an angle i haven't seen anyone else point to yet

[fox]

You know, my non-use of my full name in online fandom (or anywhere else online, in fact, except if I'm buying something or in a couple of rare professional instances) has much, much less to do with not wanting the Real Life people to find out what my hobbies are. Honestly, if they asked, I'd tell them. I'm not trying to hide my fannish life from my real life. Instead, it's very much the reverse. There are plenty of you who know my full name and home address and so on, and may even know my mother's maiden name, and could probably find my Social Security Number without too much effort; but, crucially, I trust those of you who have that kind of information not to abuse it, and there are plenty more people out there whom I don't know well enough to want them to know where I live. Not, I say again, because I think they're going to tell my mother or my boss or my neighbors what I get up to in my spare time, but because who I am and where I live is none of their damn business. I get why the conversation is mostly about keeping fannish and non-fannish identities separate to protect us from the unsympathetic mundanes, but for real, why is so little of the conversation about keeping fannish and non-fannish identities separate to protect us from one another?

Comments

[thalia]

Because we're all one big, happy family, and a fan would never do anything malicious to another fan?

I'll admit that RL considerations are my main reason for using a pseudonym, but, yeah, I wouldn't be thrilled if Jane Q. Fan could easily track down my address, either.

Yes, I can punctuate....

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

You are completely right. My husband, mother, and brother all know about my fanfiction. I originally kept my identities separate because I didn't want any more stalkers. I had forgotten that.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

We're probably more likely to need protection from disgruntled fans than from family and employers anyway!

[wivern.livejournal.com]

Yep.

And I also think it's everyone's own business how much they let on and to whom... it's not as though there is any public, or even private, good in 'outing' people.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Dude. Have they heard of like, identify theft and shit? I don't trust the freakin' phone company to have half my info, much less random strangers on the internet. They can eat me.