"real" names versus names

[kalmn]

i didn't used to get why people might not want the name they use online to be easily attachable to their legal name.

due to various things going on in my life at the moment, i now totally get it.

i get it so much that i'm screening comments to this post, i tell ya.

i think that people's names, of whatever form, should be able to be traced back to them, by people in the community where they use that name. but that's different from "easily attachable to their legal name".

eta: if you're okay with me unscreening please say so.

Comments

[redbird]

Oh, absolutely.

A piece of that is that we could easily see the names and not know that Monkeypaws is Squigglespider's ex, especially if they were never legally married but quite often even if they were.

(On the other hand, I was Vastly Amused on rassef, some time ago, when Alison Scott replied to a joke of Mike Scott's with "I knew there was a reason I married you," probably leading at least a few newcomers to completely misinterpret their relationship and jump from thinking nothing of the )fairly common) shared surname to assuming that they were still married.)

In many contexts, it is much more relevant that roadnotes is my sister (by choice) than what either of our real names are.

[fine to unscreen this]