question to the board- anonymous?

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Posted By: leon

I understand why some folks don't want to use their email addresses/names due to potential spam. I guess another reason is because someone could be in the public eye and doesn't want their name out there in searches. With how close knit our hobby niche is I don't understand why you would want to use a different name than your own though? I can't imagine being known as anyone but me (and my name is somewhat peculiar in itself)....maybe it's just a quirk but I actually like having my name out there. It helps when doing deals and so forth. Especially on this board I don't undersand .....The rules aren't changing I just think, with the recent "Pete" thread, that this is a pertinent question....There are many board members who feel this way about not using their names...So why all the anonymity?

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

I think it's symptomatic of people in general these days, Leon. So many people are afraid of revealing themselves in whatever area, because they think their name will wind up on a "list" somewhere, bringing unwanted government attention upon them. Especially true in these days of heightened security concerns. Have been surprised at the highly educated, sophisticated people who feel this way. Even people in politics.

Oh, and don't quote me on this! (chuckle)

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Posted By: Anonymous

This stuff shows up in google searches.
A google search is routine due diligence now.

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Posted By: leon

So if a name shows up in a google search and it's found out we collect baseball cards.....whoa...hold the presses....

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Posted By: Dick Hurtz

I have absolutely no issue with revealing my true identity.

In all seriousness I do understand the rationale behind not wanted to divulge too much information in a public forum. Why make it easier for someone to compromise your identity, or dig up dirt on you? Then again you probably have a greater chance of being run over by a bus any given day.

Sincerely,

Richard

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Posted By: jay behrens

I'm probably as careful a person as there is out there about hiding my identity online. That being said, I give my spam addy and real name here. If you Google me, all you will find is my postings here. You won't find anything else about me in that search. I've been online since 1987 and I've done a good job keeping a low profile even though I've been a prominent poster on a number of message boards and USENET groups. The most recent address you can pull up on me is the place I lived in almost 15 years. I do a pretty good job of living under the radar. A big reason for that is I don't use credit cards. I pay cash for everything and have no outstanding loans.

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

And when you get run over by that bus...

be sure hire an attorney who also collects baseball cards!

(hint, hint)

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Posted By: Buck Nekkid

owww, an ambulance chaser

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: andy becker

i understand both points of view. i certainly want my name out there in the vintage card arena, i also want to maintain a low profile....it is kinda tough to have your cake and eat it too.

richard, you crack me up

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

Leon:

I'm not sure the Pete/Mark thread is a great example. People go by nicknames all the time and it has nothing to do with someone intentionally trying to hide their true identity. My father's given name was William, but he went by Ray (his middle name) his whole life because when he was growing up he had an older cousin with the same first name. Most of his friends didn't even know his real first name. Now if he or Mark had told people he was "John Smith" that would be another story entirely.

Bill:

Loved the reference to Richard Hurtz. I used to use that one myself in high school (although I spelled it Richard Hertz). There was just something thrilling about starting off a sentence to one of my Irish Christian Brother teachers, "Well, my good friend Dick Hertz...."

Kevin

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Posted By: Cat

Leon:

I have always believed that fewer people used their real names than we really believed. Thus, I believed that "either use your real name or don't post mean things" [paraphasing here] was kind of a futile rule. Some just choose names that are a little more realistic than "Cat."

Signed,
Dewey Oxburger



_____________________
"My doctor said I swallowed a lot of aggression as a child...along with a lot of pizzas."

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

It is widely known that Ty Cobb played youth baseball in teh Kentucky area under the name:

Henry Reccius

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

what is Yomass?
Is it Yo-mass or Yom-ass?

