OT Poll How much are you like your forum persona?
 

Ok, so the title could be a little better phrased, but hey I'm sick and tired so cut me a little slack http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

The question is; is your real-life personality similar to your online forum personality, and how close is the similarity? I've put this in a poll so I'd get more responses...it seems people like the anonymity of a poll, since so many more people vote as opposed to posting! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Feel free to elaborate in a post if you have something more to add. And if you don't feel like adding more info, please at least vote!

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

"forum persona?" Interesting...

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

In what way? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/confused.gif

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Apart from common sense security I act just like me. For example I don't even bother with a forum name except my own. I'm simply not the sort of person who feels it necessary to make up a nickname.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

I marked the next to last option because people should have a good idea of what I'm like (personality-wise) if they read all my posts. That means they have an idea what kind of music, girls, movies, and games I like. The would know I've always like model railroading, am a Serenity "freak", work in IT for a living, tinker around with photography and digital imagery, and like SE4 more than any other game I've played (except chess). They would know I appreciate good humo(u)r and clever puns. I'm competitive. I don't get upset easy and am a fairly mild-mannered reporter, errrr, person. And they'd know I'm married and have a daughter.

So, without boring everyone to death, I'd say what you have read that I've posted is a good representation of what I'm like.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

I went for 50/50, but I'm not sure how high the proportion should be. What I say varies depending on the context: speaking French around certain users (say, other university students) is bound to be different from writing English on a forum with different users. Either way, it will only reflect a part of what I am, and never the whole: these 3,000 posts contain some information, a lot of it repeated very often, but they can't contain the whole (just like after a few hours of conversation).

I also don't post all the time, whereas I *am* all the time, so some of my moodiness is unlikely to show. And I suppose there's always that dark corner of the self.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

It’s more or less all the same person here. Main difference is that in the real world I can talk faster than I type, so I tend to say more.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Do our actions in the various Cantinas and Bar & Grills count? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Aside from the mysterious cloaked figure with the evil sword that wanders in and out of the B&G occasionally, what you see is what you get.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

If Narf is really like himself on the outside world.....

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

...perish the thought!!

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Back in the days of pre-internet dial-up, an online service called PC-Link (it was dedicated to Tandy computers) took my given name and suggested the handle Rcon.

I thought, "thats a little lame, and need something with more style, right? Like Arcon, or Arkcon, or maybe Arkcon the All-powerful, ruler of the galaxy, supreme ...

"Beep", says online service, "You still there?"

"Umm...yeah, 'Arkcon', will work fine."

I'm actually pretty shy in a large group of people I don't know. Hard to make eye-contact, start a conversation, that sort of thing. But inside, I'm pretty much the same as my online personality.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

from the snippets of Fyron's real life that show through on #SpaceEmpires from time to time, i'd have to say that his online personality is a strong affectation - and that this is him trying to play coy.

I answered 50/50. but i dont try to hide my real personality - i have a strange relationship with my online persona. i try to type in a casual fashion, the same way i talk. i espouse the same opinions that i have in real life, and leverage sarcasm just as often. sometimes its hard to pick up on, online. sometimes im just not as funny as i think i am.

i certainly dont speak in monologues, but the format of a web forum encourages that kind of typing. im not always as loud or as obnoxious as my internet persona. i tend to use characterizations to poke fun at people, and to poke fun at myself. hopefully no one takes it too seriously.

i dont make up nicknames for myself; as with all real nicknames, theyre given to you by other people. this one was stuck on me about 20 years ago by some people making fun of my real name. some of my friends still call me "puke" in real life. it's embossed on a piece of my luggage.

online, i present something of a characterization. but i present similar characterizations in real life. the vast majority of people i have met in the world model themselves into some sort of image. some character they present to the world and themselves. they sculpt the way they talk, dress, and act.

sure, you could say "thats just who we are, youre not fakeing it if thats the real you." and maybe thats so. but how much of the real us is just an affectation?

I think this is a really insightfull poll, and deserves to be thought about. or maybe im just an overly analytical drunk. or the characterization of one.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

I really am a depressed overweight single white male who lives in isolation, in "compound" filled with computers, guns, quads, and the occational horse, cat, dog, and unidentified varment!

