Using another person's real name as a "handle"

Use whatever name you like because this is the internet and you could be whoever you want

 

Normally I'm not a freedom of speech purist, and people tend to be VERY selective in whose rights they protect or flout.

I think that I'm on management's side with this one......theoretically speaking, since I don't know whose good (or bad) name is being taken in vain here.
Since I'm as base and hypocritical as most other humans, I might change my stance if the 'offender' or offense is particularly egregious, but I know me pretty well.
I'm pretty careful about letting things get to me, and this isn't Facebook or Twitter.

It's a car forum.

I've often said:

Danny's Forum.
Danny's rules.
Don't like it?
Don't post.

 

There can be more than one person with a first name Easy and last name Rider. Just because a person died with that name, doesn't mean that name is forever off limits

 

It doesn't have to be his real name, it's an internet handle. Can just be a fan

 

You're talking about the identifiers we all go by within the forum?

A few percentage, and I think it is pretty few, use what seem to be their real names. Most choose, like myself, just an anonymous tag.

If someone chooses a celebrity name, or perhaps the name of someone they admired from history, or popular culture? I guess I don't care.

James Dean died tragically, but if someone chose a picture of James Dean, and decided to call themselves "James Dean" within this forum? Well I assume they aren't REALLY James Dean....and I don't care.

Even if someone uses what appears to be their REAL name...There choice, I wouldn't do it, but I don't care.

Also it's a big world, if you have a fairly common name, you have to accept that perhaps someone might have the same name as you. If that someone decides to join Prius Chat and use their name?

There arguably might be some figures from history or popular culture that are involved in realities so repugnant as to be offensive, IMO, but again, if someone embraces this identifier? I might question the maturity and wisdom of their choice...but again I ultimately don't care.

I come here to communicate, watch Toyota news, and automotive world happenings, and sometimes involve myself in conversations of various topics.

In other words, I'm here to say what I say, and read what others say, and that's what's important to me. What people are saying. NOT who they say they are....for the most part, our "Prius Chat" identifiers are often just cartoon like flags. I make that assumption about nearly everyone here, and if the name sounds real? Who cares? I know it's the internet...and "John Smith" might be "John Smith" or SHE could be a 80 year old sitting at a nursing home computer.

Such is the fabric of anonymous internet forum participation.

 

First off, I "be Wilson for web" (bwilson4web) ever since I found there were more than one Robert in the 4th grade. So we had four and split up as "Robert", "Bob", "Bobby" and "Robert in the back," me. At one time, there were three "Robert Wilson" just at Marshall Space Flight Center. Needless to say, we were all brilliant and kind people who occasionally got confused e-mails destined for the others. Then in SAIC, we have two "Robert Wilson" with one in North Carolina and I have the Alabama franchise. Then there is the nut-case "Robert Wilson" in Huntsville, AL.

He first achieved notoriety by writing letters to the editor:

• objected to 'sneeze guards'
• objected to 'crying babies' (who doesn't!)
• made some pretty crude comments about the Rodney King riots

This last one resulted in my wife receiving some 'hate calls' and me letting everyone at work know,'that was not me!'

Now I don't care for anonymous posters but fully understand the problem of having a unique username/password. Just remember 'bwilson4web' is not Betty Wilson or Butch Wilson or B*stard Wilson. Otherwise, you awaken Bubba Wilson and he is Southern, a former Marine (don't get mad, get even!)

Bob Wilson

 

OK- "Bob"- if that IS your REAL name......

But don't tell me you don't really have a large magnet attached to the front of your Prius that you use to hook on to trucks. That would be really disappointing.

 

A rose by any other name is still a smelly dead flower in a glass of water.

I think that, certain biases notwithstanding, the mods herein do a pretty good job of letting the kindergarteners be kids, and apply only.....ah......"moderate" pressure to keep things from going off the rails.

Some First Amendment purists would say that even our moderators are jack-booted thugs, bent on stifling the human right of self expression. Some others....and I'll tread lightly here for a change, would see this "forum" locked down tighter than one of Hillary's pantsuits....or Cheney's.....just to skewer sacred cows on both sides of the fence.

Of course.....we (I) don't know whose name is being taken in vain or what insults were hurled at the OP for exposing this travesty.

 

In the past, there have been a couple of alternate handles made of well known public figures here. They were done for humor or satire.

As long as the person follows the forum rules, they can use what ever screen name they want.
I don't think anyone is going to assume a screen name of a public person is actually that person, and as long as they are behaved and not damaging the reputation of said name, I don't have an issue.
Private individual names though, as Tony says, "wreaks of ill intent." I don't see anyone claiming to be enough of a fan of Bob to use his name for a handle.

 

wait, is it about me?

 

I believe ER2 is upset about Paul Walker.

 

I thought he was dead.

I mean....there's probably more than one, but....REALLY?

There is no Paul Walker in the forum...[edit] that I'm aware of.
@Paul Walker -right?

Methinks this is all a bunch of fertilizer......

 

Checking several search engines, one found 99 Paul Walkers, another found 80, another found 'Too Many, more detail needed', another found 100.

When I first searched my own name long ago, I found just over 40 different people of my name with U.S. landline phone numbers. (I'm also aware of two in the UK due to workplace email confusions, and one more from a crime news report.) My brother and sister, with more common first names, both had too many hundreds sharing their names to count, many pages of duplicates. And this isn't with a super-common surname.