Sincerely,
Pat Magroin

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Posted By: The Shadow

Some people who post here have collections of substantial value. It appears reasonable to protect ones identity because this is not a private group of collectors. And who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

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Posted By: leon

What's that song phrase...."paranoia day destroyer".....ok, so some might have significant collections...cool....mine is very significant to me. Keeping it in a bank lockbox is good though and very secure. Someone wants to break into Bank of America: go for it.....sorry guys....so far all I have seen is some rubbish about anonymity. Sure, if the rule is to use your name on the board you can make up what you want to. Great. When i see ya'll at the National I will just call you "Dick"...and leave it at that.......even if someone was a senator or politician I don't see why it's so bad to collect baseball cards or why it's such a secret. It's not illegal. It would be nice to know folks, on the board, by their name, imho.

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Posted By: Hal Lewis

I sort of put another spin on this whole concept.

About 5 years ago when I joined this board, I "borrowed" the identity of Halley Lewis, an attorney in Tallahassee, Florida.

I don't think he knows that I have done so, and I would bet that he knows nothing about baseball or baseball cards.

I just thought it would be neat to be somebody else on this board, and I figured I would pick a guy who seemed like he might be financially stable.

He hasn't sued me yet... so I guess he is OK with the whole thing.

It probably also explains why he never returns all of the calls you guys put into him at his office. He has no clue who you are or what the heck a "Network54" is.

To him, it probably sounds like a place in New Mexico where aliens landed.

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Posted By: leon

BTW, for the record, if someone does post in those controversial threads with a fake name, and I find out, they will be banned from ever posting on this board again. I do have ways of finding stuff out....After all, I am a tyrant...

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Posted By: Richard Masson

It is actually, "Yo! Mass!
A greeting followed by a nick name.
Don't Bobblitts come in pairs?

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Posted By: Steve M.

Stephen R. Murray
Arlington Heights, Illinois
eBay jacklitsch
847-364-7555
jacklitsch@comcast.net
www.freewebs.com/jacklitsch/

anonymity breeds distrust

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Posted By: jay behrens

If Dick Trickle starts posting here, how are we going to be sure it's really him?

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

he'll go by the name Weiner Drip...........

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Posted By: Bob Pomilla

So if a name shows up in a google search and it's found out we collect baseball cards.....whoa...hold the presses....

Actually, I don't believe it's baseball card collectors in general "they" are interested in, but they do monitor those who show an especial interest in "Lefty" Grove & "Lefty" Gomez.

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Posted By: will

As a longtime lurker and very infrequent poster, I do use a separate e-mail account and not my real name. This is due to a long-ago issue with a board participant (before I was even aware of this forum). The issues that require identification do not interest me since they are usually about everything except collecting vintage cards and are recycled about every 6 months or so.

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Posted By: barry arnold

Leon,
i don't want to be anonymous about this stuff.
i love getting the emails,getting these bst cards, learning
about every nuance imaginable related to my beloved 206's,
and getting to know some fine '54 fellers.
great hobby---really the best methinks.
i am barry arnold, holding some 300 206's, and secondarily
a medical ethicist in pensacola,florida.

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Posted By: leon

I have had some conversations today, offline, and read the responses here. I do understand there are reasons to remain relatively unknown. Just not my cup 'o tea...Call me weird but I like to try to be friendly with folks and get to know them. Sort of hard to do if I think I am speaking with Bill and it's really Sally.....I am sure if you google my name you will know I collect baseball cards...at least I hope you will...and tell me about grandpa's attic full of them.......I appreciate the responses so far.

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Posted By: Joann

I also don't see much downside to using real names here. I can understand it with high profile people like Keith Olb*rm*nn or political office holders - they have privacy issues in all areas of life and evading notice on a public forum is consistent with and part of their day-to-day habits.

But for most of us? I'll be more careful about spelling out my email address because of the spammers, but beyond that I don't see a compelling threat.

And ... Jay M*ll*r, Pete C*ld*ron, Leon L*ck*y, Bob M*rq*ette, either of the Behr*nses, Ryan Chr*st*ff. Not a bad list to be on. I didn't mean to omit anyone - just throwing names out off the top of my head. But these are well known and advanced collectors either generally or in niches, and I think the board benefits from contributions by people like this and the many others that use their real names.

