Coscott comments on Beware Trivial Fears - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Stabilizer 04 February 2014 05:40AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (39)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Coscott 04 February 2014 06:29:00PM 1 point [-]

Is this recommendation based on anything? I agree, but it feels like a trivial fear, and I don't have any (even anecdotal) evidence that this is necessary.

I do not think it is hard to figure out my identity, but I am trying to avoid a google search of my name bringing up anything from LW.

(e.g. I do not put my name on my blog, or talk about it on facebook.)

Comment author: Lumifer 04 February 2014 09:21:53PM 5 points [-]

Is this recommendation based on anything?

An empirical observation that people like to Google-stalk everyone they come into contact with, to start with.

I don't have any (even anecdotal) evidence that this is necessary.

Evidence of what, precisely? You don't think that people google up, say, job applicants and then reject them on the basis of what they found?

Comment author: Stabilizer 04 February 2014 09:39:11PM 6 points [-]

An empirical observation that people like to Google-stalk everyone they come into contact with, to start with.

Shit. I thought that I was the only one.

Comment author: savageorange 05 February 2014 03:34:14AM *  -2 points [-]

people like to Google-stalk everyone they come into contact with,

People do that?

People have too much time on their hands. Geez.

Comment author: ThrustVectoring 04 February 2014 07:22:33PM 3 points [-]

As much as possible, you want to optimize what a trivial investigation of you brings up - like, for instance, an internet search with your name as the query. Putting anything anywhere under your real name cedes a lot of that control.

If you're worried about nontrivial investigations, whether or not you choose a pseudonym makes very little difference.

Comment author: ChristianKl 05 February 2014 05:36:21PM 0 points [-]

As much as possible, you want to optimize what a trivial investigation of you brings up - like, for instance, an internet search with your name as the query. Putting anything anywhere under your real name cedes a lot of that control.

Actually it's the other way around. If there nothing that you put up under your own name that's well ranked it's easy for someone else to put something up. Not putting up anything means having no control.

Comment author: ThrustVectoring 05 February 2014 06:48:45PM 2 points [-]

Perhaps I should have been more specific - every time you use your real name outside of a public-image building context, it becomes harder to build a public image associated with your name. I wasn't trying to say that you should put nothing up - more that it should be something like what you'd expect a medical doctor's official web page to look like. Not a stream of possibly controversial or misinterpreted posts on a web forum.

Comment author: gwern 04 February 2014 08:36:53PM 2 points [-]

I don't have any (even anecdotal) evidence that this is necessary.

I think you're not really looking. Richwine comes to mind as a recent example.

Comment author: Coscott 04 February 2014 11:50:52PM 0 points [-]

Sorry. I have not looked and did not mean to imply that I have.