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digitalmars.D - Github names & avatars

reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add to that 
if you could have a selfie as your github image.

It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup submit PRs as 
"HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't realize they are the same person, 
and then I overlook them at the conference because I have no idea what they
look 
like.

In today's surveillance state, the government already knows your name and what 
you look like, so being anonymous on github is a bit pointless, as if anyone 
cares that you are interested in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or 
want nobody to know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog
May 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy yahoo.com> writes:
On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.


Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than 
 StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I 
actually don't mind if people call me schveiguy!

In fact, I have a counter-proposal. Instead of putting people's real 
names on their dconf name tags, let's just have their github handles :P.


 It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup submit PRs as
 "HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't realize they are the same
 person, and then I overlook them at the conference because I have no
 idea what they look like.


Please don't make me learn  dicebot's real name :)

-Steve
May 13 2016
next sibling parent Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 10:18 AM, Steven Schveighoffer wrote:

 On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.


 Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than
  StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I actually
don't
 mind if people call me schveiguy!


At least there is a connection between the two names.


Yes, I know some of you are very attached to your github handles. I'm not 
demanding anyone
change, I just suggest it is to their advantage to. There are 123 contributors 
just to DMD,
my brain is not going to remember everyone's handle vs name vs face.

   https://github.com/dlang/dmd/graphs/contributors

Note the paucity of names and faces.


 It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup submit PRs as
 "HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't realize they are the same
 person, and then I overlook them at the conference because I have no
 idea what they look like.


 Please don't make me learn  dicebot's real name :)


Even the Sociomantic people at Dconf tended to call him Dicebot, so no worries 
there!
May 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On 13 May 2016 at 19:18, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.



 Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than
  StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I actually
 don't mind if people call me schveiguy!

 In fact, I have a counter-proposal. Instead of putting people's real names
 on their dconf name tags, let's just have their github handles :P.


Having initial+surname as my moniker means that no one pronounces it
correctly.  Then again most people don't even get my first name right
either!  "Yienne" is probably my favourite mispronunciation it.
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent reply Manu via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On 14 May 2016 at 03:18, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.



 Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than
  StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I actually
 don't mind if people call me schveiguy!


You know that github has separate records for your handle and your
name...? Both are presented on github.
May 16 2016
parent reply Steven Schveighoffer <schveiguy yahoo.com> writes:
On 5/17/16 12:39 AM, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:

 On 14 May 2016 at 03:18, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d
 <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.



 Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than
  StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I actually
 don't mind if people call me schveiguy!


 You know that github has separate records for your handle and your
 name...? Both are presented on github.


Yes, I know. And to make matters worse, when I get github emails, the 
full name is used, but when I look at the PR comments, only the handle 
appears. So it's not always obvious the mapping between the two.

It's unclear whether the request from Walter was for handles or names 
(his full name is used for both).

-Steve
May 17 2016
parent Manu via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On 17 May 2016 at 23:08, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d
<digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 On 5/17/16 12:39 AM, Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:

 On 14 May 2016 at 03:18, Steven Schveighoffer via Digitalmars-d
 <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 On 5/13/16 1:02 PM, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.




 Sorry, this isn't going to happen :)  schveiguy is much better than
  StevenSchveighoffer. Some of us are not so short-name-blessed. I
 actually
 don't mind if people call me schveiguy!



 You know that github has separate records for your handle and your
 name...? Both are presented on github.


 Yes, I know. And to make matters worse, when I get github emails, the full
 name is used, but when I look at the PR comments, only the handle appears.
 So it's not always obvious the mapping between the two.

 It's unclear whether the request from Walter was for handles or names (his
 full name is used for both).


Right. It seems unreasonable to ask people to change their handles. In
most cases, people have been using the same handle for decades...
May 17 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Adam D. Ruppe <destructionator gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows 
 your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github 
 is a bit pointless, as if anyone cares that you are interested 
 in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or want nobody to 
 know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.


Actually, given the blatant misogyny frequently on display on 
this forum, about 51% of the world's population - literally most 
of us - have a perfectly understandable reason to maintain some 
level of anonymity in this community.

It is nice to have a consistent pseudonym for matching up forum 
posts with irc with github etc., but let's not make this a 
requirement.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 10:19 AM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

 It is nice to have a consistent pseudonym for matching up forum posts with irc
 with github etc., but let's not make this a requirement.


It's a suggestion, not a requirement. I respect that some people have good 
reasons for anonymity.
May 13 2016
parent reply jmh530 <john.michael.hall gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:52:34 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 It's a suggestion, not a requirement. I respect that some 
 people have good reasons for anonymity.


My reason for anonymity is that I ask stupid questions that I 
don't necessarily want associated with my real name.
May 13 2016
parent Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 11:25 AM, jmh530 wrote:

 My reason for anonymity is that I ask stupid questions that I don't necessarily
 want associated with my real name.


I've said a lot of stupid things on the internet. I just stopped worrying about 
it :-) If someone wants to think poorly of me over such, my attitude is f***
'em.