I think there is a certain grace and dignity about an anonymous community that is not, well, anonymous.

Joann Kline

Edited so names don't show up in google searches.

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Posted By: Al Crisafulli

I lurked here for a long time before I began posting. Knowing the board's policy toward anonymity and controversial threads, and knowing that this board has a healthy dose of controversial threads, I registered using my full name. It's the only public board on which I use my real name.

Within a few months of my first post, a couple of people who know me outside the hobby began asking me questions about things I'd posted here. Apparently some of my posts showed up in Google searches.

This really, REALLY bothers me. My personal life is my own, and I share it with the people I choose to. For some reason, when people talk to me about parts of my life I haven't shared with them personally, I find it very invasive. Maybe taking offense to this makes me hypersensitive, but I don't care - I am who I am. Want to find about about what I do in business? Fine. Want to find out what I do with my free time? None of your business, unless I make it your business.

It's not that I'm anyone special or important, and it's not that I'm paranoid about anything, it's just that I like to keep all the different parts of my life where they belong, and I don't like the idea that just by using the internet, my life becomes an open book.

Anyway, if I could go back and do it again, I would be involved in the online part of the hobby using some sort of "handle" that was unrelated to my life.

-Al

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I suspect a lot of people use their eBay user id, which they may feel is more appropriate to a hobby forum than their given name-- and may indeed be.

It is understandable that people don't want their posts showing up in google, which is why I think it's acceptable for people to post with nicknames. I also don't think someone googling your name for whatever reason, even if it's your family Priest or potential business partner, is going to care much that you post about baseball cards. Likely the worst that will be said is, "He likes baseball cards. Isn't that cute."

The funny thing is I was yesterday contemplating switching my board name to DRC.

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Posted By: Joann

Al,

If that's the case I guess I don't blame you. I've never had anyone ask me anything about participation in this forum. I would find it unnerving to know that someone - friends, coworker, anyone - was googling my name in the first place.

Maybe that makes me see it a little differently, because that is a downside and would bother me too. Just hasn't happened so I didn't think about it.

J

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Posted By: leon

I just want to make sure I understand your sentiment. Someone not in the hobby, that knows you, asked you about baseball cards...and they knew this from a google search back to this board. That offended you terribly. That is certainly your right. When someone that knows me asks me about baseball cards they better grab a bed roll and a tent....cause I won't shut up about them. I guess I am in the minority. I like talking cards with ANYONE that will listen ....but again that's just me.....if anyone doesn't know who I am I will be happy to splain further...

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Posted By: martin dalziel

I'm a British immigrant with an FBI file (all legal immigrants have one). If some guvment person wants to spend their time hunting down my internet activity and ends up adding "vintage baseball card collector" to my file, sobeit. It might elicite a few questions as to why this Brit is so passionate about turn of the century American sports, but if thats the only blemish on my record I can live with it.

If its 'identity theft' you're after, then i can come up with probably twenty easier ways to go down that path, than mining email and signature addresses from internet forums.

While i do understand some peoples' caution and desire to remain anonymus, most every one of us is in more databases and on more lists than we could ever imagine, so for me, one more piece of data out there isn't really going to register.

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Posted By: Mike Hunt

I have to agree with "Dick" -- yeah -- your identity can be stolen on the internet, but it ain't gonna happen. I do all my banking, mortgaging, bill paying, (gambling), etc., on line and it's the safest thing out there. People who are all paranoid about internet identity threat, are the same ones who hand a complete stranger bar tender their credit card to hold as a tab. Or who hand Joe the Mechcanic a cc to go run in his back room. More identities are stolen at the check out line at the Mall than on line.


Now if you want to talk about the Bird Flu pandemic .......... we're all gonna die .........

