Is it wise to use real name?

I’m looking into Diaspora and was curious if it is safe or wise to use a real name. Would using a real name help my family and friends find me on Diaspora?

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The pros and cons of using your real name in diaspora* are exactly the same as the pros and cons of using your real name anywhere else on the web. No one can give you objective advice whether or not you should use your real name in diaspora*; different people have different opinions. The best thing you can do is to do some research about the potential drawbacks of using your real name in online interactions (especially public ones) and then to make your own decision.

The one difference between diaspora* and some other social networks is that diaspora* gives you an absolutely free choice whether or not to use your real name. It really is up to you.

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I would say it really depends on what you want to do with it. If it’s just to talk with your family then I would recommend you use your real name. If you want to have then another account that is more private then you totally can. Like that you have the best of both worlds

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Just family, does having a real user name help others find you on Diaspora?
Thank you!

Not really because what you need to give anyone you want to connect to is yourusername@yourpod
If you’re on the same pod you just need the first part with your username.
Hope it helps.

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You can search for people by screen name as well as ID (the ‘name’ that looks like an email address). The ID is only really needed when there are many people in diaspora* with the same name, or when the pod you have registered with does not have an existing relationship with the pod on which the person who wants to find you is registered.

@maw, if you tell people what name you are using in diaspora*, it really makes no difference whether or not that name is your real one. If you tell your grandmother that you’re registered as ‘Little Squeaky Mouse’ in diaspora*, she can find you by searching for that name.

If you are only going to be connecting with family and will be sharing everything with them privately rather than posting publicly, you might find it more natural to use your real name, but that really is a personal decision for you to make. Perhaps you could discuss it with your family first, if you are finding it hard to decide.

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I find it in my interests to be easily found by name on the internet, but a larger part of my internet persona is a phoney-baloney artist. I’ve also been using my real name for years, so there’s another reason to keep doing so. Some people use the same pseudonym across their web accounts for their reasons.
Personally, I prefer real names, but there are a lot of reasons to not do so, and most of them valid.

On diaspora* so far I’ve found that it seems slightly more people use pseudonyms than not. Either way, it doesn’t affect interacting among users. We’re a lot more about ‘who you are’.

One thing that hasn’t come up here, though, is your name and anything you post publicly is, well, public, and can be searched for on Google or whatever, which is worth considering.

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There is nothing wrong with it using more but one account.

So you could register your real name on some pod (like evesmith@diaspora.example.info) with your real name as screenname (like “Eve Smith”) write a small bio with your real day of birth and your residence and one public posting where you explain who you are for those who find you.
And secondly you register squeeky_mouse@funny.example.org and there you do all the stuff you don’t want to have “connected” to your real life. You do all the public stuff there etc.

And whenever some of your friends or family finds you as Eve Smith and adds you to their contacts you can either:

  • Do all the reallife-family-stuff in private messages and limited posts with your evesmith-account
  • or tell your beloved secretly that it is cool they found you as evesmith but your realy used handle is squeeky_mouse@funny.example.org

This way you can be found but you avoid to be analysed as your real “you”.