As widely as possible. My real name is accessible from my profile. My handle is my most widely used internet handle in non-gaming contexts; using it is a means to recognition, not anonymity.
My reasons:
(A) When I was 14, I embraced anonymity online out of a (perhaps justifiable) fear of internet stalkers. Now that I am an adult, sound of body and mind, I'm not so worried about that. I use my real name almost everywhere online.
(B) This particular community is about real life things like jobs and businesses. There's a strong possibility I'll someday get a job / start a business / join some serious real-world undertaking based discussion and contacts here. If that's the case, I'd rather be "Catherine Darrow from Seattle" than "Dove from the internet".
(C) I think it is wrong to judge people in one context based on controversial opinions held in another. I don't vote for politicians based on religion; I don't ignore the technical opinions of programmers with wacky political views; I don't disrespect the high level manager who likes to live it up on weekends. Not everyone holds this view, and aliases are a way to defend yourself against people who don't. But I would rather that tolerance became common courtesy, and "don't judge people in a professional context based on random forum comments" became simple common sense. By establishing a gentle tie between some of my more controversial views and my real identity, I take a small risk to make a small point.
Iirc correctly you wrote in an earlier thread that you were concerned with 'attention of a certain kind', so I really respect you for taking that risk.
Correct (and good memory -- that was quite a while ago). Also a reason to use my handle as a primary name and put my real one behind a clickthrough.
That was also more of a concern when I was younger (and in gaming contexts -- hence a slightly fractured identity). These days I am confident in my ability to defend myself socially and physically.
I notice that your name, like mine, is a psuedonym that's not trivially googlable. As long as the places where you connect it to your real name are not indexed in search engines, it's going to take actual work to connect it to you. I've used this name on the internet for well over a decade, but have only connected it to my real name by request, on private channels.
We're probably not that far apart in our assessments of the disadvantages; the difference is likely that I'm confident my HN commenting will never be advantageous when seeking a job.
My reasons:
(A) When I was 14, I embraced anonymity online out of a (perhaps justifiable) fear of internet stalkers. Now that I am an adult, sound of body and mind, I'm not so worried about that. I use my real name almost everywhere online.
(B) This particular community is about real life things like jobs and businesses. There's a strong possibility I'll someday get a job / start a business / join some serious real-world undertaking based discussion and contacts here. If that's the case, I'd rather be "Catherine Darrow from Seattle" than "Dove from the internet".
(C) I think it is wrong to judge people in one context based on controversial opinions held in another. I don't vote for politicians based on religion; I don't ignore the technical opinions of programmers with wacky political views; I don't disrespect the high level manager who likes to live it up on weekends. Not everyone holds this view, and aliases are a way to defend yourself against people who don't. But I would rather that tolerance became common courtesy, and "don't judge people in a professional context based on random forum comments" became simple common sense. By establishing a gentle tie between some of my more controversial views and my real identity, I take a small risk to make a small point.