Comments for Poll: Do You Ever Fake Your Online Identity?

Poll: Do You Ever Fake Your Online Identity?

2007-01-29T11:38:40Z

In this week's R/WW poll, we're asking whether you ever fake your Web identity - or even just part of it. Note that this doesn't count times when you are anonymous on the Web (such as almost all snarky blog comments). We're specifically asking about the times when you use an identity - e.g. online dating, peer-to-peer transactions sites such as craigslist or ebay, social networking sites like MySpace and Second Life.

See Jitendra Gupta's post today, Nobody Knows You're A Dog 2.0, for more on this topic.

Comment from justelise on 2007-01-29

2007-01-29T13:03:04Z

I think sometimes you have to fake your identity to protect yourself. Especially on Craigslist (which has its share of shady characters) and online dating sites. I am sure a lot of ladies feel the same way because they've had interesting encounters when they didn't protect themselves (at least at the beginning of communicating with someone new).

Comment from Gang Lu on 2007-01-29

2007-01-29T15:06:00Z

For your interests, here is one article talking about Real Name System for bloggers: http://www.mobinode.com/?p=59

Comment from Adrian Keys on 2007-01-29

2007-01-29T16:40:21Z

Not sure it's the thing you should be doing. I guess if your intentions are noble, fine. Otherwise...especially otherwise we should always bear in mind the unique IP address.

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2007-01-29

2007-01-30T06:38:43Z

No way..... I would never do such a thing as faking my identity!

That's horrible......

Comment from Richard MacManus on 2007-01-29

2007-01-30T07:01:03Z

Touche Kevin (comment 4)... or is it someone pretending to be Kevin Burton?!

Comment from Ashley on 2007-01-30

2007-01-30T15:18:55Z

I think there's a distinction between faking my identity and restricting how much of it I share. I don't pretend to be someone else, but I'm highly protective of sharing my full name on line - mostly for safety reasons.