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

aren't the guns supposed to trump the varments? i mean, thats what a varmint rifle is FOR, right?

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

What you see is what you get, I have no cellar to hide in or curtain to hide behind. I have no gun, I do have a mug which is almost similar in a dislexic kind of way. I like to drink tea and often eat, hmm, another dislexic paradox?

Oh well, Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Cool http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Can I come and visit? I’ll leave the wife behind and bring my own firearms, ammo, and computer.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Well in RL I'm pretty quiet and calm which helps me a lot since I like screwing with people's heads during debates (keeping someone off balance in a debate is so much easier when you can keep your VOICE calm level and emotionless)>

Some of my RL personality comes in obviously, like my sense of humor (which is actually a bit more sublime and wry I know, at least when I'm not being an all out smart alec or quoting monty python http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif).

I am NO good with women (they think I'm charming and sweet and blah blah blah but they tend to think of my like a brother or I don't pick up on their signals till it's too late and then I kick myself lol) so that ackward point of my personality chimes through on these forums too. Kicker there is I'm a very empathetic person by my nature so I fit the "sensative tough guy" quality quite well. But I'm not enough of an *** for teenage girls aparently lol all the ones I know tend to date "Bad boys" which are really milk sops who would cry if you mussed their $200 clothes lol (don't ask me how I know that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif)

I have a rather deep reflective personality in private which none of you get to see http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif, sometimes this part of my personality does lend its self to depression or antagonistic moods but meh.

I read people VERY well and can tell you in five minutes of meeting someone if I am going to like them or not (and often if they are a good person or not) and am more then ninety percent right.
Best example is one of those "bad boys" a girl I wanted was dating http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I told her "He'll be in jail before the year is out I bet yah." Four months later he's in the pokey (probobly getting pok-ed by the real bad boys muahahahaha cough).

Oh yeah and did I mention I'm a bit cruel towards people I don't like http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Let's see hmmmmmmm.....what else about my personality is not something any of you see......oh yeah I get FREAKIN STIR CRAZY EASILY! I mean very easily. if I don't get to go to kung fu or get out of the house for a whole week you'll usually find me pinging off the walls and not sleeping at all.

That's about it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

I'm mostly an observer and usually have to force myself to make comments. When I do post, I tend to carefully phrase things to avoid misunderstandings. I do the same thing when I talk to people. Without even noticing, it can take me 15 minutes to settle on the wording of a single post. I avoid posting altogether when I'm down because I sometimes act like a totally different person and end up regretting my words later. So in general, what you read is all me, but I unwittingly censor myself.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Well, I put in 50/50, which isn't really accurate, since I'm pretty much me on these forums, but I do tend to shave off the more extreme aspects of my personality. Hmmmm.... That didn't sound quite right. Sounds like I have an Xtreme!(TM) personality. Not quite what I meant. But I am a bit rough round the edges in real life and for people who don't know me too well I can come off as well... an angry, hate-filled, racist, sexist, chauvenistic, arrogant, self-centred, cocky son-of-a-b***.

Which I'm not.

I'm a really friendly, easy-going, empathetic sorta guy, I just have an screwed up way of expressing my empathetic, easy-going friendliness. And it's not one of those "don't know how to express myself" thing, I just don't express myself in a typical sort of way.

Like if one of my female flatmates is crying over one thing or another, I'd say something like, "Ah, would ya shut the f*** up, ya big eejit", or "Jasus, f*** off would ya? I'm not in the humour." OK, so not exactly the nicest thing to say, but since they know me & know I care, it makes them laugh, and then they can talk about it properly.

Oh, and I curse a LOT. But every profanity is carefully considered to have the proper effect, and is used for colour, rather to offend, or to use them simply to use them. When I left my last job, there were a load of people who said they were really going to miss calling me for the way I used to curse over the phone.

And when I get riled in real life I tend to shoot first and shoot more later, while the medium of the forum allows me to cool off and consider my response. Otherwise I'd probably have been banned from the forum for language alone by now. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

So yeah. Who I am on the forum is more or less me but with the rough (read: offensive) edges filled off for public consumption.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum persona?
 