I'm not demanding you use your real name, just suggesting.
May 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Nick Sabalausky <SeeWebsiteToContactMe semitwist.com> writes:
On 05/13/2016 01:19 PM, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

 Actually, given the blatant misogyny frequently on display on this
 forum,


Don't claim things that inflammatory when they obviously aren't true.
May 18 2016
prev sibling parent rsw0x <anonymous anonymous.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:19:01 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

 Actually, given the blatant misogyny frequently on display on 
 this forum,


???
May 18 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply marcpmichel <marc.p.michel gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows 
 your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github 
 is a bit pointless


Practically, you may be right, but philosophically it's a 
terrible argument ! (aka: don't care, nothing to hide )
May 13 2016
parent Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 10:54 AM, marcpmichel wrote:

 On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows your name and what
 you look like, so being anonymous on github is a bit pointless


 Practically, you may be right, but philosophically it's a terrible argument !
 (aka: don't care, nothing to hide )


I know, but I find it hard to see how github PRs contain personal information.
May 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Xinok <xinok live.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, 
 and add to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.

 It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup 
 submit PRs as "HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't 
 realize they are the same person, and then I overlook them at 
 the conference because I have no idea what they look like.

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows 
 your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github 
 is a bit pointless, as if anyone cares that you are interested 
 in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or want nobody to 
 know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog


If people are annoyed or offended because you don't recognize 
them in person or under some other name/alias, they need to get 
over themselves. That's just childish.

As for asking us to use our true identities online, there's very 
good reason NOT to do so. It's not just about hiding from our 
"big brother" the government/NSA/GCHQ. There are companies which 
specialize in doing background checks on potential hires and 
they'll dig up every little secret they can find about you 
online. While you may think an association with D isn't a big 
deal, some people out there can be extremely bigoted and will 
judge you based on that alone. It goes both ways as well; if one 
deplorable individual happens to get a lot of public attention 
and he becomes associated with the D community (oh how the media 
loves to spin a story), it will reflect poorly on our community 
as a whole.

So no, let's not start using our real names just because you fail 
to recognize some people.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Mike Parker <aldacron gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:21:59 UTC, Xinok wrote:


 So no, let's not start using our real names just because you 
 fail to recognize some people.


That's not at all what he said. At any rate, it's a simple 
request and you need not follow it.

For the record, I've used  aldacron everywhere except these 
forums since I've been involved with D (and before). I changed my 
github handle to  mdparker during DConf, as I intend to be more 
active in submitting documentation PRs, and to help alleviate the 
confusing situation where people knew me as one or the other but 
not both. It's quite difficult to find a real-name handle on 
github when you have three of the most common names in the 
English language!
May 13 2016
parent Kagamin <spam here.lot> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:31:37 UTC, Mike Parker wrote:

 It's quite difficult to find a real-name handle on github when 
 you have three of the most common names in the English language!


Use D namespace! d-mike-parker is free.
May 16 2016
prev sibling parent reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 11:21 AM, Xinok wrote:

 There are companies which specialize in doing background
 checks on potential hires and they'll dig up every little secret they can find
 about you online.  While you may think an association with D isn't a big deal,
 some people out there can be extremely bigoted and will judge you based on that
 alone.


If some company won't hire you because you contributed code to D, I'd say you 
dodged a bullet working for such!

   When I was young, I worried about what other people thought of me.
   When I was middle aged, I stopped caring what other people thought of me.
   When I was old, I realized nobody thought about me.



 It goes both ways as well; if one deplorable individual happens to get a
 lot of public attention and he becomes associated with the D community (oh how
 the media loves to spin a story), it will reflect poorly on our community as a
 whole.


I know this happens in politics (queue Trump's problem with one of his 
superdelegates) but I'd hate to tell someone they have to hide their identity 
because they are unpopular.



 So no, let's not start using our real names just because you fail to recognize
 some people.


If you feel strongly about it, then don't.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent Max Samukha <maxsamukha gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:56:15 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:


   When I was old, I realized nobody thought about me.


I did. Then I saw this 
http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html 
and stopped.


Seriously, captcha that requires programmers to do basic 
arithmetics is a horrible idea. It's like having a gynecologist 
watch porn. To make it worse, DPaste doesn't compile the code as 
is.
May 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Xinok <xinok live.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:56:15 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 If some company won't hire you because you contributed code to 
 D, I'd say you dodged a bullet working for such!


I've known a couple people who had to apply for over 200-300 
positions before they finally got a job in their field. Life 
isn't so convenient that we can pick and choose which job we 
want. Sometimes, you've gotta take what you can get. But suppose 
one of these people was a member of the D community and they get 
turned down for every job they apply for because the employer 
discovered something dumb they posted in this thread:

http://forum.dlang.org/thread/gpcyapiqlkpfahrzfubb forum.dlang.org

The internet never forgets so a little anonymity is a good thing.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 1:54 PM, Xinok wrote:

 I've known a couple people who had to apply for over 200-300 positions before
 they finally got a job in their field. Life isn't so convenient that we can
pick
 and choose which job we want. Sometimes, you've gotta take what you can get.


