Private parts

[CelShadedDreams]

Do you keep your online and offline lives seperate? Do you consider forums etc your "private" space away from spouses and friends etc?

At the moment mine is blurred at the edges, my twitter is very much public and helps for self promotion etc. I'm currently a normal private citizen, but my new job will actually make me a public figure (though a very small one) and that scares me a little.

Currently it's easy to link my "private" online persona here to my public one, but it's more of an effort to do it the other way around.

Question is, should I be more worried and hold back here or get a completely new username and not link them at all? Or should I just be myself everywhere since I never do anything that could seriously damage my reputation anywhere anyway?

Also, part of me wants to keep certain forums as "mine" and not be invaded by my personal life, but I don't mind forum life invading my personal life.

Then again I might be so small that no one would follow me to other places online anyway... I'm just trying to decide how to mix things but finding it tricky!

[Jiro]

EoFFers are welcome to invade my personal life. Real life acquaintances are generally not allowed to invade my EoFF etc life. The reason for this is simple - everyone here is far superior, and I often like to complain about people here :greenie:

Most of my shit online is public or at least has lax security because I don't really care. I don't say things I don't mean and if it gets me in deep doo doo then I should've paid more attention in my law classes :monster:

[Pike]

This is an interesting topic. For me, there is no difference between who I am "online" and who I am "in real life". Let me explain a bit; I used to play a lot of World of Warcraft and when I did, I blogged about it and then was a fairly popular WoW blogger. Seriously, I had over one thousand subscribers at one point. I made a twitter and promptly had over a thousand twitter followers. Etc.

Anyways the twitter was mostly (but not exclusively) WoW themed and I added a lot of fellow WoW bloggers/players, and I soon noticed a trend among them where a lot of them had two twitter accounts, one for video games and one for "IRL". I never quite "got" that. I am who I am, and who I am is a nerd who plays a ridiculous amount of video games and writes about them (currently for a different and non-WoW-focused blog, but!) I don't really care who finds out, because I'm very open and proud about who I am. If someone looks down on me for it, I don't care. :kakapo:

So yeah, it all overlaps for me.

[Psychotic]

I firmly believe in the separation of powers. I would be kind of embarassed if the people I knew IRL saw me associating with someone like Julian or Steve. They're just so beneath me.

I actually don't really care that much. I don't put myself about online that much anymore. I don't have a Facebook or anything like that because I simply can't be bothered. If I did, I'd probably add both EoFFers and IRL people. They're seperate because there's no need for them not to be, really. I also like to hide my surname from people online but that's now because it's more of a game of cat-and-mouse with the likes of Roogle and tuh than for any other reason. I think 30-40 people here know it and I don't care that much. BUT IF YOU KNOW YOU MUSN'T TELL :argh: It's like a cool kids exclusive club, don't let losers in you guys.

What's your new job anyway, CSD?

[Jessweeee♪]

I separate work from personal, offline and online, and that's about as far as the separation goes :p

[fire_of_avalon]

I'm like Jessweeeeeee. I keep professional and personal life separate. I don't have my active superiors as friends on facebook and it's private. I don't friend many active associates either because they don't need to know Megan outside of work unless we're actually friends.

I consider all of my friends, both those I physically see and those i've never physically met to be "real life" friends. I likes who I likes. If I were a public figure I would again keep the professional chocolate out of the personal peanut butter.

[Raistlin]

Like Pike, I don't even understand trying to separate online and offline stuff. Some of my closest friends have started as "online friends," so I don't even make that distinction. People online know my name, where I go to school, my cell phone number, etc. I've even told a couple of "real life" friends about EoFF, and even more about my religious pareidolia website.

[sharkythesharkdogg]

I just make friends where I make friends. Some online friends know more about me than some face to face friends. I have two friends I've made through face to face interaction that know more about me than anyone. The next on the list is an online friend.

I've sent things to people I've never met just because I consider them friends and wanted to be nice. I'm looking for a field jacket right now if I can ever remember.

[NorthernChaosGod]

EoFFers are welcome to invade my personal life. Real life acquaintances are generally not allowed to invade my EoFF etc life. The reason for this is simple - everyone here is far superior, and I often like to complain about people here :greenie:
Pretty much this. I'm very open about my online activities. I even tell my friends about EoFF, but I don't actually give them enough information to find the place.


I firmly believe in the separation of powers. I would be kind of embarassed if the people I knew IRL saw me associating with someone like Julian or Steve. They're just so beneath me.
You're an asshole and I hate you from the bottom of my heart.

[Peegee]

I want everybody to try this.

Ask somebody who has spent a significant time with me (there's....5 or six people) and compare it to people who have spent a shorter time with me (there's....about 12 people), and then compare it to the people who spent even less time with me (they showed up at Mandee's wedding), then compare it to what you think of me.

Then you can all go to hell.

[Brunettepudding]

I've always been very open about my online life. I've got many people from online as friends on Facebook, and there's never been any problems.

