please use first name, a space, and last name

I just found this thread, so sorry Paul I didn't comply sooner.  When I had signed up I saw no mention of this and even with other people using their names I didn't bat an eye.  That's simply because my screen name is by far more unique than my real name.  Even in the days of FIDOnet I've run into someone with the same first+last.  But I understand that this is not about actually being able to identify the person, but rather for others to feel that they could (reduce the feeling that we're all talking at a masquerade) and making the names more memorable for others.  And since I seem to be the first Andrew Fuller on your site, then I'll happily claim the name and let any future ones work around it.

Andrew, in your fidonet days, what com software did you use?

paul wheaton wrote:
Andrew, in your fidonet days, what com software did you use?

Now you're testing my memory.  Ran a BBS using Renegade, IIRC.  Can't remember the software I used for the fidonet connection.  Had a point node and got my feeds through someone else in town (LD was freaking expensive back then).  Looking over some archived nodelists on the 'net, I think my address was 1:17/3409.9 (not certain of the '17' -- can't read the nodelist too well).

Given your interest, were you a SysOp?  Had a fidonet node?

I was a sysop.  I ran a couple of pretty big regional communities and a BBS.  I'm also the author of BananaCom:  a lot of sysops handed it out like candy in 1995 just before the interwebs became popular.  In the summer of 1995 BananaCom was downloaded from compuserve more than all of the other term programs combined.

Sorry to say I've never heard of it.  Seems to me Telix was the one everyone used around our area.  And very occasionally ripterm.

Compuserve.  Now, that's a name out of the past.  How about Delphi?  Funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago my ISP was down so much (like 40+ minutes of each hour) that I wished we had a land phone line in the house...I would have gone to Radio Shack and bought a modem!  I could have done more in an hour on a 600 baud modem than I did with ClearWire!  I had a BBS back in the 80's (running WWIV).  It was mostly hackers.

Hi, My name is Trude and I have recently signed up on this forum. I am new at this and I am trying to get my profile sorted. Not easy. I am all for using real names, giving location information, and ....showing a picture. So, how do I add a picture (of myself), how big does it have to be, - for example 50x50 pics/200x200 pics. I seem to be clueless about this. I happen to know quite a bit about donkey pooh, but this cumputer shit......pffffffff.
Can you please help me??

Donkey poop?  South-West Europe?  I think I may have found myself a friend... 

Paul,
To make this relevant, i'll heartily say that I really like your full name idea, and I will change mine in just a minute. Thanks for getting us to all know each other and want to act more like a big permie family!
But! My real post is this- first: please have a search box! I can't find where the post looking for an artist for your logo has gone. Second: I am an artist! And have just finished a logo but I never heard back from you, so haha this is why I'm desperately posting on the first discussion I could find! It may also be that I just couldn't find your response...
But here I have traversed the jungle of your online permie world and now I'd like to hand you that image! How would you like it?
My Best Drawings to You!,
Adriana

Search feature is in the row of buttons to the right of Tue video up on the top.of the screen

Thought I'd bump up this thread and add me a last name!

I've tried to change my name in my profile but it won't 'take'.  Any suggestions?

I go to Modify Profile>>Account Related Settings>>Name and type in my name.  Also put in my current password and hit Change Profile.  Everything looks hunky dory and then I navigate away from the page and go back there...and my name is still my original login name. 

Sandhollerfarm, try the link here to a doc that Brice made.

Brice Moss wrote:
to make Paul's life a little easier I spent five minutes setting up an illustrated walk through on how to change you display name.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2oraBVKnm1cYmZkMGYzNjAtMmM1ZS00MTY1LWEwY2YtZTg2Y2MzYTRmYzM5&hl=en&authkey=CMzk1-0C

Props again to Brice for this. Once in a while the forum software is glitchy, so it might have been that. There are plans for a conversion to new software soon.

Belated welcome to all the "first name - last name" folks out there--it does help permies feel like a community of real people! 

Yep, that's exactly what I did!  It just doesn't "take".  I've done it at least 10 times now!  I even reset my password thinking I must not be remembering it since if I purposely put in a wrong password, there is no error.  So even being 100% confident I'm typing in the right password, it still won't change my name.

I popped in and changed it to "Marrisa ___".  Want it to be something else?

<edited to take out the name she didn't want all over the internet!  >

No fair!  How come you can change it?!?  All powerful Paul! 