Ironically, hiding contributions under a pseudonym may make one a less
desirable 
candidate because nobody will know that you're any good.



 But suppose one of these people was a member of the D community and they get
turned
 down for every job they apply for because the employer discovered something
dumb
 they posted in this thread:

 http://forum.dlang.org/thread/gpcyapiqlkpfahrzfubb forum.dlang.org

 The internet never forgets so a little anonymity is a good thing.


Note that this is a professional forum, not a chat room. I have suggested many 
times that people maintain a professional decorum here, i.e. don't post things 
that are unacceptable to say at work.

1. Using a pseudonym here is not license to be a jerk

2. It's not that hard to adhere to a professional standard of conduct

3. If you want to vent about politics and religion, reddit is just a click away

4. Consider your name as your professional brand. By posting and githubbing 
under your name, there's a significant opportunity to enhance your brand, which 
translates into being able to get better jobs at higher pay. Anonymity is a
fine 
way to have to send out hundreds of resumes to get a job. Being a well-known 
contributor to a prestigious project is a shortcut to better things.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent =?UTF-8?Q?Ali_=c3=87ehreli?= <acehreli yahoo.com> writes:
On 05/13/2016 03:18 PM, Walter Bright wrote:


 Ironically, hiding contributions under a pseudonym may make one a less
 desirable candidate because nobody will know that you're any good.


This.


 Being a well-known contributor to a prestigious
 project is a shortcut to better things.


Yep.

Ali
May 13 2016
prev sibling parent reply Joakim <dlang joakim.fea.st> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 22:18:18 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 On 5/13/2016 1:54 PM, Xinok wrote:

 I've known a couple people who had to apply for over 200-300 
 positions before
 they finally got a job in their field. Life isn't so 
 convenient that we can pick
 and choose which job we want. Sometimes, you've gotta take 
 what you can get.


 Ironically, hiding contributions under a pseudonym may make one 
 a less desirable candidate because nobody will know that you're 
 any good.


Not really, you can always put your github profile on your 
resume, ie selectively unveil your pseudonym for certain 
potential employers.


 But suppose one of these people was a member of the D 
 community and they get turned
 down for every job they apply for because the employer 
 discovered something dumb
 they posted in this thread:

 http://forum.dlang.org/thread/gpcyapiqlkpfahrzfubb forum.dlang.org

 The internet never forgets so a little anonymity is a good 
 thing.


 Note that this is a professional forum, not a chat room. I have 
 suggested many times that people maintain a professional 
 decorum here, i.e. don't post things that are unacceptable to 
 say at work.

 1. Using a pseudonym here is not license to be a jerk

 2. It's not that hard to adhere to a professional standard of 
 conduct

 3. If you want to vent about politics and religion, reddit is 
 just a click away


For a "professional forum," perhaps this is all true, though the 
term "professional" really is a euphemism for "don't offend 
anyone you're working with," which becomes ridiculous with the 
levels the professional offense-grievers and PC police have taken 
it to now.  It just means, "Stick to the technical topics," 
particularly in this forum, which is mostly feasible, but people 
have other interests too and discussions wander to the connected 
world.


 4. Consider your name as your professional brand. By posting 
 and githubbing under your name, there's a significant 
 opportunity to enhance your brand, which translates into being 
 able to get better jobs at higher pay. Anonymity is a fine way 
 to have to send out hundreds of resumes to get a job. Being a 
 well-known contributor to a prestigious project is a shortcut 
 to better things.


Not everyone wants to have their name as their professional 
brand, or wants any kind of "brand." I know this is the 
conventional wisdom, but it's not like "well-known contributor to 
a prestigious project" gets you on billboards anyway, :) so there 
is very little upside to such "branding" and a lot of downside.

Using your real name online is an artifact of the real world that 
doesn't work too well: I read a good analogy once that compared 
it to shouting out your real name every time you enter a real 
room, which nobody does.  We're moving to a more anonymous 
virtual world where most everyone will be using nicknames, we're 
just not there yet, largely because the culture at large is just 
not used to it yet.

On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:19:01 UTC, Adam D. Ruppe wrote:

 On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows 
 your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github 
 is a bit pointless, as if anyone cares that you are interested 
 in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or want nobody to 
 know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.


 Actually, given the blatant misogyny frequently on display on 
 this forum, about 51% of the world's population - literally 
 most of us - have a perfectly understandable reason to maintain 
 some level of anonymity in this community.


You must be reading some other forum than I am or have some 
strange standards for such an epithet.  If you're referring to 
the recent thread started by the language researcher, all I saw 
was a bunch of people sharing their anecdotal experiences, 
speculating on reasons for the documented gender gap, and 
mentioning statistical evidence for what the underlying reasons 
might be, none of which is "blatant" or any other kind of 
"misogyny."  If you're referring to some other threads, hard to 
believe it's so "frequent" that I've never seen it, though I 
certainly don't skim every thread, as you say you do.
May 14 2016
parent Ola Fosheim =?UTF-8?B?R3LDuHN0YWQ=?= writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 08:24:32 UTC, Joakim wrote:

 taken it to now.  It just means, "Stick to the technical 
 topics," particularly in this forum, which is mostly feasible, 
 but people have other interests too and discussions wander to 
 the connected world.


