That's just too funny. Even five years ago, you'd think that people would know about Internet persistence. And about the Streisand effect But for most of us, the key thing is to never do anything (even with people we trust) or put anything online with the expectation that it won't come back to bite us. And I'm not talking about self-censorship. Rather, I'm talking about compartmentalization. As Mirimir, I say and do stuff that I wouldn't want associated with my meatspace identity. But I'm also careful about preserving Mirimir's reputation. For dicier stuff, I use other personas. Just sayin'
Same as the posters above me. I use persona's of many flavors to present ideas and concepts that I don't want associated with my true name. Even when I cruise around online as "true me" I am on VPN's because I don't even want my ISP, and others to view what I am interested in reading about. Banks, email, etc... I have no option for when I am using my real name. But where I surf is my business. Frankly I spend little time surfing without the umbrella of a persona. I log into my real name do my banking, emails, handle appointments and then shut down and bring up a persona computer system for the balance of the day.
For us (common people), personas are useful because using our real ID would gives us nothing but troubles. For famous people, they must use their "known" name to keep having active and devoted fans and followers, this is business. ~ Off Topic Remarks Removed ~
Agreed. Been there. Done that. Got the hate mail. Fortunately, it was way back, in the early days of Usenet Yes, "known" name. But often not "real name". Public names are usually picked for PR. But back in the bad old days, also to hide Jewish heritage