[Kossage]

I'm pretty open online most of the time, and I tend to write thoughts about my life down in my LiveJournal and Facebook accounts. I make no distinction between "online" and "offline"; EoFF and other forums as well as online friends are simply a part of my everyday life so I see no need to act differently online than I would IRL. ;)


Question is, should I be more worried and hold back here or get a completely new username and not link them at all? Or should I just be myself everywhere since I never do anything that could seriously damage my reputation anywhere anyway?

If I were you, I'd just be myself, because that's how I roll. EoFF is a nice place, so I wouldn't worry about us; people here are friendly and funny, so it's cool to hang out here on the forums or in the EoFF chatroom. Just use common sense about what you're comfortable sharing with others online, and you'll do fine. :)

[Miriel]

I also like to hide my surname from people online but that's now because it's more of a game of cat-and-mouse with the likes of Roogle and tuh than for any other reason. I think 30-40 people here know it and I don't care that much. BUT IF YOU KNOW YOU MUSN'T TELL :argh: It's like a cool kids exclusive club, don't let losers in you guys.


I actually think this is fairly important just as far as it relates to your career. I mean, look at all the examples of people loosing their jobs over blogs, facebook photos, tweets, etc. I'm glad that even from a young age, I was always conscious of anything I was putting out onto the internet. I'm also glad that I don't have a super unusual first and last name. If you google my full name, you'll get tons of hits of people who are NOT me. That's a nice little buffer I think. Sucks to be Amanda though.

[Shlup]

I'm also glad that I don't have a super unusual first and last name. If you google my full name, you'll get tons of hits of people who are NOT me. That's a nice little buffer I think. Sucks to be Amanda though.
Seriously. Worst part about my last name. I have to check my Google results on a regular basis and figure out how to get Google to leave me the hell alone.

[NorthernChaosGod]

I want everybody to try this.

Ask somebody who has spent a significant time with me (there's....5 or six people) and compare it to people who have spent a shorter time with me (there's....about 12 people), and then compare it to the people who spent even less time with me (they showed up at Mandee's wedding), then compare it to what you think of me.

Then you can all go to hell.
10/10

I lol'd.

[Raistlin]

Oh man, I can find pages of stuff by googling Amanda's name. I wonder what her students think of her EoFF antics.

[CelShadedDreams]

What's your new job anyway, CSD?

Not saying until they announce it, then I can explain. (Again, a problem of just incase I get traced to here!) Nothing exciting, really.

It's more an issue of me wanting to be open and talk about stuff online, stuff I'd talk about with friends, but obviously online anyone could see it! It's not like I'd go around naming people if I had a bad day at work or anything damaging, but if someone put a couple of hours into it they could link me to his username and anyone could find "my" conversations with friends. An average person probably wouldn't go through that much effort, but someone has done that to my stuff before and it really makes me hold back when I post. They saw old stupid online dramas and knew loads of stuff that I hadn't told them yet but would probably have eventually because none of that stuff matterred anyway, but it wasn't on my terms.

I used to love forums because you'd be talking with like-minded people about a common interest, but that's made me feel rather vulnerable and wary and I haven't stuck around on a forum since because I feel like I'm looking over my shoulder all the time. I'm not worried about work, I don't think they'd care. I just really miss that sense of community that forums have and I'd like to not have to worry about friends etc finding stuff that's said in my "me time". It's just so much easier to say what you want on your own terms online... except not anymore.

The new job making me slightly more public doesn't bother me, It's just the knowledge that that makes it faster and easier for a certain type of person to track down slightly more casual and personal snippets about you that bothers me.

Facebook is personal, I share family holiday photos etc. Twitter is public, I'll share the one flattering photo of me doing something impressive. Forums are a big party/ wedding type situation where it's fun to make new friends and chat with while having a drink and feeling relaxed, but I don't feel relaxed because I feel like someone is listening in or talking about you even if the conversation ultimately doesn't matter, and that puts me on edge.

Does that make sense? I guess it's just plain ol' paranoia *sigh*

Trying to get over that by posting about it I guess

[Levian]

I used to be more reserved about this in the past, but I stopped caring a while ago. I don't mind eoffers on facebook and I don't mind if friends see me browsing EoFF. The only things I mind are having my full name written here or anywhere besides facebook, for reasons Miriel listed. And also having people call me Levian on facebook, that just makes me look übernerdy in front of my friends.

[Shlup]

Oh man, I can find pages of stuff by googling Amanda's name. I wonder what her students think of her EoFF antics.

I had it down to less than a page, but Google+ is an asshole, so now I'm all over that and every picture I ever put on my blog comes up. I changed my name there to my maiden name, so that should help. I also added a word replacement to EoFF for my last name some time ago, so at least no more direct links to EoFF show up. I fucking hate pipl.com though.