Without a clear moderation policy and a capable moderator it just 
means the «sensibilities and favouritism» of the moderator at 
hand. The D forums show symptoms of this. Being a good moderator 
is difficult though especially if you are emotionally invested in 
the topic. Ideally the moderator shouldn't be invested in the 
topic at hand.

So often the better solution is to have different forum sections 
and divert/direct different groups to the different sections. 
Telling people to move regular communication off to another 
community is counter productive and impractical. It is typically 
the opposite of what you should do to grow a stronger community.

Anyway, talking religion and politics in a work setting is 
perfectly fine in a sane working environment. It is very 
difficult to get to know people without talking beliefs and 
values. Getting to know people is what makes communities healthy 
and strong. Anxiety isn't good for growth, a culture with a 
relaxed and laid back attitude to different opinions is much 
better for growth.


 Using your real name online is an artifact of the real world 
 that doesn't work too well: I read a good analogy once that 
 compared it to shouting out your real name every time you enter 
 a real room, which nobody does.  We're moving to a more 
 anonymous virtual world where most everyone will be using 
 nicknames, we're just not there yet, largely because the 
 culture at large is just not used to it yet.


I don't know. Younger people often go with the anonymous "cool" 
handle, but as people get older they tend to go with their real 
name?

Besides, if you use the same handle you aren't really anonymous 
anyway. It is usually easy to track down people's real identities 
based on the information they share by systematic googling. If 
you really want to. Most people don't really want to, but 
anonymity is usually not easy to achieve if you want meaningful 
communication over time.

However, providing just date+time+identity can become a problem. 
Say, if an employee is on sick leave and is active on github in 
the same period. So even seemingly innocent information can be 
sensitive given the circumstances (depending on the nature of the 
employer-employee relationship).
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 5/13/16 11:54 PM, Xinok wrote:

 On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:56:15 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 If some company won't hire you because you contributed code to D, I'd
 say you dodged a bullet working for such!


 I've known a couple people who had to apply for over 200-300 positions
 before they finally got a job in their field. Life isn't so convenient
 that we can pick and choose which job we want. Sometimes, you've gotta
 take what you can get. But suppose one of these people was a member of
 the D community and they get turned down for every job they apply for
 because the employer discovered something dumb they posted in this thread:

 http://forum.dlang.org/thread/gpcyapiqlkpfahrzfubb forum.dlang.org

 The internet never forgets so a little anonymity is a good thing.


I honestly think this concern is overrated, sometimes to the extent it 
becomes a fallacy. The converse benefits of anonymity are also 
exaggerated in my opinion. My own experience is evidence. A simple 
pattern I followed throughout is:

1. Do good work
2. Put your name next to it
3. Goto 1

I've written a large number of things by my name that I shouldn't have, 
the most epic being probably 
http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2002/01/23189.php. But if the 
prevalent pattern is good work under your name, then you stand to gain a 
_lot_. People understand the occasional fluke - and this community is a 
prime example.

Your name is your brand. (In the US quite literally anybody can do 
business using their name as the company name with no extra paperwork.) 
You have the option to build your brand and walk into a room and just 
say it to earn instantly everyone's respect and attention. Or you can 
introduce yourself and then awkwardly list the various handles under you 
might also be known. I was repeatedly surprised (this week most 
recently) at the brand power my name has in the most unexpected 
circumstances.


Andrei
May 13 2016
next sibling parent QAston <qaston gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 05:08:29 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 I honestly think this concern is overrated, sometimes to the 
 extent it becomes a fallacy. The converse benefits of anonymity 
 are also exaggerated in my opinion.


You have nothing to fear because you didn't (and hopefully won't) 
experience internet mob justice [1]. People loose their jobs over 
internet arguments [2] and get swatted [3].


http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/internet-mob-justice-gone-far/
https://magnetricity.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/feminist-slander-campaign-backfires-perpetrator-loses-job/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swatting
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent reply Walter Bright <newshound2 digitalmars.com> writes:
On 5/13/2016 10:08 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 Your name is your brand.


Probably the most obvious example of this is Trump. Long before he got into 
politics, he understood his name was his brand, and never lost an opportunity 
promote his brand (and profit off of it).

In fact, I stopped using pseudonyms online for my professional work because I 
watched "The Apprentice" and realized that he had the right idea.

Also, think of the top programmers in the business. They all do things online 
under their own names.
May 14 2016
parent poliklosio <poliklosio happypizza.com> writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 19:19:08 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 On 5/13/2016 10:08 PM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:

 Your name is your brand.


