use a real sounding name - no edge cases please

If anyone has trouble coming up with a name to use here, most of the names this tool spits out will be real-sounding.

Chris Kott wrote:I use my real name.

I despise internet anonymity. Despise it. It fosters the development of trolls because it removes accountability.

If I am attacked for something I post online, it most assuredly won't be by someone using their real name.

I wish it were possible to make it necessary to sign up as a member with a real name, even if it was locked up to the membership and most of the staff thereafter, and if another name was used in posts.

A person's word used to be their bond, but now we don't even interact with people. We're interacting with their anonymous internet aliases.

I use my real name as a sign of respect to those with whom I interact on this site. I wish we could kill the trollbots, nurse the real live trolls out of their trollhood (or help them to grow up and mature), and make places on the internet bastions of integrity and respect, as has already happened, to probably the greatest extent possible, with Permies.com.

-CK

I agree with this completely, but there is also another side to it so allow me to play devils advocate. Given the choice... I'd choose internet trolls threatening me and not knowing who I am over being hacked, or doxed, or threatened in real life. I wish we could live in a world where people aren't buttholes. But we don't. That being said, I am using my real name here even though I don't in many other places (like reddit). A make that decision based on how much I trust a community. I find it a lot less likely to come across real hostility in a small close knit community like this one where everyone shares a lot in common. But somewhere like reddit where you are bound to offend a a racist Alt-righty red-pill proud boy and an extremist comrade self proclaimed hero of justice in the same sentence simply because you asked a question about designing databases and chose the "wrong terminology".... I think I'll remain anonymous there.

The forum does not ask that a person use their real name.  It is okay to use your own name if that is your choice.

If your name is Mary McDaniel and you wish to have anonymity, then I would like to suggest Mary Jensen or Mary Moore.   Not an edge case name.

https://permies.com/name.jsp

https://permies.com/t/106355/real-sounding-edge-cases

We're totally open to the use of pseudonyms - just, please don't make more work for us.

One thing I think might be helpful for people coming up against the Real-Sounding Name policy is that we have staff from all around the world. Usually just one staff member is looking at a name-change request, or at a new member's name. That volunteer staff member is going to do the best they can, with their knowledge and time. We're all volunteers here, with families, work, gardens, projects, and life's little (and big) insanities occurring.

Now, some staff members are from pretty diverse areas, and they've encountered a lot of diverse names in their lifetimes, and so they have one understanding of what is real sounding. Others might have spent all of their life in one culture and encountered a much smaller range of names.  

Now, that latter staff member might run across a name they've never seen before. They might ask other staff members for input (that takes a lot of time!), and/or they might google the name and see if the surname and first name are common names. If they search the name, and google doesn't tell them it's a real-sounding name, they might veto the name.

If you're going to pick a real-sounding name in a different language, maybe pick one that shows up in a baby name database or in a government list of surnames. This really increases the chance that the volunteer staff member will approve it.

If your name is real-sounding in your area, and it just doesn't show up in google, maybe this would be a good time to try to share information about your name, and why it's real-sounding.

Here on permies, we're all about making the world a better place by sharing knowledge and experience, rather than being angry at the "bad guys." If your response to your name being rejected is to share knowledge kindly about how it's a real-sounding name, we're far more likely to reconsider, versus if you yell at us and call us stupid, ignorant, and bad guys...

We're humans doing the best we can.  Not only are we real humans, we are all volunteers.

If someone feels we made a mistake, then remember that we are humans, like you, and ask nicely for us to reconsider.  And everyone learns something and we get over the tiny speedbump quickly and easily.


And sometimes you end up with a situation like mine where my name is edge case enough that I use a letter instead of my name because I value the community.  The name policy is a big part of the feel of this community.  It's a name that is common enough in both England and the corner of Canada where I live that I think it sounds real, but not common globally.

Because things like this come in waves, here are some of the more amusing ones from this week (details changed slightly to make it harder to identify who)

Publicly saying it's not their real name immediately makes any real-sounding name sound not real.  (hint, don't do this)

Soandso Management
Suchandsuch Farm
- these usually indicate it's not a person's name.

Peter Pan
Captain Hook
SUCK DICK
no... funny, but no.  

It's important to remember we are looking for a very narrow subset of humanity here.  Most of the time, people join here and never run into any barriers at all.  They post, they read, they have fun.  They are a good match.