[CimminyCricket]

I don't have online friends and irl friends. I talk to friends that I've met online way more than the friends that I have offline. It's not necessarily that I like them better, it's just much easier to talk to them because we have a lot of similar interests whereas the friends I have offline are all into getting drunk all the damn time and smoking pot and scoring chicks and what have you. The friends I made while I was in the military were all mostly married so I could hang out with them a lot, but now I'm back home with a bunch of people who still haven't matured. :C

My online and offline lives aren't separate. As a matter of fact, friends I've met online over the last couple of years know more about what's going on in my life than do the friends I've had since high school.

[Pike]

To clarify I can understand the concern about the "real name" thing, a bit. I'm different because I have one of the most common names in the country. You can put my first, middle, and last name into Google, go through the first hundred pages, and I won't be there. I know this because I got bored once and checked. :p

Even if that weren't the case for me, though, I STILL don't think I'd care, personally. But I understand if others do.

But yeah as many have said, friends are friends. I don't see how having a bunch of "internet people" on my Facebook is any different than having a bunch of cousins/old classmates on there whom I haven't seen in years and talk to much less than I talk to you guys.

[Jiro]

Psychotic's last name is Walrus

[Rantz]

I used to be more reserved about this in the past, but I stopped caring a while ago. I don't mind eoffers on facebook and I don't mind if friends see me browsing EoFF. The only things I mind are having my full name written here or anywhere besides facebook, for reasons Miriel listed. And also having people call me Levian on facebook, that just makes me look übernerdy in front of my friends.

Yeah, all of this. Especially the facebook thing, I hate when people call me Levian on facebook :nonono:

[Levian]

Huh, weird. I love being called Rantz Rantz Revolution on Facebook.

[Jiro]

So when I become brave enough to add Levian on Facebook, I will have to remember that he has a real name.

[Gamblet]

Well, offline and online life are separated for me, because I play games that friends/classmates don't like very much, because of the graphics (Example: Final Fantasy) and visit forums that they don't, so my friends/classmates might find it funny or something when I visit/play such things. :jess:
I guess they are graphics whores. I like the "old but gold" stuff since 2009. :D So, I prefer not connecting forums with Facebook or whatever. :thumbsup: I'm still young and so are my friends, gotta remain stylish or something. :cool: Forums and video games are like a getaway from public life.

[fire_of_avalon]

I never talk to Lev on fb because his language has more consonants than i'm accustomed to and it makes me nervous.

[Miriel]

I don't think I have any EoFFers on my Facebook except for Del Murder. But I've only lately begun to really use facebook, and a lot of that is for networking/business purposes. I don't even think I've ever searched for other EoFFer's on Facebook. I don't know most of your full names.

I would add Levia to facebook, but only if he lets me call him Levia. Or more specially, Leviaaaa!!

[Levian]

:|

I will let you call me Levia if you turn the v upside down and place it one spot to the right, followed by adding a D to the end of everything and then typing out the whole name backwards.

But yeah, foa has it right. I'm pretty useless to have as a facebook friend as I just write in consonants mostly :/

[Yar]

Meh. I lied when I told my parents I was going to Arizona for 10 days. If I would have told them I was going to see a girl I met on the Internet I would have never heard the end of it.

[SolarGirl]

My lives are fairly seperate. Like, if I know you IRL, then I'll talk to you in person, or over the phone or something. If I know you online, that's how we'll talk. I'm more or less the same girl, but I'm easier to understand online. But I do consider my online life fairly private. I generally only combine the two to shre an interesting story.

Otherwise, my lives are separate.

[Pumpkin]

This site is my social life right now, because I don"t have time for an IRL social life.

Plus I am much easier to annoy in person. Just talking kinda does the trick. Or breathing too loudly. People say I'm shy, but I just don't want to talk to them.

[APolaris]

This site is my social life right now, because I don"t have time for an IRL social life.

Plus I am much easier to annoy in person. Just talking kinda does the trick. Or breathing too loudly. People say I'm shy, but I just don't want to talk to them.

100% agreed. Also, on the internet you can at least visit forums, etc. based on collective interests to learn about people. In real life, it's pretty much just random and you have no way of telling what sort of person would have similar interests to you. Granted, that's easier on some people than others. I'm the sort it's not easy on, because I have pretty esoteric tastes. It doesn't help that around LI, about 90% of the people my age think getting drunk is the only social activity.

[Peegee]

irl stuff i do:

drink, drive, boat, swim, beach, ski, skate, rock climb, booze, zombie games, movies, argue, urban exploration, travel, eat, dance, art galleries, book store. that is more than enough for you to pick.

[DMKA]

My offline and online lives are kept completely separate. Hell, I keep what I do on particular sites isolated as much as I can.

[black orb]

Do you keep your online and offline lives seperate?

Do you consider forums etc your "private" space away from spouses and friends etc?

>>> Yes, and yes..:luca:

[Christmas]

Of course. I dun want to be associated with you losers in real life.