 Probably the most obvious example of this is Trump. Long before 
 he got into politics, he understood his name was his brand, and 
 never lost an opportunity promote his brand (and profit off of 
 it).

 In fact, I stopped using pseudonyms online for my professional 
 work because I watched "The Apprentice" and realized that he 
 had the right idea.

 Also, think of the top programmers in the business. They all do 
 things online under their own names.


If I would guess, I would say that using your own name instead of 
a fake one is OK. However, I would be cautious.

Please, mind the survivor bias! Would someone post here if he 
lost his engineering career because of a comment on the internet? 
Of course not!

How many of those unlucky guys are there per one successful one? 
10, 1, 0.01, 0.000001? You can't know until you actually do hard 
work collecting actual statistical data.

For everything anyone writes there are pretty much as many 
interpretations as the readers.
And vague claims about touchy subjects are million times worse. 
If someone has a bad day, this really can turn out badly. Culture 
differences make it even worse. What is a technical disagreement 
in one country can be racism in another. Given sufficiently many 
words, those things can happen. A joke can be easily 
misunderstood as something completely different than intended. 
Also, social media sometimes spreads the news about people's 
textual mistakes. Just google "careers destroyed by social media".
Also, you assume that you are going to be judged by technical 
merit alone, which is fair enough if you are white male with good 
reputation, living in a country known for its love for freedom of 
speech. It may be very different if you are a poor immigrant girl 
in a third world country trying to convince a prospective 
employer to give you the first chance at trying to do some 
programming.

Another bias: Everyone always wants to think they are always 
victims and never the perpetrators, but still somehow 
perpetrators exist. After all, I would never say anything hurtful 
to anyone ever, right? And those people who accidentally hit 
pedestrians with cars are always pure evil, and I could never be 
one of them, right? Noone could ever be one of those until he is. 
:)

There's a reason why stuff like correspondence is traditionally 
private.
May 16 2016
prev sibling parent reply Meta <jared771 gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:56:15 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 If some company won't hire you because you contributed code to 
 D, I'd say you dodged a bullet working for such!

   When I was young, I worried about what other people thought 
 of me.
   When I was middle aged, I stopped caring what other people 
 thought of me.
   When I was old, I realized nobody thought about me.


Unfortunately, you can't just say whatever you want nowadays and 
expect people to respect your freedom to do so. So many careers 
have been lost over some flippant tweet or Github comment that 
complete anonymity is the only sane option, whenever possible.
May 13 2016
next sibling parent reply Andrei Alexandrescu <SeeWebsiteForEmail erdani.org> writes:
On 5/14/16 12:01 AM, Meta wrote:

 So many careers have been lost over some flippant tweet or Github
 comment that complete anonymity is the only sane option, whenever possible.


Could you bring some evidence or list a few anecdotes over the careers 
lost over a tweet or github comment? Thx! -- Andrei
May 13 2016
next sibling parent "H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d" <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 08:09:51AM +0300, Andrei Alexandrescu via Digitalmars-d
wrote:

 On 5/14/16 12:01 AM, Meta wrote:

So many careers have been lost over some flippant tweet or Github
comment that complete anonymity is the only sane option, whenever
possible.


 
 Could you bring some evidence or list a few anecdotes over the careers
 lost over a tweet or github comment? Thx! -- Andrei


Not sure how reliable this is, but a realtor friend of mine had a
colleague who got fired from the realtor company because of a remark
made IIRC on Facebook (or one of those social media things) about his
personal values that somebody in power in the company didn't agree with.

Not every employer cuts you slack the way we net-savvy people expect
reasonable people would. Personally, I think this kind of occurrence is
relatively rare, but still, it's very real.


T

-- 
Тише едешь, дальше будешь.
May 13 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Friday, May 13, 2016 22:34:08 H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d wrote:

 On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 08:09:51AM +0300, Andrei Alexandrescu via 


Digitalmars-d wrote:

 On 5/14/16 12:01 AM, Meta wrote:

So many careers have been lost over some flippant tweet or Github
comment that complete anonymity is the only sane option, whenever
possible.


 Could you bring some evidence or list a few anecdotes over the careers
 lost over a tweet or github comment? Thx! -- Andrei


 Not sure how reliable this is, but a realtor friend of mine had a
 colleague who got fired from the realtor company because of a remark
 made IIRC on Facebook (or one of those social media things) about his
 personal values that somebody in power in the company didn't agree with.

 Not every employer cuts you slack the way we net-savvy people expect
 reasonable people would. Personally, I think this kind of occurrence is
 relatively rare, but still, it's very real.


There's always a risk of someone seeing what you post, not liking it, and
reacting badly too it, and if that's your employer, you could be in trouble.
But in general, when we're talking about stuff that relates to your
profession and not general social networking, then I don't think that that's
it's often an issue. If you're talking in this newsgroup about D and
programming topics, and you're discussing technical stuff in the reviews on
github, then I don't think that you're really at much risk of having a
problem with your employer due to a remark that you make. Where that's far
more likely to get you bitten is places like facebook where you're chatting
about random stuff.

