When I got on the intertubes, oh-so-many years ago - the rules were simple: the ONLY piece of information you could freely give on public forums, or IRC, was your nick. Now, the only piece of information you are supposed to withhold is your credit card number.
I'll say this about the new ways: I'm extremely glad that I didn't have my teenage years documented and archived. Dodged that bullet!
I felt the same way about nicknames, but at some point I realized that I had a digital trail attached to my online-name that was a mile wide. I figured I might as well just start using my real name (which is rather unique already).
Also, I find your story of rules interesting. When I was first introduced to the internet (when I was about 7 years old, in school), the one "rule" I remember being told to us over and over again, by parents, by teachers, by anyone in authority was:
Everything you do online *can* be traced back to you. Communicating online
requires the same etiquette as communicating face to face. Don't do or say
anything you wouldn't do or say in real life.
That was the "one rule" of my day, and of the people I knew. It's one of the things that made switching to my real name easy, since I didn't have to change how I wrote.
I've been on the Internet since 1989 (second year of college) when practically everything on the Internet was public (even every computer---NAT wasn't done until the mid-90s) and that if you didn't want it known publically, you didn't put it on the Internet. And what you did put on the Internet you must accept responsibility for.
Even today, I treat everything I post to the Internet as public. Even on MyGoogleFaceSpacePlusBook, I don't bother with privacy settings, because of 1) the above, where I treat everything I put on the Internet as public, and 2) the people who run MyGoogleFaceSpacePlusBook really love mucking with the default privacy setttings.
Wow, you must be very young, i.e. 10-12, or have very perceptive teachers. I feel that teachers and other authority figures still don't get it, especially those above 40 who aren't in a Internet/computer-heavy field. And even young folks in the tech field still don't realize it (basically everyone who uses something like SnapChat too enthusiastically)
I'm thirty and have been getting on the internet since the first Bush administration. Even at the time, the first rule of the internet is that everything you put online is public. This wasn't just about things that you posted on forums, either. The assumption was that the sysadmin would read your e-mails when she was bored and that anything interesting would be passed around.
I'd put it down to where I grew up and who I grew up around. This was 2000-2002, and I grew up in Redmond, Washington. My first real Internet experience was getting a school email account, and they gave us a long series of talks about how we were supposed to use them appropriately.
Yeah, I wanted to study CS, but there was pretty much no chance of me getting into the very competitive CS major at UW. So I decided to go to a smaller WSU campus in the Tri-Cities. It's way, way smaller, and with much smaller staff, but for CS it's totally perfect. It's pretty much all taught by people who've been doing research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the past 30+ years.
It's a great mix of professors who have tremendous experience in academia and industry, as well as a small enough campus to allow random undergrads to spend tons of time working with and learning from them. I feel like it's a serious hidden gem for those looking to learn CS.
Yeah 10-12 is low-balling it. Someone could easily be four or five years older than I am (14), and have been hearing all that advice for much of their lives.
Yes, I'm 19, and this happened in the early 2000's. I think though that I got this advice a bit earlier than others because I grew up in Redmond, Washington, surrounded by Microsoft and people involved in and influenced by computers and the Internet.
They've been tracking everyone since 9/11. That was the day the world changed for online anonymity. For good or bad, it just is. Of course, the powers of authority (eg, teachers) also want it that way. You can see it in the language of fear the perpetuate: we are watching you...etc.
I feel like there's still value in hiding real names, if only to block the low-hanging fruit. A 1337 hacker can surely trace me no matter what name I use, but using an alias is practically effort-free and can slow down Joe Sixpack.
It also depends where I am posting, and whether I want to "own" what I say on that particular site. It's nice when my real-life compatriots don't necessarily know every darn thing I say or do online. They could find out if they really wanted to, of course.
When I joined the internet, there was Usenet. And Usenet etiquette (at least for de.* which is what I had to restrain myself to due to the general lack of English) required you to provide a real name, so that's what I've done.
This made me much less reluctant to use my real name later on.
However, just as my real name, my pseudonym also stuck and I try to get it whenever I sign up for a service. That way I'm twitter.com/pilif, github.com/pilif, even facebook.com/pilif, though I don't use that.
Unfortunately, on G+, I can't be /pilif. I have to be pilif123459 or whatever. Too bad.
I think the trend until mid 90s was to use your real name. Then it kind of changed at some point in 90s to nicknames. Now we seem to be going back to the early 90s when it was common to use your name.
German Usenet was and still is (in)famous for demanding real names.
In the late nineties and early 00s there ware huge wars between those who campaigned for pseudonyms (usually labelled "net terrorists", although honestly most of them really were trolls) and those who insisted on real names (labelled as "Blockwart": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockleiter).
Of course it's immaterial now. Most of the "net terrorists" left, many of the "blockwarts" mellowed, and in the end Usenet is dead and both sides tolerate much more than they used to, just happy to see a few more postings.
Internet .1 - Finger protocol - Real Names, everyone pretty much knows each other (or the organization where you work) and is atmosphere is generally very friendly.
Internet .2 - Finger is no longer used, malicious users and hackers exist, social networks become very personal (Usenet, IRC) pseudonyms make sense, not just for privacy but to usher in a new sentiment of power and respect through anonymity. Computer security is very low.
Internet .3 - WWW becomes a thing, people still use pseudonyms and generally don't trust anything for good measure, computer security is very low.
Internet .4 - WWW evolves for the masses/commerce and social networks re-emerge on the web (Myspace, Facebook), people start to use real names everywhere. - A new generation exists that was never on the internet before .4. Computer security is much better.
Internet .5 - Pseudonyms don't become popular again thanks to the general ignorance of the tube watchers.
It was less "your real name" than "your well known userid". Hence: rms, dmr, ken. Often but not always your initials, first name, or first initial + last name.
Enough for your friends (and early on everyone knew everyone) to know who you were. But comprehensive archives weren't generally available (there's a reason kibo was so notable).
I think part of the flight from Facebook and Google+ into smaller social networks which don't require such identifying details is due to this desire for pseudo-anonymity. That said, it's no IRC. And many forums I frequented years ago have long since been destroyed. Perhaps that's why teens are also digging Snapchat, and services like it. A way to communicate without being tracked.
I use my real name on IRC. 100% of my IRC is dev related or similar on things I want people to know I'm involved in in some way. Just use a simple letter.surname handle.
DrStalker is based on my real surname and would be very easy to trace to my real name/employment details/the city I'm in with a few minutes of effort. I'm sure someone with a bit more time could get a lot more information than that. This helps remind me that everything online can be traced back to me, so don't be an asshole in situations where you wouldn't be an asshole face to face.
I settled on this after going through lots of different nicknames in the 90s, when the internet was a very different place.
At a guess, you're @mrspeaker on Twitter which means you and I met at a local event a few years ago, but I still don't know / can't remember who you are! Funny how that works.
I'll say this about the new ways: I'm extremely glad that I didn't have my teenage years documented and archived. Dodged that bullet!