Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I’ve been on the Internet for over two decades.
My early forays on my own equipment were with dial-up modems that were hooked up to an old Apple MacIntosh with two floppy drives. A 30MB hard drive would have cost something like $300, and that was out of my price range at the time. I mostly connected to eff.net and forums via WWIVnet, though I spent more time on local boards playing Legend of the Red Dragon or Operation Overkill II.
Man I loved those games. But I digress.
I never was a programmer. I talked and posted and debated and created on a few Usenet newsgroups, using a different pseudonym than I have now. I never had the drive to build a business or even create a website. I still don’t have one, even after all these years.
I’ve used this pseudonym for the better part of two decades, picking it up after moving to my current area where somebody else used that same pseudonym locally. I still use it elsewhere. I’ll still be using it here from time to time, I expect.
However, as I’ve gotten older, I realized something. A pseudonym does provide you with protection when you need it, but sometimes you have more impact when you use your real name.
When I first posted here I was torn between using my name and using my pseudonym. I wasn’t ready to use my name yet. I felt that the message was more important than the messenger. I still believe this is true, but I have lacked impact at times when I felt I needed more of it.
Recently I’ve wanted that impact. I contacted dkos support about it but never heard back.
In recent years I have tired of not having that impact. Names matter.
And speaking of names and namecalling... All the bitter feuding back and forth between Clintonians and Sanderistas has been another frustrating factor for me here on dkos.
For the record I am a Sanderista who has decried attacks on Hillary. I continue to be such.
I expect more reasoned arguments and less vitriol from my political allies because I know we work from more reason and more compassion. I’m dismayed by the sniping and personal attacks. We’re better than this.
I’ve written here very little during the past year plus. I’ve been answering questions on Quora instead. If you have a good sense of my writing style you may figure me out very quickly there if you go to the proper topics. Most of my writing has gone over there because the site is jam-packed with writing prompts, which are very good for me. I do plan on writing here again, but only when I have a new account set up with my real name. I may crosspost some content between here and Quora—there are some excellent posts there. I will still read people’s posts here on dkos while I figure things out but I will skip the comments section. I won’t miss the infighting.
Until then, au revoir.