Personally, I post under my real name (or something obviously related to it
like jmdavis) in all of the programming-related places I post in. And I
think that that's very valuable from the perspective of showing potential
employers that I'm actually competent and that others think that I'm
competent. However, when I post on sites talking about stray stuff that has
nothing to do with my profession, I post under pseudonyms and don't provide
anything that would give any obvious hints as to who I am. There's no
benefit to linking that stuff to my real name, whereas there is with
programming stuff. Places like facebook or google+ are where you end up
generally posting under your own name and talking about random junk that
might get you in trouble if the wrong person sees it. But I don't have a
facebook account, and I don't do much on g+, so personally, I'm at a low
risk of problems with that. Still, any time you post under your real name,
you should be mindful that pretty much anyone could end up seeing it whether
you intend for that to happen or not, and dumb remarks _could_ come back to
bite you. It helps though if you make few dumb remarks. ;) But in the case
of places like this, if you mostly stick to professional topics and are
generally civil, then I really don't think that you're at much risk of
getting in trouble over it. And if you've built a good professional brand
online, then in the rare case that you _do_ get in trouble over it, then
you'll have an easier time getting a new job.

- Jonathan M Davis
May 14 2016
parent reply Chris <wendlec tcd.ie> writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 15:57:43 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 There's always a risk of someone seeing what you post, not 
 liking it, and reacting badly too it, and if that's your 
 employer, you could be in trouble. But in general, when we're 
 talking about stuff that relates to your profession and not 
 general social networking, then I don't think that that's it's 
 often an issue. If you're talking in this newsgroup about D and 
 programming topics, and you're discussing technical stuff in 
 the reviews on github, then I don't think that you're really at 
 much risk of having a problem with your employer due to a 
 remark that you make. Where that's far more likely to get you 
 bitten is places like facebook where you're chatting about 
 random stuff.

 Personally, I post under my real name (or something obviously 
 related to it like jmdavis) in all of the programming-related 
 places I post in. And I think that that's very valuable from 
 the perspective of showing potential employers that I'm 
 actually competent and that others think that I'm competent. 
 However, when I post on sites talking about stray stuff that 
 has nothing to do with my profession, I post under pseudonyms 
 and don't provide anything that would give any obvious hints as 
 to who I am. There's no benefit to linking that stuff to my 
 real name, whereas there is with programming stuff. Places like 
 facebook or google+ are where you end up generally posting 
 under your own name and talking about random junk that might 
 get you in trouble if the wrong person sees it. But I don't 
 have a facebook account, and I don't do much on g+, so 
 personally, I'm at a low risk of problems with that. Still, any 
 time you post under your real name, you should be mindful that 
 pretty much anyone could end up seeing it whether you intend 
 for that to happen or not, and dumb remarks _could_ come back 
 to bite you. It helps though if you make few dumb remarks. ;) 
 But in the case of places like this, if you mostly stick to 
 professional topics and are generally civil, then I really 
 don't think that you're at much risk of getting in trouble over 
 it. And if you've built a good professional brand online, then 
 in the rare case that you _do_ get in trouble over it, then 
 you'll have an easier time getting a new job.

 - Jonathan M Davis


Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête 
homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.

If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest 
of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. 
(attributed to Cardinal Richelieu)

If they're out to get you, they'll get you anyway. Now you can do 
one of two things: you can say, "Why take the risk?" and stay 
anonymous or you can say "Life is full of risks anyway", and show 
your real name.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu
May 14 2016
parent Ann W. Griffith <awgreataw online.us> writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 16:42:44 UTC, Chris wrote:

 On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 15:57:43 UTC, Jonathan M Davis 
 wrote:

 [...]


 Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête 
 homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.

 If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest 
 of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. 
 (attributed to Cardinal Richelieu)

 If they're out to get you, they'll get you anyway. Now you can 
 do one of two things: you can say, "Why take the risk?" and 
 stay anonymous or you can say "Life is full of risks anyway", 
 and show your real name.

 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu


Je crois qu'il disait pas mal de conneries ce type ;)
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent Meta <jared771 gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 05:09:51 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu 
wrote:

 On 5/14/16 12:01 AM, Meta wrote:

 So many careers have been lost over some flippant tweet or 
 Github
 comment that complete anonymity is the only sane option, 
 whenever possible.


 Could you bring some evidence or list a few anecdotes over the 
 careers lost over a tweet or github comment? Thx! -- Andrei


Ask Deadalnix. I'm sure he would be willing to opine on the topic.
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent Laeeth Isharc <laeethnospam nospam.laeeth.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 21:01:17 UTC, Meta wrote:

 On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 18:56:15 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 If some company won't hire you because you contributed code to 
 D, I'd say you dodged a bullet working for such!

   When I was young, I worried about what other people thought 
 of me.
   When I was middle aged, I stopped caring what other people 
 thought of me.
   When I was old, I realized nobody thought about me.