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Posted By: anonymousdave

I agree with Al

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Posted By: Mike

From my standpoint, not having people know who I am, takes away from the very reason that I got involved in this forum in the first place. Why would I want to go as an alias? Like Leon, (And my dear wife will attest to this, bless her soul) if baseball comes up at a social event, memorabilia inevitably will be the topic, and I am hard to shut down at that point. In fact I do presentations of pre war items at many social events in my city. Rotary, schools, etc. etc. And as far as someone peering into my life. Have at it. I don't care. If that is all some pathetic soul has to do, go for it. They won't find much. I've got nothing to hide. And I just love those little pieces of cardboard. My shrink tells me there is no hope of recovery. I am an incurable addict.

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Posted By: Al Crisafulli

Leon:

You've got the basic gist of it right, but it was more than one person, and it was very specific questions about issues I had posted, and references to my Ebay auctions. It wasn't that I was terribly offended, just unnerved by it. About a year ago I ran a humorous Ebay auction, that someone commented on here on 54. I then had a client outside the hobby tell me in a face-to-face meeting "You should be spending more time working on my account and less time putting up goofball Ebay auctions." He was being humorous, but it bugged me anyway.

It's one thing when people in the hobby - even clients in the hobby - (hi, guys) read my posts here. It's a different thing entirely when people read them because they're prying.


-Al

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Posted By: Mark aka pete

***working for law enforcement I see way too much identity theft for me to toss out my last name online in most cases***

Now I'm really gonna get it...my first and middle names are Mark Anthony...I never liked the name Mark, its not Italian enough, but used it out of respect because my mother gave it to me. but she passed away last august and as of january I started using Anthony instaed of Mark...I didnt change it legally or at work or on my bank statement, I'm just using it with friends and family. so when you see "Anthony" aka pete, you'll know it's me and when I finally get to meet those of you going to Anaheim, I'm sure I'll be called all kinds of names...

so, sorry for all the hoop-la and confusion

anthony

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Posted By: E, Daniel

Yom Ass, oh the tears are still streaking down my face......

Translated from the hebrew, would mean: Day of the Ass.

Oh, i'm still cracking up!!! Sorry!

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Posted By: Peter Spaeth

I agree with Leon. If someone wants to know my opinions about baseball cards who cares. As far as security, think how many people you give your name and address out to when you sell on ebay. Do you trust each and every one of THOSE people many of whom have an unrecognizable name and address? Do ya? Anyhow, just for fun I did a google search on myself and at least at the point (pretty quick in my case, being a person of no consequence) where I started getting nonsense, this Board did not pop up.

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Posted By: Mark Smith

Leon, a healthy percentage of folks think it's odd for grown men and women to collect bb cards (my wife constantly reminds me of this). When interviewing for highly competitive jobs, it could be disadvantageous or even fatal to have something odd pop up in a Google search.

Among qualified candidates in my line of work, the job usually goes to who the interviewers unanimously believe they would get along with best. If I were interviewing two otherwise equal candidates and I learned that one was passionate about collecting Smurf figurines or McDonalsds Happy Meal toys, I might hire the other guy.

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Posted By: peter ullman

i am proud of my bb card collection and i love to share it with people...that being said...i'm probably too trustworthy/careless when dealing on the wwweb. i can understand people being paranoid of id theft/fraud, etc...but if the reasons for withholding an id are for hiding potentially devious behavior or something to that nature...i have a problem with it...and the pessimist in me tends to think the latter!

pete in mn

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Posted By: E, Daniel

I have to say that I completely understand people's desire to remain confidential. You will probably find that the same people who protect their identities to a greater extent on this forum, do similarly in the rest of their lives. It should be their prerogative. I would simply make being a member of this forum a more responsible act by requiring more registration information so that truly questionable activity can be followed up.
And I want to get political again, because this issue is about society.
It used to be that you could bravely and proudly talk about your political persuasion without being condemned, you cannot anymore on either side. There is more hate, more open disgust, less understanding, less willingness to shift one's vote with stated policies or "impressiveness" of the candidate - than is even imagineable.
It used to be that your religion was yours to cherish, and practice, but today identifying yourself religiously is often an act of aggression, or overbearing proselyitization, or must be muttered sheepishly if you do not profess a faith in the supernatural. Everywhere, it is shoved down everyone's throat. Exactly who the hell is doing the judging? Aren't we all just fallible human beings?
And lastly, for exactly the rant above, people would wish to remain anonomous.
Because this forum does touch on other topics, and the candor and humour exhibited would not always look and sound the same if copied and pasted, and repeated elsewhere by other lips.

