"Reginald P. Smithers III, Esq." wrote in message
...
Richard Casady wrote:


I don't think using the name is necessarily it. There is a NG where
nearly everyone posts under their own name, and many have been doing
it for more than a decade. Nothing bad has ever happened. The place
has banned religion, politics, crossposting and acronyms. Casady

Richard you are correct, but this is what the experts agree is prudent
concerning cyberstalking, Internet Safety and to protect you from ID
theft:

http://www.sfwa.org/gateway/stalking.htm

Note:

Be VERY careful to whom you give personal information and where you post
information. Use a "nonsense" password that has no relation to you as a
person; use a combination of numbers, symbols, and letters and make sure
it is at least 6 characters long. Change your password frequently and
NEVER give it out. Try not to keep it written down. Avoid using the same
password for multiple accounts.

If you are a woman, you may want to avoid usernames that are obviously
female anytime you are on the Net, depending on the net.community you are
participating in. (Your first initial and last name combine to make a
good, easy to remember, and gender-neutral user name.) This includes
e-mail, IRC channels or chat rooms, bulletin boards, etc. Learn what kind
of anti-abuse procedures are in place in the community. IRC channels
usually have two or more "ops" (operators) around, who have the power and
authority to ban abusive users from the channel. If there is no op on a
channel, contact the IRCops of your IRC server; these names are given when
you first sign onto the server. Visit http://www.irchelp.org to learn
more.


Yup. I've known that for 25 years. Like I said before Compuserve *required*
sysops to remove any personal info. That was to protect the morons posting
it from themselves. And, back then it wasn't *nearly* as easy as it is
today, to do much with that info.

--Mike