Comments for Bug Girl's Blog

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Macromite

Macromite — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:42:11 +0000

You like Orwell – he kept writing under that name after his real name became more or less known (and apparently generally ignored).

Don’t hyphenate your name though – if I’d done that I would have ended up a synonym of a pesticide for chickens (‘natural’ though).

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Bug Girl

Bug Girl — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:53:11 +0000

Myrmecos–I think the market for entomology books that make copious use of the F-bomb may be limited

Comment on Things change (thank goodness) by Karina

Karina — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:33:34 +0000

Little historic bits like this are fascinating. A favorite line of mine that epitomizes how times have changed was something along the lines of, “A true naturalist loves nothing more than to shoot a rare and difficult specimens for addition to his collection.” Times have changed, indeed. Cheers to that.

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by myrmecos

myrmecos — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:20:54 +0000

The Science Goddess (#10) has it right: this should be a branding issue.

If, for example, you find yourself self-employed in the fallout from the economic crisis, writing books about bugs for a living (ahem- just a suggestion), would you do better as “Bug Girl” or as your given name?

Not that I have any idea about how you’d go either way, but that’s how I’d be thinking of the issue.

Comment on Things change (thank goodness) by Peregrine

Peregrine — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:52:59 +0000

*Gulp!*

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Tony Wildish

Tony Wildish — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:08:53 +0000

I think ‘Bug Girl’ is a great name (well, maybe it wouldn’t suit me!) so I’d stick with it if I were you. If you use your real name from time to time that’s fine too, you don’t need to be either one or the other, you can be both.

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Tim

Tim — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:21:34 +0000

Knowing you on here and on Skepchick as Bug_Girl for the past couple of years would really confuse me if you decided to suddenly adopt a different moniker, whether it was your “real” one or not – if nothing else.

And it’s the Interweb, and anonymity is rarely if ever a bad thing here!

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Bug Girl

Bug Girl — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:22:08 +0000

Wow, you guys are all very sweet!! *blush*
Thank you!!

I will probably stay BG and just turn down some of the more interesting offers. It’s SOOO much nicer to not have to worry about censoring myself.
I do a little anyway, but that’s probably not a bad thing

I think “separation of the personal and professional” is spot on, Goddess.

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by Abel Pharmboy

Abel Pharmboy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:28:10 +0000

Funny but U once asked the same thing of my readers after about 3 yrs of blogging. Most, including my mother, said to keep the ‘nym. Many people even know me in person as Abel but don’t know my real name. So, I don’t hide my identity because I’m better known in these circles by my ‘nym, but I do link to real life events that make it easy to know who I am. But I say to just do what works for you.

Comment on Vote! (on my identity) by The Science Goddess

The Science Goddess — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:26:07 +0000

Perhaps it’s not a question of anonymity, but of “branding.” In the beginning of your online adventures, you may well have been after the anonymity—some separation of personal and professional lives. These days, it’s not as much of an issue; however, your pseudonym may well be entrenched with who you are online.

The real thing to think about is not whether or not you want to use your real name—it’s if/how you want to continue using “Bug_Girl.”