Comments on: Two First Names, Two First Names

By: Hien Onorata

Hien Onorata — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:27:08 +0000

As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. You blog reAlly helped me and I will be back soon. Thank you

By: Billygean

Billygean — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:23:36 +0000

I think I must be quaisai anonymous. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of my readers had figured out my name as my website url is a spoonerism. I have since anonymised my boyfriend mindreader and i never show his face in a picture. One day I intend to go fully anonymous so I will have to take down all the photos but it’s such a big task!

By: velocibadgergirl

velocibadgergirl — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:12:17 +0000

I blog anonymously and plan to keep it that way. My name is not very common and a Google search of it leads right to my employer’s website. I try not to talk about work on my blog, but still…I would not feel comfortable if my coworkers were reading my blog, and I REALLY wouldn’t want the kids I work with to read it. I don’t want to constantly be worrying if some kid I taught about science is going to find out that I swear too much or once wrote a post about sex toys.

By: Amanda of Shamelessly Sassy

Amanda of Shamelessly Sassy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:46:29 +0000

When I first started writing in online journals nearly ten years ago, I was anonymous. However, when I started my blog I was rather public. When I started getting writing jobs based on my blog, I then went public with my last name.

By: kim

kim — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:36:35 +0000

heh, ern’s first sentence just made me laugh out loud. thanks, ern :)

i used to be pretty non-anonymous when i first started having a website/blog but i changed that over the last couple of years. i prefer to choose who i want to share my full name etc with as opposed to the whole entire www. i just feel more comfortable that way. plus, i don’t want my real name to be connected to my personal blog. the thought of certain clients, possible (future) bosses, neighbors etc reading my (sometimes pretty emotional and intimate) blog just makes me uncomfortable. so it goes both ways and i just like to keep my blog apart from my real life for the most part or better, i like to choose who can make the connection ;)

By: Ern

Ern — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:56:04 +0000

I don’t think that Watch Year One Online Free is using their real name.

I keep my last name off my blog because I don’t want to be googleable by random people in my professional life (professors, uptight students, patients). But if people have my gmail address instead of my school email, they can get to my blog pretty straight away.

That said, family and friends read my blog, I don’t put anything out there that I wouldn’t say in real life…but over the years I’ve put a LOT of stuff out there, so if someone just met me, they could get to know me really fast in an evening of reading the archives, which is a little weird.

By: Watch Year One Online Free

Watch Year One Online Free — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:48:28 +0000

After reading the article, I just feel that I really need more information on the topic. Can you share some more resources please?
p.s. Year One is already on the Internet and you can watch it for free.

By: Superfantastic

Superfantastic — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:47:06 +0000

My first blog was anonymous and was terribly, horribly serious. It was awful. Once I switched to the current one and decided to mostly write humor, seeing as how that’s what I’d like to be paid to write, it made sense to put my name on it in hopes that someday somebody would pay me to write this stuff. I do have a very common name, so anybody Googling my name would have to be very dedicated to make it far enough into the results to find me. It does make me censor what I write, but my mom reads my blog, so the filter is well and truly in place already.

The thing I hadn’t considered was blogging and dating. I do not talk about dates on my blog, although there can be some good material there. I’ve only had one relationship significant enough to bear mentioning and there was the dilemma of when and how to mention it and whether to give the boyfriend veto power over what I wrote about him. (I did, at first, although he said he trusted me and my sense of discretion.) Now when I meet guys and tell them I write, they ask whether I have a blog, forcing me to say, “Yes, I do and no, you may not have the url.” It puts me at a huge information disadvantage. Plus then they already know all of my funny stories.

By: Crystal

Crystal — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:41:41 +0000

I’ve been keeping a site for a very long time (not this current one, but many incarnations of the same). Up until recently, I always used my name. When I leave comments on other people’s sites, I use my name. On my own site, however, I abbreviate for the sake of a small bit of privacy for my family. I’ve tried the all anonymous/alias route and it just doesn’t work for me.

By: Kristabella

Kristabella — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:48:14 +0000

I never thought to be anonymous either. All the blogs I first read that got me interested in starting my own all used their full names.

I also never thought I would get fired for my blog, for some silly little drivel I write on the internet.

THANKFULLY, unlike Metalia, I have a very, very common name. I don’t use my last name on my site a lot, but if you comment and I email you back, you know it. But that’s because if you Google my name, even my name + blog, or my name + Chicago, I don’t even come up.

I own everything I write, but like Metalia, I don’t really want my boss knowing that I talk about my cats a lot and that hey, sometimes I suffer from depression.

And sometimes I wish I could go anonymous to rant about work or annoying friends or family, but I always figure they will find it somehow. Getting fired for a five-month old blog that only my mom read will do that to ya!

(Sorry for the novel, but obviously this post spoke to me!)