And leon, of the hundreds - maybe thousand or so, who read (derisively coded as lurking) and occasionally post, how many will manage to ever catch up at a Network54 dinner? Or at the National? Or privately?
I understand your preference for real interaction with genuine people, but your ability to make that work and for the select few others who can similarly, does not mean many should not enjoy the possibilities of this forum. Both the learning, and the camaraderie.
So for those others I say, join, have your say, make sure what you say has been thought out and is as true a statement as you can make, say it without malevolence................"Say it true, say it loud, you can hear - we don't see - eye to IIIIIIIIII".

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I was told that Donald Trump picks the the winner for 'The Apprentice' by doing a google search and seeing which one likes talking about baseball cards.

I also heard that with the $75 million dollar lotto, the tie breaker is a google search to see which one like baseball cards. If your given name doesn't show up, tough noogies.

You will also find that before confirmation each Supreme Court Justice had on searchable public record that showed he or she put baseball cards in their bike spokes as a kid. In particular, Tom Delay wanted assurance that a nominee wouldn't make judgments that influenced by the rules of a foreign sport. If you ask John Roberts how he got to where he is today, he will tell you, "Full disclosure of my baseball card collection. Record that I had posted in a Barry Bonds Steroids thread didn't hurt either." And Robert Bork has more than once been heard to mutter to himself, "I knew it was a mistake to buy that pack of soccer cards."

Now, a board member like Elliot may think that the reason he isn't a United States Supreme Court Justice with $75 million worth of Corvettes in his garage is beause he is Canadian and never bought a lottery ticket, but we can now see that it is all due to that he posts with a nickname.

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Posted By: B.C.Daniels

Who am I? April 19 2006, 12:25 PM


Stephen R. Murray
Arlington Heights, Illinois
eBay jacklitsch
847-364-7555
jacklitsch@comcast.net
www.freewebs.com/jacklitsch/

anonymity breeds distrust


How true it is!

Otis-check this out!

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Posted By: Morrie

I had this conversation with Leon a while back. I choose privacy for a few reasons. One is that I'm shy, but the main one is that I feel like, as a professor, there's too much my students can find out about me already. You google me, and what comes up isn't baseball cards -- it's that I've written for roleplaying games in the past. I'd like to be able to retain some level of privacy about what I do in my free time, to help keep the boundaries between myself and my students as clear as possible.

On those occasions where I've felt the need to participate in a thread that was "controversial," I've used my real last name, but applied formatting that (I hope) would keep it from showing up in search engines (put a space between the last two letters or the first two letters, put the last letter in parentheses, whatever). I just want to keep this a part of my life that obsessed students won't ever have access to. No good reason why... I just do.

And if you don't think professors come across some real head-cases, you've never had someone sit in your office and fake "recovering memories" of being molested by an uncle when they were 8.

I don't mind being known by members of the Net54 community. Heck, I wish I were better known, so that I could ask some of you to serve as references for me so I could bid in the REA auction. But given the choice between doing full disclosure all the time and maintaining general "lurker" status, I'm going to revert to the shyness that's natural for me. I've got no problems with the policy, and no problems with the enforcement... I've just been given a choice, and I've chosen. Easy enough.

Morrie

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Posted By: David Vargha

People who do name searches for "David Vargha" find that the more they read, the more they are frightened and hope they never have to deal with me "face to face". It's like the one guy who told me that I was a "certified lunatic". That really ticked me off and I told him so. "Sir", I said. "That is complete bull! I was never certified and you know it."

DavidVargha@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Steve M.

and all I got was Fred.