Well yeah, there's that. But the other reasons listed throughout the thread are legitimate and real.
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Why do some folks not wanna be known on here?
- Thread starter jrctherake
- Start date
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You'll never take me alive, copper.
Here's what I know: of the dozen or so guys I have on Ignore the vast majority of them are anonymous accounts -- guys that don't have the cajones to attach their name to their ignorant posts.
Lou Figueroa
A name
I figure with over ten thousand posts I am pretty well known. The poster makes the handle, not the handle making the poster. I have used Hu as a handle anywhere I can since 1988. When I can't use Hu I use ShootingArts.
Some of the James Robinson's and Ben Thompson's and such are no more the person's name than the ShootingArts and such. Some make it obvious they are using a handle, some are a bit more subtle about it. I used to know a dozen handles that appeared to be the people's name but weren't.
I have been threatened and stalked many a time since I joined the internet in 1988, including three times on AZB. Someone only fifty miles away was involved in one incident, one twelve miles away in another. Two "pro's" that rode dirt bikes together were physically looking for me. One owned a pool hall I had been in a dozen times or more before finding a much better hall. It was quite a chuckle when he went to Buffalo's stalking me and nobody said a mumbling word! Had they been more than pissants as human beings two stalkers like that could be worrisome to an old fella like me.
There is a legal liability thing in my mind too. If some psycho shows up on my door step without having to dig I figure I don't have as strong a legal standing if I have to defend myself as if someone has to spend hours or days digging. Years ago a hacker site had a cash bounty on my head with dozens hunting my personal information. Was quite funny because I owned a domain at the time and they all knew the domain I owned. It would have taken about two minutes for anyone with a brain to find me! My "sin" was owning a political forum.
Hu is my nickname I have used for fifty years and ShootingArts was the name of several of my businesses over the years. That is real enough to suit me. If I am hiding, I am hiding in plain sight.
Hu
I figure with over ten thousand posts I am pretty well known. The poster makes the handle, not the handle making the poster. I have used Hu as a handle anywhere I can since 1988. When I can't use Hu I use ShootingArts.
Some of the James Robinson's and Ben Thompson's and such are no more the person's name than the ShootingArts and such. Some make it obvious they are using a handle, some are a bit more subtle about it. I used to know a dozen handles that appeared to be the people's name but weren't.
I have been threatened and stalked many a time since I joined the internet in 1988, including three times on AZB. Someone only fifty miles away was involved in one incident, one twelve miles away in another. Two "pro's" that rode dirt bikes together were physically looking for me. One owned a pool hall I had been in a dozen times or more before finding a much better hall. It was quite a chuckle when he went to Buffalo's stalking me and nobody said a mumbling word! Had they been more than pissants as human beings two stalkers like that could be worrisome to an old fella like me.
There is a legal liability thing in my mind too. If some psycho shows up on my door step without having to dig I figure I don't have as strong a legal standing if I have to defend myself as if someone has to spend hours or days digging. Years ago a hacker site had a cash bounty on my head with dozens hunting my personal information. Was quite funny because I owned a domain at the time and they all knew the domain I owned. It would have taken about two minutes for anyone with a brain to find me! My "sin" was owning a political forum.
Hu is my nickname I have used for fifty years and ShootingArts was the name of several of my businesses over the years. That is real enough to suit me. If I am hiding, I am hiding in plain sight.
Hu
No doubt there's plenty of those kind of schmucks on here just to start beefs. Why someone considers that fun is just beyond me I guess. My reasons for anonymity are simple. I have three teenagers and one who just graduated college. My wife and I have strict internet rules. Don't text or post anything your grandmother can't read. And more importantly don't text or post anything a future employer might not understand or like.
It's pretty simple for anyone in my area to figure out who I am, and when they have I asked them not to "out" me. The first kid is out of college. The next one graduates HS in a few months and heads to London for school in the fall. And I still have two more to pay for down the road. So I follow the same house rules I make them adhere to, because I might find myself looking for a job and I wouldn't want to have to explain my take on a "aiming discussion" to a potential employer. Once I retire (Damn that seems a long ways down the road) I will post my info and see if it makes a difference.
Anonymity is not always lack of courage...and I don’t see how someone can seem more
knowledgeable than they really are....their actual words reveal their depth.
True charity has been defined as doing some good in secret....getting credit for it is payback.
I try to use AZ to express opinions divorced from my ego...I’m more abrupt on the street.
Now, for another point of view....why do you post under your real name?
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That's why the ignore button exists. Again, I get your point. Do you at least acknowledge the very well thought out reasons brought up by others?
I'm one of the older AZ members and I've always thought that you should behave on here exactly as if you were in the pool room. Then you'll never have any problems. Of if you do have problems, you're prepared to stand up for them. I have a lot of friends from AZ and onepocket.org who I've met and played with in real life. Both a great resource.
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I have been on the internet way before the www existed. Back in the beginnings of Usenet only civilized people were around. Because computers and internet/arpanet access were rare, expensive, slow and only scientists and people knowing how to do more than push an "ON" button communicated with you. This changed rapidly. Now every freak, murderer, rapist and mentally challenged person has internet access.
Google and other search engines (like Wayback, Whois etc.) make it really easy to connect all the information about a person. I might have expressed my political, religious and other views somewhere to some minor degree - although I don't take part in stuff like NPR. I do not want some freaked out extremists of any kind to be able to easily profile me. Including home address, phone number, my lady's address and all that. That is why I don't use the same screen name in other forums, either.
