I've always used this alias for everything I do online, from blog comments to games to Facebook. No particular reason, it's just something I do. Whether anyone thinks it makes me less an Objectivist I care not a fig.

I use my nick name.

The first message board I was ever on was a college sports forum where everyone used an alias. I don't attack other posters or say anything on the internet that I would not say to anyone or at any place but it has become my habit to use coaldigger since the days of Prodigy on my Compac PC.

I have wondered why so many Gulchers keep their location secret in their profiles.

A real name is one that a person chooses, this may be different from a name chosen by parents.
A name used by a bank or tax or welfare dept. for such business purposes may not be a real name for other purposes.

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
"Call me anything but call me in time for dinner".

I am Mimi to my family. :)
But, I have used different usernames for different sites. Sometimes for security reasons, sometimes just to be whimsical. Depends on the purpose of the site.

Use of pseudonym has a long history of reasonable use. So the question is to me rather baseless. I use my own name but I would have no qualms at all if I felt I had good reason not to do so.

whoa. did Kerry Washington do it? sorry. don't want to make light of it, want context for the time. double whoa

hahahahha. I would never say that AJ. waiting for you to visit. you and db dukin it out on the beach. I'll video :)

are you saying I'm not capable of defending myself in here?


j/k

I suppose after 30 years it's safe to disclose that the incident involved cut brake lines and a steep mountain road. I was lucky to make it to a garage, where I discovered the lines had been purposely severed. However, the KGB connection wasn't disclosed until a government investigating agency informed me that was the source of the attempted "accident." I was under strict orders not to disclose that near miss to anyone, including my wife, as they were continuing to watch the suspects. I finally decided to tell my spouse about it 20 years later. Not as dramatic as some KGB kills, and I always felt it was a demonstration of how the USSR was in collapse.

that was my point-certainly not in here. You are very polite. I enjoy your friendship :)

as are yours. someday I want to hear that story....

Standing outside a library with a petition is also hardly ground for illegals to threaten violence. :)

I'm very capable at defending myself if need be. Equally, I'm never quiet when confronted.

I will say that the Gulch is the best managed forum I've been party to, and with a higher caliber of credible intellectual exchange. Your efforts are appreciated.

oh I have heard your stories. what about the library story...

Saying something counter to an indoctrinated politically correct mindset, without vulgarity, is hardly grounds for violent confrontation - physical or otherwise. Stick and stones....

in fairness, you like to spoil for a fight with your enemies, my friend :)

yes, but it takes someone longer to determine their authenticity. On this board, I'm probably in here more than most. If you do not share your real name, it takes longer for people to get a feel for you. think invited guest to a living room vs trick or treaters. In here, we basically invite trick or treaters to dinner. If they are stealing the soaps and silverware, it takes us awhile to pick up on that. probably not the best analogy, but close. :)

I don't take differences of opinion as personal insults against my character, and enjoy an exchange of ideas. Often I find that an oppositional, well reasoned thought makes me reexamine my own position - exercising the "little grey cells," as Hercule Poirot would say. Thanks for your understanding, and please keep throwing punches.

Personally, I'm glad to share my identification with certain individuals on a selective basis, but not just anyone on a public Posting/Commenting site.

Being an Objectivist in today's world is not necessarily a popular stance, and to be honest my privacy, or loss of it, is a right that I protect as much as I can. There's far too little of it left today.

I may not agree with all of your postings, but I completely agree with your reasoning for a pseudonym, DrZ.

Like you, I too often witness the "bomb throwers" hiding behind false names. If that somehow gives them the delusion that inflammatory responses aren't named at them, but at their phony persona, they're welcome to that fantasy.

Oddly using a nick or handle rather than your real name doesn't bother me. There are valid reasons to do so, safety reasons as well as others. In the case of someone that has been spending time on forums and BBSs as long as I have, it is far more normal than using your own name.

For me when trying to judge whether an inflammatory post is just a tossed bomb or a sincere disagreement other factors come into play.

Age of account - trolls and pure bomb throwers tend to be new accounts, they go away on their own or get shown the door pretty quick here. Thank you for that, moderators.
Prior contributions - are their other contributions normally inflammatory? Or is this a hot issue for them
My prior interactions with them - Good, Bad, None?

The internet is a great facilitator of communication. At the same time it also compromises communication in the sense that virtually none of the emotion or attitude is apparent. That lack makes it easy to misconstrue intent and meaning.

And also, there are some people we just cannot get along with in any group, for whatever reason.

Bottom line, I give people a certain amount of benefit of the doubt.

This nick I've been using for 20+ years, for what its worth

GHBs!