Case Story: Being pseudonymous

Summary	The advantages and disadvantages of pseudonimity
Group / workshop	Digital Identities	Status	seed
Project details...

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

I started blogging because there was a buzz round blogging and I'm a learning technologist. Because I'm a holist I anticipated blogging about everything and anything, and because I have an extremely unusual name I thought I'd better be anonymous. I didn't want anybody searching for me professionally seeing my photos of costume parties.

I became quite an intrepid blogger and a minor niche member of the commentariat. For me, blogging was everything that educationalists claim - I began to think better, write better and be more responsible. My rating went up steadily, and I developed some particular interests. One day an important academic blogger I know and admire linked to a post of mine. I was overwhelmed by the response. Did he know it was me? It happened again. I got other attention of this kind, from people who had inspired me in the first place. I began to write in various places under my own name.

Should be great - what's the point of committing your opinions to the web if you don't get challenged on them, or have the chance to convince people about them? But I felt uncomfortable with the whole setup. It wasn't my intention to dissemble. I wanted to write pseudonymously because of the reasons I said. I wanted to publish because it sharpens me up and brings out my best. And because of the comments I'd occasionally receive which were so enlightening and so companionable. Now I was getting attention from people whose opinions I really care about, my attributable pieces seemed to me to be stilted - I retreated into bland reporting - while my pseudonymous pieces were much more vibrant.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

To feel good about a pseudonymous identity - to make it work for me in responsible ways.

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

Without particularly sitting down and articulating them (until now), I began fairly early on to adopt the following practices.

• no sock-puppeting: no linking to myself; no talking about myself; definitely no talking to myself
• me and my pseudonym share the same opinions - it's just that one of us is more relaxed, more entertaining and a better writer
• my pseudonym is not a different persona - it's just another me with a different name
• no hiding behind the pseudonym to let off steam, score cheap points, or do bad research
• if somebody who knows me contacts my pseudonym, I tell them who I am if I judge that they'll respect the pseudonymity.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

Insignificant. I'm still split and I feel sheepish. My pseudonymous writing is fine. But my worst stuff gets the most eyeballs. And people who know who I am still link to my pseudonymous blog, so I still feel like a sock-puppet. And sometimes I want to link to myself to avoid plagiarising myself, and because I want to point out a good point I made somewhere else. It's all a bit of a mess.

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

Putting stuff in the public domain is not the same as seeking publicity, but publicity is what you may get. Maybe some of these worries are just in my own head - a kind of spotlight effect mingled with an assumption that people are very judgmental.

Maybe I should write everything under my own name and harden myself up. But what if it comes back to haunt me? And will I have the time to respond to the criticism? Maybe I should stop publishing. But then I'll feel more isolated and I'll lose the benefit of readers' critique - I've learnt a lot from them.

I also learnt that other bloggers have these kinds of issues.

Licensing

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.