Why I go by Rosie (discussion about people using pseudonyms for privacy reasons)

Question

It’s been almost seven months since I joined the Community Team at Stack Overflow. I’ve been having a wonderful time learning the ropes, working with incredible colleagues across the company, and especially getting to know the Stack Exchange Communities. I’ve gotten to know some of the moderators and community members through interactions and conversations on Meta, chat, etc. I have so much trust and respect for you all which is why I want to share why I choose to use a pseudonym on the platform.

I’ve been working in community management for over a decade. The vast majority of interactions I’ve had with members of the communities I’ve been privileged to serve have been positive and it’s a big contributor to why I love this work so much.

However, I have also had a few experiences in the past that have made me feel uncomfortable. I won’t get into too many details but these interactions primarily involved comments about seeing me in live videos or on webinars for previous companies I’ve worked for and knowing where I worked (i.e. that they could stop by the office and figure out where my desk was). Nothing serious ever came of any of these interactions, thank goodness, but I do know others in the industry who have had more serious interactions where their safety was in jeopardy.

For those reasons I chose for some light anonymity on the platform, which for me was using a nickname bestowed on me by family friends and using my pet’s photo as my avatar. I say light anonymity because in professional circles I’ve always used my legal name when it comes to professional profiles, articles I’ve written or been quoted in, podcast interviews, etc. It’s not too hard to figure out who I am and I trust the community so I didn’t (and still don’t) feel the need to retroactively conceal my legal name on any of those platforms.

That said, other people take anonymity more seriously than I do. I ask and trust that everyone would respect staff and community members who choose to use pseudonyms. Their reasons for doing so are personal and we should respect their privacy there as well. As a people manager and a community manager the safety and privacy of community members and staff is important to me and I will fiercely protect it.

If you have any questions for me feel free to drop them in the comments below. Thank you.

Answer 1

I was asked by someone to post an answer here stating clearly what the position of my department and the company is with regard to employees operating pseudo-anonymously.

I want to be very clear: I support the right of any employee who wishes to operate pseudo-anonymously. I have had staff working like this on every team in virtually every community role that I've ever had.

I believe (and this is the position of the company as well) that new staff should be allowed to make an informed choice as to how public they wish to be. Personally, as you may have noticed, I freely use my full name. I have done this since I started community work, and I think that it’s necessary for me to carry the credibility of my work experience when I come into another existing company, particularly in a leadership role. This allows community members to ask me questions about my past, as several did during my announcement. This level of scrutiny is not required for most positions here, however (including Rosie’s).

Rosie has my utmost trust and confidence, and her decision to operate under a pseudonym is exactly that: her decision. But I support it fully, as I would for any other employee who chose to do so. I applaud her courage in making this statement, and trust that community members will respect her wishes, and those of others (on staff and within the broader community itself) who do not wish to disclose their identity.

Answer 2

I thought I'd throw in another point of view for this discussion - that of someone who arguably is their persona on the site. While I appreciate and respect Rosie's reasons - I share many of them myself - and I am grateful for Philippe's support in allowing us to participate in the way we choose, I'd argue that - unlike Philippe - my username here has become how I'm known and recognized, rather than my real name.

I started using this network of sites over six years ago and, as I generally do, I used a pseudonym. Using real names on the internet just wasn't something you did - I don't think I've ever used a real name unless it was required or the "default" when creating accounts and even now I tend to shy away from using my real name in various places. The person I choose to share on the web is "Catija".

Over my time here, that's come to the point where, even when I meet people face-to-face, it's more natural to keep using my username - heck, even internally I switched my name to use "Catija" after a couple of coworkers had a lightbulb moment realizing who I was on the site. If I'd instead had to switch to my real name when I was hired, that would have impacted my recognition within the community as it took some time for people to realize that I was the same person.

A brief aside: my husband goes by an abbreviation of his first name and one of the reasons he really likes going by a nickname is that he can often quickly identify whether the person calling or emailing him is someone who actually knows him or is a rando who just happens to have his name on a list.

I feel like this line of thought extends into the usage of pseudonyms. Someone may think using my real name is a way to be more friendly without realizing the truth - here on SE I am "Catija" or "Cat", as some closer friends have chosen to abbreviate it - so using my real name is the same as using my husband's full name - it tells me that you don't actually know me.

I recognize that the various people who use the SE network have different ideas of what is appropriate when addressing others. Some feel that real names should be required or standard, others feel that using real names is pointless since it's hard to confirm that you are who you claim to be or because they prefer to have separation between their SE persona and who they are offline. We run a middle path - we allow people to choose for themselves and I think that's essential.

