When I first started going online, I didn't bother hiding anything. I learnt pretty quickly after I naively let my phone number out to some guys I met on IRC. That was probably the start of things, and from then on I was very careful never to let anything that could identify me in RL onto the internet.
Anyway, I started getting into fandoms in high school. In RL I'm far more reserved and taciturn with people unless I feel comfortable with them; in online fandoms it was a chance to let loose, so that was probably the start of the definition between Leareth and well, me. Later on I started to acquire something of a reputation online as a fanfic writer, and it wasn't for a while until I realised just how much of a reputation that was in some circles. My habits in keeping anything that could identify me in RL off the internet turned out to be a good thing when I received rather uncomfortable attention from some readers, one of whom despite living overseas managed to hunt me down and cause endless headaches when she managed to invade the forums and chatrooms I used with university friends. During this whole time, but, I didn't bother hiding my blog or any specific entries because I knew my parents didn't even know I had one or how to find it.
Moved to LJ a few years ago because Pitas and Blogger were irritating and all the cool kids were on in. Discovered the advantage of being able to lock posts and took full advantage of it when writing about personal stuff, again, because I didn't like the idea of airing all my laundry out in public not when I knew I had god knows how many fandom readers interested in me. In fact, I didn't even dare post any pictures of my face online, that's how paranoid I was (and given some of my online stalker experience I think this is understandable). With regards to parents, I had figured out long ago that they considered my hobbies and interests 'odd' so again, Leareth was kept very, very separate from me.
Travelled overseas, met a whole bunch of people from LJ who turned out to be amazing. I also met some readers who could fall into the 'stalker' category -- one of them laughs it off and is now a good friend, but the rest ...well. Made me rather glad that I hadn't really exposed myself online. Though overall the experience was a good one, and given that this is about the time I got into cosplaying which meant heaps of photos I even got over my paranoia of putting pictures of myself online.
Final years of uni, lots of stress and angst, all of it which I considered personal and therefore locked. This is partly because I don't like to expose my weaknesses; the rest is because by now it was second-nature. Last year, though, I found out from my mother that not only had my parents discovered my journal, they had been reading it for over a year. I found that to be a huge invasion of privacy because my LJ is where I vent, and there was a lot of parent-related venting during those years. That's when my journal went completely friends-locked.
Anyway, nowadays I'm used to the friends-lock and whilst I think I've relaxed more, there's still a definite difference between 'Leareth' and me. Actually, I'm so used to my online handle I'll respond to it when called, and in fact it's the name everyone uses for me when I go to M'sia and N.America. In any case, even if my parents hadn't forced me to F-lock my LJ I probably would have done it anyway this year because I am working full time in a high profile organisation.
............and wow, that's pretty much the history of my entire online life in an LJ reply.
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Anyway, I started getting into fandoms in high school. In RL I'm far more reserved and taciturn with people unless I feel comfortable with them; in online fandoms it was a chance to let loose, so that was probably the start of the definition between Leareth and well, me. Later on I started to acquire something of a reputation online as a fanfic writer, and it wasn't for a while until I realised just how much of a reputation that was in some circles. My habits in keeping anything that could identify me in RL off the internet turned out to be a good thing when I received rather uncomfortable attention from some readers, one of whom despite living overseas managed to hunt me down and cause endless headaches when she managed to invade the forums and chatrooms I used with university friends. During this whole time, but, I didn't bother hiding my blog or any specific entries because I knew my parents didn't even know I had one or how to find it.
Moved to LJ a few years ago because Pitas and Blogger were irritating and all the cool kids were on in. Discovered the advantage of being able to lock posts and took full advantage of it when writing about personal stuff, again, because I didn't like the idea of airing all my laundry out in public not when I knew I had god knows how many fandom readers interested in me. In fact, I didn't even dare post any pictures of my face online, that's how paranoid I was (and given some of my online stalker experience I think this is understandable). With regards to parents, I had figured out long ago that they considered my hobbies and interests 'odd' so again, Leareth was kept very, very separate from me.
Travelled overseas, met a whole bunch of people from LJ who turned out to be amazing. I also met some readers who could fall into the 'stalker' category -- one of them laughs it off and is now a good friend, but the rest ...well. Made me rather glad that I hadn't really exposed myself online. Though overall the experience was a good one, and given that this is about the time I got into cosplaying which meant heaps of photos I even got over my paranoia of putting pictures of myself online.
Final years of uni, lots of stress and angst, all of it which I considered personal and therefore locked. This is partly because I don't like to expose my weaknesses; the rest is because by now it was second-nature. Last year, though, I found out from my mother that not only had my parents discovered my journal, they had been reading it for over a year. I found that to be a huge invasion of privacy because my LJ is where I vent, and there was a lot of parent-related venting during those years. That's when my journal went completely friends-locked.
Anyway, nowadays I'm used to the friends-lock and whilst I think I've relaxed more, there's still a definite difference between 'Leareth' and me. Actually, I'm so used to my online handle I'll respond to it when called, and in fact it's the name everyone uses for me when I go to M'sia and N.America. In any case, even if my parents hadn't forced me to F-lock my LJ I probably would have done it anyway this year because I am working full time in a high profile organisation.
............and wow, that's pretty much the history of my entire online life in an LJ reply.