 Unfortunately, you can't just say whatever you want nowadays 
 and expect people to respect your freedom to do so. So many 
 careers have been lost over some flippant tweet or Github 
 comment that complete anonymity is the only sane option, 
 whenever possible.


There's a difference between losing a job and losing a career, 
and whilst losing a job may not be much fun it is not the worst 
thing that can happen to a person, and may looking back from some 
years be better than not losing a job.  The public instances of 
people being fired for violating politically correct norms are 
highly salient but can easily lead to a distorted picture of the 
real risks.  And what appears to be going on is not always the 
real story.  For example Larry Summers appeared to be fired as 
President of Harvard (or whatever his title was) for some remarks 
he made about the implications of differences in variance of two 
groups.  But that can't be understood without realising that he 
lost the support of many people before that for standing up for 
Schleifer, a very talented economist but one who certainly did 
some things wrong in relation to certain activities in Russia.  
So when the later hoohah was raised, he didn't have much support.

I think Andrei and Walter are right about the value of 
establishing a brand for most people.  One's strengths may also 
be weaknesses, and it is much better to have people hire you 
because they value what you can do and understand and know up 
front what difficulties that might imply and don't mind it than 
try to be bland and fit in and have them discover that later.  
It's a big world, and there are many people that are looking for 
someone exactly like you (and you only need one of them), so it's 
not the end of the world if by exposing yourself as you are some 
people realise that you are not their cup of tea.

I am not speaking theoretically but based also on practical 
experience - myself and people whose situations I have known.

Of course people are in different situations, and I am sure there 
are cases where this might not apply.

Political correctness though is dead - its very brittleness and 
shrillness is also its death rattle - but it will take a little 
while for that to be completely clear.  People at the best firms 
are slowly starting to realise that the incredible risk aversion 
about hiring and the work environment has led to having an army 
of trained monkeys, and in the long run its not good business to 
have only such.  There's an advantage to being one of the earlier 
people to not be afraid to present oneself as one is because it 
is still quite rare.  A little courage goes a long way in life.
May 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent reply bitwise <bitwise.pvt gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, 
 and add to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.

 It avoids when people who post as "Fred" on the newsgroup 
 submit PRs as "HorseWrangler" and get annoyed when I don't 
 realize they are the same person, and then I overlook them at 
 the conference because I have no idea what they look like.

 In today's surveillance state, the government already knows 
 your name and what you look like, so being anonymous on github 
 is a bit pointless, as if anyone cares that you are interested 
 in D. I can understand if you're a celebrity or want nobody to 
 know you're a dog, but that doesn't apply to most of us.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog


May be worth mentioning archiving sites like gmane that seem to 

search result. Excellent way to make an impression on future 
employers... ;)
May 13 2016
parent reply Jonathan M Davis via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On Friday, May 13, 2016 19:53:18 bitwise via Digitalmars-d wrote:

 May be worth mentioning archiving sites like gmane that seem to

 search result. Excellent way to make an impression on future
 employers... ;)


Actually, the fact that I had fairly high reputation on stackoverflow helped
me get my current job, and I've had other companies looked favoribly on the
fact that I have activity on github. I'm even amazingly searchable given how
common all of my names are thanks primarily to this newsgroup. You'll
probably find me fairly quickly if you search for

Jonathan M Davis programming

and this in spite of the fact that Jonathan and Davis are both _very_ common
(and my middle name, Michael, is just as bad). I definitely think that
having a visible presence on sites like stackoverflow and github is good,
and if they have your real name (or something close to it) with your real
photo, it's a lot easier to show that it's really you.

Sure, some folks may want to stay more anonymous, and that's there
prerogative, but in my experience, having a visible presence online with
regards to programming is definitely an aid in getting employment. Potential
employers can actually see that you know something and that other
programmers think that you know something, whereas they can't if you do
everything online under a pseudonym and/or never contribute to projects
online or make any of your own code available online.

As to Walter's original point of recognizing folks, it's definitely nicer
when contributors use the same names in the newsgroup and on github (be they
their real names or not). Otherwise, it _can_ be a pain to figure out that
they're the same person. For frequent contributors, you tend to figure it
out and remember it, but even then, it's more work than when the names match
- and if the contributor is not a frequent contributor, then it's unlikely
that any connection is going to be made, and it's going to seem like they
came out of nowhere when they might actually be someone who posts in the
newsgroup semi-frequently.

- Jonathan M Davis
May 13 2016
parent bitwise <bitwise.pvt gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 21:10:09 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:

 On Friday, May 13, 2016 19:53:18 bitwise via Digitalmars-d 
 wrote:

 May be worth mentioning archiving sites like gmane that seem 

 search result. Excellent way to make an impression on future 
 employers... ;)


 Actually, the fact that I had fairly high reputation on 
 stackoverflow helped me get my current job, and I've had other 
 companies looked favoribly on the fact that I have activity on 
 github. I'm even amazingly searchable given how common all of 
 my names are thanks primarily to this newsgroup. You'll 
 probably find me fairly quickly if you search for

 Jonathan M Davis programming

 and this in spite of the fact that Jonathan and Davis are both 
 _very_ common (and my middle name, Michael, is just as bad). I 
 definitely think that having a visible presence on sites like 
 stackoverflow and github is good, and if they have your real 
 name (or something close to it) with your real photo, it's a 
 lot easier to show that it's really you.