OTOH, if someone wants to contact me and I don't feel he is a nut job they can have my name and all. I met several people in RL that I only knew from the net. But again - no need to post my full identity all over the place.
I also had idiots follow me - not in RL (thanks heaven) yet, but on the net. One major a** followed me to 2 other totally unrelated forums back in the day when I used the same screen name on several. Only because he was some freaked-out nazi I had a minor political difference with in some thread. He tried to jump on me in forums he personally did not have the least interest in.
So, there are good reasons for a bit of anonymity.
WRT to AZB: I never pretend to be a better player than I am. Actually, I tend to be more modest in my self-perception than quite a few people I have later met in RL. Not AZB people, but from another international pool forum.
One funny story that happened in another forum was that I discussed a combination shot SVB made in - I think it was - the Mosconi Cup. Which - IMHO - was at least medium hard for a pro. Several people jumped in and berated me how easy that combo was. And that they would make that something like 8/10. One guy was extremely outrageous and said he'd make that shot most of the time on his table with 3 3/4" pockets. Jeez. So I searched the guy's posts in that forum. Guess what?
He posted a few months earlier that he got himself this wonderful 5' table. (He could not even have set up the SVB shot on such a table because the total shot length was over 6'.) *bg*
People bragging like that are all over the internet. But then again I don't see a reason to believe anything posted in some forum without knowing the person. I always double check stuff unless, for example, a known "great" like Tom Wirth posts something about 1P. Also, after reading a forum for more than a couple of months you start to get a feel for people - anonymous or not. And there are more than enough d*bags posting under their real names as well. Sure enough, it is easier to post bs anonymous but a real name is no guarantee for a nice person.
Then, even someone who is not a great pool-player might still have a lot of useful information for others. Examples would be people who don't always buy the latest craze and if they do, they judge them honestly. I remember a time when I read that Kamui chalk was "simply the best" from a lot of better players. Some beginners already said that it's dirty as hell. Just as an example.
So in the end I don't believe you have to be a pro-level player nor present a "real name" in order to be a valuable asset to a forum. Stupid people can be recognized after a few dozen posts, normally. And some of those are really good players.
Google and other search engines (like Wayback, Whois etc.) make it really easy to connect all the information about a person. I might have expressed my political, religious and other views somewhere to some minor degree - although I don't take part in stuff like NPR. I do not want some freaked out extremists of any kind to be able to easily profile me. Including home address, phone number, my lady's address and all that. That is why I don't use the same screen name in other forums, either.
OTOH, if someone wants to contact me and I don't feel he is a nut job they can have my name and all. I met several people in RL that I only knew from the net. But again - no need to post my full identity all over the place.
I also had idiots follow me - not in RL (thanks heaven) yet, but on the net. One major a** followed me to 2 other totally unrelated forums back in the day when I used the same screen name on several. Only because he was some freaked-out nazi I had a minor political difference with in some thread. He tried to jump on me in forums he personally did not have the least interest in.
So, there are good reasons for a bit of anonymity.
WRT to AZB: I never pretend to be a better player than I am. Actually, I tend to be more modest in my self-perception than quite a few people I have later met in RL. Not AZB people, but from another international pool forum.
One funny story that happened in another forum was that I discussed a combination shot SVB made in - I think it was - the Mosconi Cup. Which - IMHO - was at least medium hard for a pro. Several people jumped in and berated me how easy that combo was. And that they would make that something like 8/10. One guy was extremely outrageous and said he'd make that shot most of the time on his table with 3 3/4" pockets. Jeez. So I searched the guy's posts in that forum. Guess what?
He posted a few months earlier that he got himself this wonderful 5' table. (He could not even have set up the SVB shot on such a table because the total shot length was over 6'.) *bg*
People bragging like that are all over the internet. But then again I don't see a reason to believe anything posted in some forum without knowing the person. I always double check stuff unless, for example, a known "great" like Tom Wirth posts something about 1P. Also, after reading a forum for more than a couple of months you start to get a feel for people - anonymous or not. And there are more than enough d*bags posting under their real names as well. Sure enough, it is easier to post bs anonymous but a real name is no guarantee for a nice person.
Then, even someone who is not a great pool-player might still have a lot of useful information for others. Examples would be people who don't always buy the latest craze and if they do, they judge them honestly. I remember a time when I read that Kamui chalk was "simply the best" from a lot of better players. Some beginners already said that it's dirty as hell. Just as an example.
So in the end I don't believe you have to be a pro-level player nor present a "real name" in order to be a valuable asset to a forum. Stupid people can be recognized after a few dozen posts, normally. And some of those are really good players.
Three words...
Witness Protection Program.
Witness Protection Program.
Calzican
Registered
Man it's been awhile how you hittin'em bro? I saw some guy on here dogging action at Bumpers and Goodtimerz last week I thought you had that on lockdown up there ? Lol
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Some folks here talk like they can run 100's.
You ask for a video and they don't know how, lol. They take shots at guys whose pool cue case they couldn't carry. It's not as simple as you make it out to be by any stretch.
Lou Figueroa
I believe, after over 20 years on the interweb posting my full name, that they are full of ca-ca.
Lou Figueroa
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I believe good players don't have any problem posting their real name or making their identity easily known.
Lou Figueroa
the trolls
not so much
It's easier when you're retired. Not so much when you're still in the work force and subject to background checks. Cojones has nothing to do with it.