And then sometimes people make an account here and right away they run into these barriers.  They get angry they can't be called "True Blood" or insult people for not sharing their values.  These people aren't the sort of people this site is made for.  But thankfully, the internet is huge and there is a place for everyone.  

Saying "hi, my name isn't what my user name says" automatically makes your user name no longer sound like a real name.  

I have never seen a place where the forum requires a person to use their real name.

All that is asked is that a person uses a real-sounding name.

I removed some posts.  

Permies.com does NOT require people to use a real name.  I think that has been covered many times in this thread.  Many times.

And, if you are using a name that is not your real name, do NOT post anywhere, especially here, to say "this is not my real name!".  

There are lots of reasons we like people to use real sounding names on the forums.

It's easy to change your name if you need to: just go to 'edit profile' where your name appears at the top and select a new display name there.


source

What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet as this tiny ad:

htpps://www.ialwaysusemyrealname.info

;)

My daughter went to school with his sister Kelly!

j

Nancy Reading wrote:There are lots of reasons we like people to use real sounding names on the forums.

It's easy to change your name if you need to: just go to 'edit profile' where your name appears at the top and select a new display name there.


source

I know some people feel they are their jobs, and that some couples feel that they are a single unit.  But we've found these things can change over time.  They also don't sound like real names so... um, maybe not.

If it's work related, make an account for each individual not the business.  

If it's a couple, same.  Each of you are unique humans.  You deserve your own voice.  

It's been a day for this.  

Lots of people confused between "real sounding name" and "real name".

It's funny how it goes.  Hundreds of people have no problem, then suddenly half a dozen on the same day.  It makes things interesting.  

This week has had some interesting name related events.

If the name request is an edge case, it takes a long time to review and accept.  Some staff will lock the account at that alone.  No edge cases please.

Other staff will consider it, do some research on google to find out if it's a cultural difference or whatever.  But that takes time.  Sometimes that an take hours.  In harvest (or bad weather, or good weather, or planting) season, this can take a day.  

Submitting 6 more requests.  Or 12 more requests.  Or 28 more requests while this edge case is being considered is a good way to get the account locked.  

Insulting the site and the volunteers that run it while making the name change request is another good way to get the account locked.  

I also want to mention it's really interesting how we have thousands of new accounts without any issue whatsoever, then sudden half a dozen have difficulty with this policy.

The real sounding name policy has proven again and again to be one of the best guides as to how well someone will fit into the permies community.  

Real staff review the names here.
Picking another 'edge case' name after your first choice is rejected often doesn't go down well. Sometimes people are lovely and have no trouble with the name policy here though.

Nancy Reading wrote:Real staff review the names here.
Picking another 'edge case' name after your first choice is rejected often doesn't go down well. Sometimes people are lovely and have no trouble with the name policy here though.

I am an unlovely person I guess. I think one big issue is that "edge case" is too much a matter of opinion. Permie FAQ says if you need to use a fake name, it should "SOUND real".  But what if Permie decides my real name is fake simply because you're unfamiliar with what it sounds like? What the heck does "sound real" mean, anyway?

If it's my birth name and everybody in my part of the world recognizes that name because it's a common one, but the spelling is weird to English language speakers because my name is e.g. a legit click language name, and if nobody on the Permies knows what it actually sounds like, then... it's rejected as fake?  

What is the purpose of this qualification in the first place? This is a text forum. We don't need to know what people's names sound like. We just need an identifier that is easy to read, don't we?

What the heck does "sound real" mean, anyway?

It's very well explained upthread.  Perhaps you missed it?


The name policy is a big part of the community we have here, so we put a lot of effort into it.  With 20 years of practice and volunteers from all over the world, we are getting pretty good at it.  

There are also external tools we use that show the history of a name, and if it appears in any cenus or public records over the last few centuries.  Real names are usually a good starting place for telling if a name is real sounding.

And there is more to it than that which no one is going to say publicly as it encourages abuse.  

r ranson wrote:

What the heck does "sound real" mean, anyway?

It's very well explained upthread.  Perhaps you missed it?

Never mind. It's just one more rule that I don't understand the logic for (I went to the very first post in this thread and immediately didn't get it). I often don't understand the reason for rules or the logic in how they're set up - this is obviously a me-problem and not a Permie problem. I will shut up.