Well, I have no idea of how to describe my personality (online and offline), so I guess that says something about me.

I feel I can express myself more freely online, not limited by unspoken conventions or expectations (not that I ignore the rules, mind you) that I have to deal with in RL. There, I often find it's a struggle to express myself properly, and simply to be. Sometimes I feel like who I am offline is not necessarily who I want to be, but more the person people expect me to be.

Online, I feel I can be myself more than I can be in real life. I prefer the personage of "Strategia" more than who I really am (but don't go around thinking I'm some kind of freaked-up sociophobe), simply because I can be who I really want to be.

I prefer the forums to talking to someone face to face. Not that I don't like a good conversation, but I just like the idea of being able to express myself without it having consequences for me in real life.

I haven't voted. If I were to cast a vote, the most likely approximation would be the top option, but "Online I am who I really am, offline I'm not" would be more accurate.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum persona?
 

I believe my "online personality" is part of me and so I am compleatly me online (makes a nice circle huh http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif). I may type different, but that's mostly because I'm a horrible typer. Other than that, if you put me in a room with all of you I would be peretty much the same as I am here.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum persona?
 

I'd like to thing that I act the same way online as I do in RL.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

I guess that since I created the poll, I should also join the rest of you and post what I think!

The person I am online is essentially the same person I am if you were to talk to me in real life. However, there are a few differences. In real life I'm a little bit antisocial. Actually, I should rephrase that; I don't do well in large groups of people, especially people who I don't know. I tend to retreat into myself a little more than most people seem to.

Online I can express myself better than I do in real life, since I have time to actually think about and revise what I'm writing, whereas in real life you rarely have that opportunity! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif In real life around my close friends and family I can be quite outgoing and talk a lot, somewhat like I can tend to do online once in a while.

Next I'll quote Starhawk, since what he said fits me rather well as well, and I'm too lazy to put it in my own words.

I think online it can be a lot easier for your "real" personality to shine through, the person you might be if all social pressures were removed, and there was no pressure to conform to a certain mold. It's easier to say something that shows who you truely are when there aren't a load of people around to look at you funny when you do!

As some have seen in the few debates we get going around here once in a while (especially religion, politics, etc.) I have some fairly strong opinions when it comes to those. I also have no trouble articulating my point of view either, even if it flys in the face of what most people seem to think. For example, I'm anti-gun control and anti a whole bunch of things that are to me, morally "wrong". I won't list them, because that'll likely start a long and drawn out debate that we probably don't need at this time!

One final aspect of my personality; as you may have noticed from how disjointed the above paragraphs are from each other, I jump around a fair bit when I'm talking. Of course, this can cause a wee bit of confusion when talking to people when I'm talking about one thing then jump straight to another topic that people don't even think is related to the original subject http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Whew, there's more I could type but you're probably all bored to tears already, so I'll stop here. Not to mention the fact that my fingers are getting tired.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Not at all. 'Narf' is a comic persona I use for stress releif and cartoon humour.

Off-line, I tend towards monosylabism, stay in-doors for long periods of time, go for hours without saying a single thing, and have a dry wit quite different from cartoon antics. I tend to drift around rooms at social functions, generally staying close to the buffet, and am rather shy and introverted.

I can still set whole rooms laughing, however. Just not the same way. (The right remark at the right time, said with a straight face and just the right expression...)

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Hehehe, I also wanted to know, and somehow I'm not surprised at all Narf, it feels just like you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

As for me, well it's just me.
I like respectfull discussions and exchanges of ideas, but I'm also very carefull of my ironic side since I know first-hand it can degenerate very easily to misunderstandings in an online setting (thus, I use smileys a lot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif )
I can be very shy and delayed posting in this forum for years, yet when the dam breaks loose I never stop talking http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif
(I single-handedly have 23.5% of the SE5 Beta testers forum, and at some point I peaked at 30% http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif)

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Hey, welcome to the forum.

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Thanks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

I do feel like I already know ye all, but I guess it's my fault I've been mostly a simple passerby until then http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT Poll How much are you like your forum pers
 

Hey, I lurked for a long while before I posted. Not as long as you, but still...It's a good way of knowing what you're getting into.