - why do you think these services are free? They aren't trying to get money by having you click on their ads (like this forum does, which is totally fine). They want you to click on those ads and record which products you look at and favor. So they make money for your click on the ad, they make money by selling the ad, and they make 100x more money selling the profiles.

I'm not pointing the finger at WMT or any of our other forums. The data here isn't stored and sold in profiles by our glorious forum admins. But the posts are viewed and stored by outside web crawler companies.

For example, this link:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...lavoring-pee-13435/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

is stored by google. It is a post I made in May 2011. All of the content is stored on Google's systems. Google is obvious about this and they offer their cache accessibility to everyone. There are many other marketing corps that collect the same data and do nothing but mine the data and build profiles.

Kyle

P.S. Sorry about the long post but as I've mentioned before, my job is in network security and the "real name" quandry is relevant to what I do.

 

[rocket man]

WOW, that's scary stuff :<:<:<

 

[winemaker_3352]

I strongly disagree with "Real Name" requirements online. Everything online is tracked. If I see you on the street and introduce myself and we talk about wine, then that conversation is gone after we part ways. Online, everything is recorded - forever. The data mining capabilities of systems are so far beyond what most people understand and can comprehend. Every digital message online is stored - that includes emails sent in the clear on web mail servers like google, hotmail, and yahoo (it is in google mail's Terms of Service), Facebook, WineMakingTalk, Reddit, etc. The data that is tied to a real name (a lot of it is now) can be mined to make an incredibly accurate profile of you as a person. Where you live, where you work, how much money you make, what you buy, your hobbies, your political leanings, your travel, when you are home, etc. Is there a sinister conspiracy behind this? Is the government collecting this information and watching you? Maybe. The more immediate concern though is some corporations are gathering all this data and using it to build these detailed profiles which are then sold for marketing, advertising, and sales purposes. This is the model of Facebook and Google already - why do you think these services are free? They aren't trying to get money by having you click on their ads (like this forum does, which is totally fine). They want you to click on those ads and record which products you look at and favor. So they make money for your click on the ad, they make money by selling the ad, and they make 100x more money selling the profiles.

I'm not pointing the finger at WMT or any of our other forums. The data here isn't stored and sold in profiles by our glorious forum admins. But the posts are viewed and stored by outside web crawler companies.

For example, this link:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YkNMBI7IWfcJww.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f5/flavoring-pee-13435/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

is stored by google. It is a post I made in May 2011. All of the content is stored on Google's systems. Google is obvious about this and they offer their cache accessibility to everyone. There are many other marketing corps that collect the same data and do nothing but mine the data and build profiles.

Kyle

P.S. Sorry about the long post but as I've mentioned before, my job is in network security and the "real name" quandry is relevant to what I do.

Glad to have your input...

 

[JSPL]

I prefer to use a handle because it makes me feel like I have some control over my identity/anonymity. The Google and Facebook issue Kyle brought up is the reason I don't use them anymore.

 

[JohnT]

Use handles!

I feel that people are more likely to give their honest opinions if their names are not known.

 

[TXfanatic]

I googled my user name to find out what others could find and found lots of stuff I posted on other forums. I'm glad I didn't use my real name.

 

[TJsBasement]

TJ is my real nick name, and I only use the handle TJsBasement on this site, I did like TX said and googled it, none of them are me.

 

[GrandpasFootsteps]

I've met a lot of people online who I then met with in real life at social gatherings. Handles are fun because after a long time of building up friendships in the virtual environments, we tend to call each other by our handles in real life. My wife laughs when she hears people call me by my handle (not the one here) and I respond completely naturally. Would be funny if someone here referred to me as "Grandpa" even though I'm a youngster.

 

[joea132]

The easy answer based on the responses is obviously to keep handles. That way people can use their real names if they want to. I post my real name because I don't really mind having it out there. Not like I have a reputation to uphold!!!

 

[roblloyd]

I'm ok either way. I try not to post things that would tarnish me if something came up. I'm sure I've posted a few things that should not have been said but if it's only a couple (I hope) so I'm not too worried. Handles is fine with me. Gives the board the feel of a board as they were designed long ago. Who knows, maybe someone famous wants to be here but remain hidden from the real world.

Now I'm starting to think I should have a different profile name?!

 

[Sirs]

Funny I go by 2 handles or nicks whatever you wish to call them. Like Grandpa I respond to both in fact most people who know me know my real name but there are lots who will only call me by my nick lol myself I could give a hoot what anyone calls me or whether they know my real name or not. Either way I'll answer to Sirs/oldman/Eddie and a few others I've been called by hostile people for some odd reason

 

[Wade E]

Im fine either way but it looks like the people have spoken.

 

[SarahRides]

I generally don't care, I think the handles are interesting........ Says something about people! I kind of got suspicious when all the ads popping up had to do with winemaking, quilting, etc. I generally don't post anything that I wouldn't care if the whole world knew, so to me it doesn't make a difference whether I use a handle or not. It is kind of scary how much these databases know about everyone, what kind of data they collect, etc. All that much more reason to be careful what I put onto the internet!