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As a personal preference, I like to keep various site's pseudonyms separate from my real life identity, inasmuch as is possible. I prefer to let each identity g

As a personal preference, I like to keep various site's pseudonyms separate from my real life identity, inasmuch as is possible. I prefer to let each identity gain or lose recognition in a vacuum, as it were, with no simple way to simply google a username and get my full bio. My take on it is that it's a lot easier to link them up as you need to, than it is to unlink them.

ja27 15y ago
Yes. After Dejanews resurrected ancient Usenet postings, I stopped using my real name online for most things. But my flaw was using a single pseudonym almost everywhere. So now my insightful Slashdot comments (that was years ago) are by the same userid that posts stupid photoshops on Fark. I can't "claim" my existing identity on one site without claiming all of them. So a few years ago I moved to site-specific ("unlinked") IDs. If I someday wanted to stick my real name on my HN profile, it would be easy and it isn't linked to other sites. I've also gone to indistinct userids (ja27) that are almost impossible to Google. (Just as I say that, I see that my HN profile is now the top result for my id. Nothing else appears though.) But back to the original question. I rarely contribute to open source, mostly due to time issues, but when I do it's always as a pseudonym. My current company may be ok with some open source project contributions but having been acquired twice in 5 years (and always considering changing companies) I don't want to take the chance that a new boss would change that. I also wouldn't want to make it easy for a patent dispute to spill over between my paid closed source work and open source.
- sdguero 15y ago
  Like you, I have switched to using different user names for every site for which I register, and I've done so for the same reasons. However, I've taken things a step further by choosing user names that I find on other sites. If someone googles for the user name, results at many sites might come up but that doesn't mean we are the same people.
chesney 15y ago
What if you decide to retroactively claim code you wrote in the past. How would you link your pseudonyms to your real name?
- _delirium 15y ago
  If it's linked with something you still control, like a github account or website, you could "out" yourself there.

ja27 15y ago

Yes. After Dejanews resurrected ancient Usenet postings, I stopped using my real name online for most things. But my flaw was using a single pseudonym almost everywhere. So now my insightful Slashdot comments (that was years ago) are by the same userid that posts stupid photoshops on Fark. I can't "claim" my existing identity on one site without claiming all of them. So a few years ago I moved to site-specific ("unlinked") IDs. If I someday wanted to stick my real name on my HN profile, it would be easy and it isn't linked to other sites. I've also gone to indistinct userids (ja27) that are almost impossible to Google. (Just as I say that, I see that my HN profile is now the top result for my id. Nothing else appears though.) But back to the original question. I rarely contribute to open source, mostly due to time issues, but when I do it's always as a pseudonym. My current company may be ok with some open source project contributions but having been acquired twice in 5 years (and always considering changing companies) I don't want to take the chance that a new boss would change that. I also wouldn't want to make it easy for a patent dispute to spill over between my paid closed source work and open source.

sdguero 15y ago
Like you, I have switched to using different user names for every site for which I register, and I've done so for the same reasons. However, I've taken things a step further by choosing user names that I find on other sites. If someone googles for the user name, results at many sites might come up but that doesn't mean we are the same people.

chesney 15y ago

What if you decide to retroactively claim code you wrote in the past. How would you link your pseudonyms to your real name?

_delirium 15y ago
If it's linked with something you still control, like a github account or website, you could "out" yourself there.