As such, while I talk about my reasons for using the name I do here, I will also add that I will refer to you by your username unless you've specifically asked for something else. While I don't need to communicate with people one-on-one frequently, when I do, I refer to them by their username until or unless they specify something else, such as in a signature line. Caveat here for people who use different usernames on different sites, I'll likely use the one I'm most familiar with.

I guess I'd end this by saying... to some degree, Catija is my real name. Maybe you could call it my professional name. On any given day, more people call me "Catija" or "Cat" than refer to me by my legal name, so I actually am more used to these names than my full name.

Answer 3

There have been cases on this network itself that have had privacy and safety concerns. While I naturally won't go into detail, I can recall at least two situations where local law enforcement had to be contacted out of concern for the safety of the involved individuals (moderators and staff).

Even aside from physical safety, there are other concerns for privacy. When I first joined the network, and for most of my time using it, I was a minor. Other people need to separate their professional lives from their personal, or their online presence from their physical for whatever reason.

A couple months ago I met in person with Yaakov Ellis and Shadow Wizard. Any photos shared of me I am required to blur out certain details. Not just a personal decision - I could get fined or get court martialed if I share certain things.

A central tenet of the internet is its capacity for anonymity, for better or for worse. While on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog (notable exceptions include Journeyman Geek, ChrisF, and Rubio), and that's a good thing.

Let's respect that and allow everyone to control what they're comfortable sharing.

Answer 4

To complement this, I'll share why I've chosen to use my real name on my profile.

I am not, nor do I expect to be, famous, but such things can come as a surprise. Take, for instance, the case of Ken Bone, a previously non-famous person who was an audience member at the second U.S. presidential debate in 2016 (emphasis added):

Questioner Ken Bone, a power plant operator from Illinois, had a media presence and became an Internet meme in the days following the debate. His rise to popularity was due to his name, his red sweater, and his use of a disposable camera prior to and after the debate. Bone appeared on ESPN College GameDay and @midnight. He was portrayed by Bobby Moynihan during the cold open of NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live's October 15 episode, dancing to the song "Get Ready for This". Bone received a short-term endorsement deal with American transportation network company Uber to promote the launch of Uber Select in St. Louis. A backlash against Bone happened after controversial posts under his username on Reddit were revealed.

It may be possible to be completely anonymous on the internet [citation needed], but I rather choose to assume that any sufficiently motivated person could connect me to my online persona, or vice versa.

Not having this privacy screen in place means that I spend a moment thinking about anything I'm getting ready to post online, and how it could be perceived by my family, friends, co-workers, and the world at large, should they have a reason to care about things I once shared on obscure corners of the internet.

Sure, it precludes me from asking questions or sharing insight on topics discussed outside of polite company, but I find there are enough other folks talking about such things that I can get most of what I need just from following the conversation.

That said, I totally respect the choice of others to remain anonymous and appreciate the efforts they put into maintaining anonymity, and the tools that allow them to do this. I do think anonymity on the internet is valuable and necessary, even though it's not the choice I've made for myself.

Answer 5

I ask and trust that everyone would respect staff and community members who choose to use pseudonyms. Their reasons for doing so are personal and we should respect their privacy there as well.

I'm glad you bring it up Rosie. Reason is, there was one case I witnessed where a mod insisted and pressured a user into stating their real name (among other info) in chat. Even after that new and inexperienced user repeatedly stated they'd rather not. Another mod certainly read the transcript and didn't say a word...(Assuming every good intention possible, they just wanted to know.)

Now, at that point the inexperienced user who was pressured certainly finds themselves left between a rock and a hard place. What should have been a safe experience turned into major personal risk. It's not just that both the mods in question had years of experience, it's also that up until recently if the chat messages were deleted there would be virtually no way for the user to rectify the information and have it deleted.

At that point, a reasonable person would have more than enough reasons to have a serious trust problem with how mods on SE are trained about requesting PII. But the problems don't stop there...

At one point I decided to change my email, only to find out after a lot of digging (research the reasonable average user probably wouldn't have the time or energy to do) there's no easy seamless way to wipe your previous emails by your own means. Around that time I started reading back on some of MadScientist's posts and I was appalled..!

I’ve been having a wonderful time learning the ropes, working with incredible colleagues across the company

I'm happy you took the choice you felt most comfortable with. But I'm afraid to say, the average user won't have wonderful people around them showing them the ropes. In fact they'll find a system where, perhaps out of fear, bad actors were never discussed.

As a people manager and a community manager the safety and privacy of community members and staff is important to me and I will fiercely protect it.

Please. By all means.