I'll throw caution to the wind and post my real full name like I do everywhere on the internetz.  So if you could put in 'Marissa Little' I would appreciate it!

Thanks!

Done.

I dunno.  I think I did the same thing you did.

There's other reasons why people choose to be Anonymous

I'M Raven for a reason 
and living in the country because i don't like cities at all.

i'm  @Gmail  ...i  try to exercise my sense of humour continuously
because there's so many things in todays world that piss ya off,
make ya sad or drive you crazy all of which ruin your health.

Better to smile as often as possible, see the cup half full,
find the silver lining, and see the humor in everything possible.

Sometimes i'll be alone somewhere and burst out laughing
because i think of something wicked funny and just got it.
people will stop and stare but i don't care ...i'm having fun. 

For anyone who gives a S%&^:

There have been some (several) incidents over the past few decades that have led to me becoming more and more isolated from the hateful humans and taking refuge in my plants and animals – HOWEVER….

I do really feel a blood boiling passion about this new-to-me permaculture and I also enjoy this forum tremendously.  At the same time I am tired of trying to always cover my tracks and keep my head down.  I have never understood why anyone would want to spend time following me around anyway.

So I’m putting my real name out here and will probably get around to changing it on FB as well.  If there are people out there that insist on following me around and tracking everything I do, I have two things to say:  1. You really have a dreadfully boring life  2.  Don’t expect me to continue to be polite and politically correct about it.

Jeanine Gurley in South Carolina

Jeanine Gurley wrote:
So I’m putting my real name out here and will probably get around to changing it on FB as well.  If there are people out there that insist on following me around and tracking everything I do, I have two things to say:  1. You really have a dreadfully boring life  2.  Don’t expect me to continue to be polite and politically correct about it.

Hello and welcome, Jeanine! Well said.

Well, I guess if all the cool kids are doing it... 

Wow, lots of people have a lot to say about this.

You'll notice I do not put my first and last name here, and can see why I might want to, however, the situation for me is,

I spent 15 years working in a forensic psychiatric institution.  There, the patients were considered to have the right to know our first and last names.  Thanks a lot to the state who decided this is the case.  Some names, say Michael McGuire, and well loved names, and thousands show up in a simple web search.  My name both first and last are very unique.  If you enter them you find me and only me.  ten thousand psychotic killers know that name,  all it would take would be one of them to come stalking me.

The fewer places my whole name shows up the better.  I will likely miss out on many of the connections I might have made, but I do feel a bit more secure in my out of the way place, with an address that mapquest and google maps seems to mess up, and on a road that is confusing even to people who have lived in this area all their lives.  I used to use a PO Box until we came under the protection of "home land security" which now requires us to have out physical address listed at banks and on drivers licenses and so forth.

Maybe I could make a first and last pseudonym, to use here and other places folks want names.

happycobber wrote:
Maybe I could make a first and last pseudonym, to use here and other places folks want names.

I think that is a move in the right direction for you.

The new software will require a first name and a last name and that will be the display name. 

I think that when we migrate all of the current stuff to the new software, those without a space in their name will be converted to something like "blablabla X" - so their last name will be "X".  And then accounts will be slowly closed that don't comply with the naming convention. 

So now is a good time to come up with a first name, space, and last name. 

As long as the name doesn't sound fake, any name will do.  And those of us that are comfortable using our real names will just do that.

Well, you have shared that your first name is Penelope.  That's a lovely name.  I have a lot of kin with the last name of McDaniel.  How do you feel about Penelope McDaniel?

Thanks for sharing a family name!  I've switched to use my grandmothers first name:  Thekla, and I'll go with McDaniel.  If you meet me at a forum, then you'll know it's me, your adopted kinswoman!

Thekla McDaniel

I recently read some things about on-line stuff, integrity and using a proper name.  Basically all of the same things we have talked about in this thread. 

Here is another thing that popped into my head:  people that come here looking for information ... they are sizing up our community and deciding whether to be a part of it.  I like the image that real names project.  Integrity.  People that will stand behind their words. 

Moments ago I popped out to a site that was attempting to talk about some very serious topics, but I couldn't take any of it seriously.  I realized it had to do with their pseudonyms.  Everything they said seemed like it was some 12 year old twirp.  I found myself scanning for a real name, found none, and left. 