 Sure, some folks may want to stay more anonymous, and that's 
 there prerogative, but in my experience, having a visible 
 presence online with regards to programming is definitely an 
 aid in getting employment. Potential employers can actually see 
 that you know something and that other programmers think that 
 you know something, whereas they can't if you do everything 
 online under a pseudonym and/or never contribute to projects 
 online or make any of your own code available online.

 As to Walter's original point of recognizing folks, it's 
 definitely nicer when contributors use the same names in the 
 newsgroup and on github (be they their real names or not). 
 Otherwise, it _can_ be a pain to figure out that they're the 
 same person. For frequent contributors, you tend to figure it 
 out and remember it, but even then, it's more work than when 
 the names match - and if the contributor is not a frequent 
 contributor, then it's unlikely that any connection is going to 
 be made, and it's going to seem like they came out of nowhere 
 when they might actually be someone who posts in the newsgroup 
 semi-frequently.

 - Jonathan M Davis


I agree there is value to having a strong online presence, but I 
personally don't approach my online interactions as if every bit 
of it was part of a portfolio. That is something I believe you 
have to plan for from the start, but for many, that ship has 
sailed ;)

The biggest problem though, is that you can't control what every 
random internet crawler decides is a popular bit of conversation. 
For example, if you try to answer enough questions on 
stackoverflow, eventually, you're going to get one wrong. 
Sometimes, moronically so. So if some random search engine 
decides that that particular question is a popular one, you could 

search result.

I'm certain that even in a year's time, I'll look back at some of 
my questions/statements on dlang.org, and frown. Except the one 
about conditional version statements, of course ;)

    Bit
May 18 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent w0rp <devw0rp gmail.com> writes:
I stick with my pseudonym. I don't go to great lengths to protect 
my identity. You could probably figure out my name and address if 
you really wanted to. The concern isn't so much the government, 
but other individuals doing harm to you.

We live in a world which is very politically correct, and on the 
other hand there are a lot of people who are just mean. You're 
much safer if you make a point not to give out too much personal 
information in public spaces. Brendan Eich is probably the best 
example I know of where someone lost their job for not having the 
right opinions.
May 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Jacob Carlborg <doob me.com> writes:
On 2016-05-13 19:02, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add
 to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.


I think it's confusing with inconsistency. For example, committing with 
an email address that doesn't match the ones register for the GitHub 
account.

Having multiple accounts, i.e. several Sociomantic developers have, what 
seems to be, both a personal account and a Sociomantic account. I don't 
know the policy Sociomantic has when it comes to GitHub accounts.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg
May 14 2016
prev sibling next sibling parent Andrej Mitrovic via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> writes:
On 5/13/16, Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <digitalmars-d puremagic.com> wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, and add to
 that
 if you could have a selfie as your github image.


With some web apps like Slack (team chat software) each user can pick
whether the app should display nicknames or full names of other
people. For Github this already works with auto-complete, they would
just have to add the optional feature to always display the full name.
May 14 2016
prev sibling parent reply dewitt <dkdewitt gmail.com> writes:
On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

 I'll ask again that the active Github users use their own name, 
 and add to that if you could have a selfie as your github image.


I think the bigger issue is the fact that every photo is now 
called a selfie.

Personally all the places I have worked Besides the USMC and gov, 
my bosses could give two s**ts about your life.  In fact if they 
saw something funny on github, they'd prolly be more inclined to 
interview.  The PC crowd would love to ruin the careers of ppl 
they don't agree with but if thats who your applying from then 
thats on you.  I have never lived in SF so I am just gonna 
stereotype that stuff that happens there doesn't happen 
everywhere.  If your posting vile stuff on your real name then 
thats on you.  Remember the Internet can screw you and you not 
even be at fault.  If anyone remembers a certain very tragic 
event a couple years ago back East (which I will not name) and 
the media was blasting the brother's name as the perpetrator.  
Imagine how that guy feels now and he didn't have anything to do 
with his life being screwed over.

If you ever make a mistake just remember WWTD (What Would Trump 
Do) and say "Yea I said it so what"

Bottomline: For every employer with a stick up their a**, there 
is one that is actually a human being and knows ppl make mistakes.
May 16 2016
parent dewitt <dkdewitt gmail.com> writes:
On Monday, 16 May 2016 at 22:23:21 UTC, dewitt wrote:

 On Friday, 13 May 2016 at 17:02:20 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:

[...]


 I think the bigger issue is the fact that every photo is now 
 called a selfie.

 [...]


On Monday, 16 May 2016 at 22:23:21 UTC, dewitt wrote:


I screwed the subject line up.  Hope this fixes it. :)
May 16 2016