Why do folks use "handles" on a musician forum instead of their real name?

Ian Ballard

Silver Member
I can understand, in general, why people would want to maintain a level of anonymity online, for security and privacy reasons but on a musician forum, where many of us are trying to get our names out there, I'm a little confused. I'm not trying to belittle folks for their decision to not use their name, it just puzzles me a bit. I don't feel like I have anything to worry about in a drumming/guitar/songwriting/composing community being that we are all in the same boat, so to speak, so I feel that my name being public could assist me in future endeavors musically.
 
My name is Christian Xavier Winslett. I'm not looking to be famous, but I have never seen the need to be anonymous. The only thing being, people actually call me "Draco" in real life, so the two names are synonomous to me.

I, too, have pondered about this.

-Christian W.

I've never really had a desire for fame but I enjoy being a working musician in any capacity. In this day and age of social media and search engines working as they do, names are relevant. :)
 
I don't know my real name anymore. I became bobdadruma so long ago that even my childhood friends call me bobdadruma.
bobdadruma is even on my birth certificate and my passport now.
I was going to use Barack Obama as my name but it was already taken.
 
Calderham Y. Squeeb is a bit hard to manage and it was already taken.
 
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I can understand, in general, why people would want to maintain a level of anonymity online, for security and privacy reasons but on a musician forum, where many of us are trying to get our names out there, I'm a little confused. I'm not trying to belittle folks for their decision to not use their name, it just puzzles me a bit. I don't feel like I have anything to worry about in a drumming/guitar/songwriting/composing community being that we are all in the same boat, so to speak, so I feel that my name being public could assist me in future endeavors musically.

I tend not to give out much personal info because I want to be able to speak freely here without worrying about offhandedly offending someone when they search for my name, which happens these days more than I'd like. You always hear about people searching you; could be a job prospect, or any number of things. I worked with some consultants who liked to lookup the facebook page of everyone they worked with. I felt like that was bordering on snooping into private lives, but the fact is that people made it public and attached it to their real name...
 
My login name is uses my last name and first initial, and my avatar has my first name in it... no biggie for me!

I don't post anything that I'm not prepared to stand behind. What you see, is what you get.

I don't lie, cheat or steal. If you google me, you'll probably die of boredom with what you find.

See, the interweb isn't that exciting.
 
If I told ya may real name I'd have to kill ya.
 
That's it! I've got your coordinates. Expect a visit, bucko.
 
I tend not to give out much personal info because I want to be able to speak freely here without worrying about offhandedly offending someone when they search for my name, which happens these days more than I'd like. You always hear about people searching you; could be a job prospect, or any number of things. I worked with some consultants who liked to lookup the facebook page of everyone they worked with. I felt like that was bordering on snooping into private lives, but the fact is that people made it public and attached it to their real name...

This is the truth. I avoid a l lot of fb post because of this. You can not completely censor yourself but having less attached to your name is better. Employers look at fb pages to see what type of person you are. If they see pics of you drinking, smoking etc..it could hurt your chances. Other lesser things like just your opinion on something,politics, music, art, or anything that people post can hurt you as well.
 
I would think privacy, for one. But also it's fun to have an alternate identity or persona...something that tells people who you are without giving your name.
 
I would think privacy, for one. But also it's fun to have an alternate identity or persona...something that tells people who you are without giving your name.


Only a fool would say something like that.


(Insert smiley emoticon here.)
 
I don't think any of us are scared. The internet has had us using "usernames" by default and I think the fun of being a different persona really caught on (although some of us take our online persona seriously). I think facebook has made some of us more comfortable with using our real names, it's definitely more common to see peoples full names on forums in recent years.

Google keeps inviting me to change my youtube name to my real name... I'm a bit scared given all the comments I have floating around out there.
 
I don't know but I about had a brain hemorrhoid tryin' to think of a decent moniker for a drum forum. "GetAgrippa" seemed like a natural. And it has so many different meanings. LOL.
 
I used to be on a forum years ago where a group of folks really decided they didn't like anything I had to say. I don't know why they felt this way. One day I posted a picture of myself playing and the thread spiraled out of control lasting 6 pages long making fun of how I looked. The comments were vicious - everything to do with hair style to weight to body.... these people were not joking like haha, they were really trying to kill my soul.

I was only 16 years old when this first began (10 years ago to be exact) and it really hurt me as a person and made me self conscious (both in real life and what I post online about myself). To be honest some of those same people (as well as a few other evil people from that same message board) found my real name and began you-tubing and googling it. Then they found whatever they could about me and began posting horrible comments on you tube and myspace and everywhere. You can google my name and within the first two pages you'll find some thread about me under my real name slandering me or joking about me like I think I'm such a big deal and I never told anyone that. Whatever I have said gets twisted around 180* and then splattered all over the web. These people do not stop. There's no way I could have said or done anything so bad that people would want to do this. It's simply forum buddies telling other forum buddies, pretty soon alliances are formed, and the snowball effect starts and pretty soon I'm the ball in their game. I still have to manage comments on my videos and I don't understand why people do the things they do and how they go to such great lengths to cut someone down. I have to think they are jealous or something. I wish I could laugh but the truth is I am filled with total hatred for what they've done. I haven't posted anything there in the past couple of years (why should I?). To this day I have become a "legend" in every wrong sense of the word - and I have not done a thing to deserve it. I have looked at pursuing legal action but I'm not sure how much leverage I'd have. I really think more people get abused online than we know about.