Here in these forums, I find myself doing the same thing.  I scan the names and look for the names with a space, then check to see if it is real.  And then I tend to read just those comments.  When somebody says "this thread has gone bad" I tend to look at the pseudonyms as the trouble makers. 

It was two and a half years ago I asked people to make this change.  I feel those that have made the change are being respectful to me and my wishes; are attempting to help me and my goals here; are making the whole site look like a site of decency and integrity.

For anybody that has not yet changed their display name, i would very much like it if you did.  This will help a lot in the transition to the new software.

The new software is now running in parallel.  Andrew is cleaning it up a bit more, but it is really close to the switchover.

The new software is hard coded to use a first name and a last name.  Andrew has written a program to move the old database to the new database and translate the names along the way.  If you don't have a last name set up, then you will be assigned one.  And you probably won't like it.

    I'm with ya Paul.  I'm not sure if this is allowed but I wrote a blurb on another thread where I give some reasons why this should be done, since "Paul said so" doesn't seem to be working.Sometimes we need to appeal to selfish motivations etc.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I took the time today to fill out the personal information section that I believe we're supposed to fill out when we sign up. This seems like a useful tool both for those who advertise their business and for anyone looking to discuss issues with a particular member.

  I think the geographical information is very handy. If someone just says I'm trying to grow artichokes it's hard to know how to respond. If you glance to the left and see that they live in Alaska then that changes everything doesn't it?

  I'm fond of posting quite lengthy articles concerning various building techniques. The little box at the bottom explains that I have quite a bit of experience at this. That information may be useful. If a professional builder responds they would naturally not hold back on technical detail since it would be understood that we both speak the language. And someone with no experience would not bother to counsel me against entering this line of work.

  Also the section I filled out with my interests make it clear that I'm interested in redeveloping certain building techniques. Early on, I met with some hostility when I suggested a mechanical device for mixing cob. Anyone reading the information box would have realized that it's pointless to try and talk me out of what will be my profession just as it would make no sense to inform a dairy farmer that milk is bad. The whole unfortunate exchange could have been avoided, there were deletions and I believe someone quit the forum.

  For this and many other reasons I think it makes sense for those in business to say so. If I know that you run a sawmill I'm more likely to ask something sensible regarding that and less likely to tell you how to operate a chain saw. By knowing the scope of another members life experience we are likely to engage in more constructive conversation while avoiding bickering.

  I seldom see unfortunate exchanges between people who use their real name and tell people where they live, what they do for a living and what their future plans are. Anonymity serves no useful purpose unless you're in the witness protection program. I know that I can't go around proposing things which are criminal and it wouldn't make sense for me to be belligerent for no reason. I will one day want to do business with many of the people on this forum for so I have an interest in not coming across as a flake.

    Real names are also more memorable. Whenever I see the names John Polk or Fred Morgan I know that something sensible is being discussed since both gentlemen are a wealth of information, they are well spoken, they don't engage in unnecessary conflict and they tend to discuss topics of substance.

    There may be members with a catchy pseudonym whose postings I would also like to follow but none of their names spring to mind since they're all a blur to me.

    In order to not set a new personal record for length of posting I will stop here.

        Thank you: Dale Hodgins

I especially like these snippets:

Dale Hodgins wrote:
  I think it makes sense for those in business to say so. If I know that you run a sawmill I'm more likely to ask something sensible regarding that...

And Paul posted more info on how to promote yourself/your business on permies, too.

Dale Hodgins wrote:
    Real names are also more memorable. Whenever I see the names John Polk or Fred Morgan I know that something sensible is being discussed since both gentlemen are a wealth of information, they are well spoken...

I SO agree with this!

Andrew is polishing the algorithm for moving the database.  Originally he was going to give the folks with no last name the last name of "X".  I made the suggestion that it would be funny to give half the people the last name of "Hatfield" and the other half "McCoy". 

So it will be so.

And when people attempt to change their name with the new software it goes through an admin approval process.  So changing your name now would be far easier.

I have a professional life and a private life, and prefer to keep them separate. Permies.com is a part of my private life. Hopefully I won't wreck the atmosphere with my anonymous brazenness.

I am closing this thread because we've change software and the "first name, space and last name" doesn't make sense with the new software (which has a first name field and a last name field).

Similar discussion is in https://permies.com/t/11976/tinkering-site/please-real-sounding-name