Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Pepper on January 15, 2010 at 5:13pm

I can understand both sides of this debate. You have a lot of moms that are trying to keep their childrens' identities safe, but the fact is that you just need to watch your children. They are going to have a lot more exposure to the creeps out there in the real world than online. Until they start getting online themselves and that is a whole new ball game.

I can understand the moms who hide their childrens' identities because they do not want them to be googable. This is a really good idea since the school and business world is starting to look at your online identity when considering application, etc. If your child has an illness or if you talk about really personal things then you may want to mask your children's identities.

I have unusual name and it is near impossible to google anything about me because you mainly get recipes. LOL And my children's names are unique but my oldest has a different legal name than what we call him and my youngest happens to share his name with a character on TV (just by chance). So their names are hard to google and they won't really have to worry about my blog coming up with their names if they don't want them too. You may try googling your kids names and see if they even come up.

I do find it hard to read a blog with pseudonyms and find it distracting, I also find that sometimes the real name pops up anyways.

I have been online a long time and only have heard of maybe one or two stories about stalking and they were very famous bloggers and the situation was easily taken care of. So I see both points of the issue, but I try not to stress about it too much.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on January 19, 2010 at 10:17am

I use a "cutesy name" for my daughter. It is a nickname I call her sometimes and it just translated well into my blog. Part of it is because I would rather people not know her real name but I don't try to censor it everywhere and if someone were to find out her real name (which i'm sure wouldn't me hard) it wouldn't be the end of the world. I think some people prefer to keep some things about their family private, names included.

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Permalink Reply by This Mama Works It! on January 19, 2010 at 10:41am

Great question!

I do not use my real name or anyone in my family real name. The reason is strictly privacy. I talk about a lot of different women/mom empowerment topics on my blog and I want to speak freely and totally uncensored. I personally feel if I used all real names I would not be as open with what I want to talk about. So that is just me.

It doesn't bother me if I don't know a bloggers "real name". If her stories and content are interesting I will be coming back to her blog. Whether her hubby's name on her blog is shnookie or Mike.

www.thismamaworksit.com

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Permalink Reply by Krissi McVicker on January 19, 2010 at 2:31pm

So true! Thanks for sharing! I really wasn't sure what was behind the whole fake name thing! ;-)

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Permalink Reply by Ellen C on January 21, 2010 at 7:55pm

Personally, I'm all for real names. I see my blog as a type of business and I want people to feel comfortable working with me. For that to happen I think they need to know who I really am. If someone really wants to find you, the information is out there in other places anyway.

Ellen
http://confessionsofanover-workedmom.blogspot.com/

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Permalink Reply by Mamma Buffa on January 21, 2010 at 7:57pm

I use all pseudonyms out of paranoia and to protect (and respect) the privacy of my children. We already use those nicknames with them anyway in the real world, so it comes naturally when I write. They didn't ask to be outted in the blogosphere. If it came to books one day, I would still consider using a psuedonym for myself, but maybe more realistic name. Who would know that I'm really "Mary" and not "Jane"? Just my two cents :-)

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Permalink Reply by Mimi on January 21, 2010 at 8:15pm

I use the nicknames that I call them at home. I used to use their real names, but decided that for their safety, as much as I can, I would use their nicknames. Now, I use my real name unless I'm asked for a "username" and then I give my internet "name" which is bigguysmama. I figure that since I've been using that for 10 yrs people will know me by it when they see it.

I also try to keep the close ups of my kids in photos to a minimum because of terrible people who like child porn and will steal a photo if they think they can edit it and use it for their evil.

That's my 2 cents for what it's worth.

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Permalink Reply by Mamma Buffa on January 21, 2010 at 8:38pm

Mimi- between the two of us, we already have four cents :-) NInette...those were the wise words of advice given to me right before I started my blog 4 months ago. I'm so freaked out that all my pictures on my blog are drawings, and my pets names are even protected! Thats a little extreme, I know. My cutesy name has kinda bugged me, but I am trying to come up some other more realistic names for myself for the future. I've worked in the schools for 10 years now and there ARE a lot of ill intentioned people out there... even people who have children of their own. Hard to digest, I know.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny Yarbrough on January 21, 2010 at 10:06pm

Thank you for posting this. I have been using nicknames for my children on my blog, but was wondering if that was being too paranoid. I mean, I post pics of them, don't I. But I keep imagining some pervert seeing my daughter's picture on my blog and if I used her real name and this person found out where we lived, they could just call her by name and she would think she was supposed to know them. We can teach our children about stranger danger all we want, but they are still just children. I try not to mention local places that we visit by their name as well. My location is not named in my profile. I don't know if this protects me much but I hope it does.

Very interesting discussion!

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Merritt on January 24, 2010 at 4:24pm

This is a great question. I use our real names, but I do understand why some people don't. I think it is something that people just need to decide on their own. I don't mind it when people use pseudo names in their blogs, as long as they are consistent with them!

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Permalink Reply by TheBusyChick on January 24, 2010 at 9:44pm

It depends.

In my city I am...somewhat...high profile. I have a blog that I write for professional purposes. My new blog "The Busy Chick.Com" is a perfect outlet for total transparency and expression. Again, I can understand both sides, but for me this is the only way for me.

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Permalink Reply by Mandy HEaston on January 25, 2010 at 12:07pm

I use pseudonyms for the reasons originally stated, to keep my kids' identity away from all the creeps and also to keep their names off the internet. When they're older, they can have the choice of what they want to put out there, but I don't want my own blogging to be an influence when they have employers, etc., googling them later in life.

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