Anyways that is why I do not post *as much* personal info online as some. It can be abused if it falls into the wrong hands.

Wish I could be slack with that but unfortunately that right was raped from me a little over 10 years ago and continues to be a problem.
 
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I used to be on a forum years ago where a group of folks really decided they didn't like anything I had to say. I don't know why they felt this way. One day I posted a picture of myself playing and the thread spiraled out of control lasting 6 pages long making fun of how I looked. The comments were vicious - everything to do with hair style to weight to body.... these people were not joking like haha, they were jesting to kill my soul.

I was only 16 years old when this first began (10 years ago to be exact) and it really hurt me as a person and made me self conscious (both in real life and what I post online about myself). To be honest some of those same people (as well as a few other evil people from that same message board) found my real name and began you-tubing and googling it. Then they found whatever they could about me and began posting horrible comments on you tube and myspace and everywhere. You can google my name and within the first two pages you'll find some thread about me under my real name slandering me or joking about me like I think I'm such a big deal and I never told anyone that. Whatever I have said gets twisted around 180* and then splattered all over the web. These people do not stop. I still have to manage comments on my videos and I don't understand why people do the things they do and how they go to such great lengths to cut someone down. I have to think they are jealous or something. I wish I could laugh but the truth is I am filled with total hatred for what they've done. I haven't posted anything in the past couple years. To this day I have become a "legend" in every wrong sense of the word - and I have not done a thing to deserve it.

Anyways that is why I do not post *as much* personal info online as some. It can be abused if it falls into the wrong hands.

Wish I could be slack with that but unfortunately that right was raped from me a little over 10 years ago and continues to be a problem.

Wow. I'm really sorry to hear that. People can be VERY cruel and the internet puts that on overdrive for sure. I don't really get that vibe here and definitely the moderators would put a stop to that and ban the offenders before it got to that point. This is why I don't feel the need to post anonymously. But I totally understand where you are coming from. I was viciously picked on in grade school so I do understand where you are coming from to a certain extent. :)
 
I've been stalked a couple of times and don't aspire to fame or even to have a great deal to do with the mainstream music scene. I just like a chat and hopefully pick up (or pass on) a few tricks.
 
I used to be on a forum years ago where a group of folks really decided they didn't like anything I had to say. I don't know why they felt this way. One day I posted a picture of myself playing and the thread spiraled out of control lasting 6 pages long making fun of how I looked. The comments were vicious - everything to do with hair style to weight to body.... these people were not joking like haha, they were really trying to kill my soul.

Sorry buddy, that's tragic and not right. I feel for ya, and you gotta know that you're not alone. I was actually watching on AC360 on CNN this morning and he had a great little piece about cyber bullying and how it goes on WAY more than we realize...

Trolls be trollin....

Thankfully, we don't have to deal with that here. I've witnessed how the mods deal with even the slightest bit of "noise" like that. They're all over it, and this forum is a better place for it! **Tip my hat to you guys!**

To the OP, I've used quiet a few handles over the years for different forums, but this one came from a a signature I used to use in school. My roommate always signed off with Keep It Real, but I always thought Keep It Green just sounded better. It works on a couple of different levels too....
 
Some people have to criticize others to feel good about themselves was my realization. Then my attitude of contempt turned into one of realizing how pathetic they really are and they gained my sympathy. Sad really. Who gives a crap what they think they aren't living your life and you definitely wouldn't want to live theirs. I grew up in a rural area with a bunch of violent yahoos. Got picked on and beat up daily-even by my own two elder brothers. I had a baby face too, and I was different and didn't fit in. Beat up, hung by my brother, tied to an electric fence-oh they thought that was hilarious, cigarette burned, trapped for hours, etc. But either like natural selection or Spartan environment I worked on losing weight, worked out with weights (changed from 200lbs of fat to 200lbs of muscle), and just became as mean as a snake-hey they created me. I beat the crap outta my two brothers (I don't think they realized the little kid would grow up) to the point they feared me (basically I was outta control and I think they believed I would kill them) and any other yahoo-yeah I had a chip on my shoulder. I started to become almost a bully when I realized I was becoming a pathetic loser like them. All of that anger and hate I was developing was destroying me. I learned to be an umbrella and just let it bounce off and be happy. I forgave them all and moved on. I think my eldest brother still fears me-but he was the one who hung me and tried to set me on fire. Guilty conscious I guess-I love my brother. In a way it was a good experience because I did become more athletic, learned how to fight, and learned to deal with psychopaths. hee,hee. Seriously all that teasing during your developmental youth can really scar you if you let it. A shrink helped too. I no longer want to beat the crap outta people-I replaced it with drums LOL.
 
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