I write a lot of reviews (not for Amazon) and I do use a handle rather than my real name when it's allowed. It's not because I'm not willing to say what I have to say under my real name, and I have posted under my real name when the situation required it. I don't go out of my way to hide my real name, and a lot of folks who read my reviews know what it is.
That said, there are several reasons why I'm more comfortable with the handle. One I keep coming back to is keeping my professional name out of the flame wars and assorted nastiness out there. Some people still believe in guilt by association.
There are a lot of people on one of the ranked review sites who feel that their reviews are posted so people can tell them how great they are and expect you to put their reviews at the top of the heap no matter what. I don't do that - I call them as I see them. As a consequence, I get a lot of nasty email and - more pertinently - comments on my own review.
I have a friend who used to put that site on her resume. She's an excellent reviewer and also rated other people's reviews as she saw them rather than going with the popularity vote. People also sent her hate mail and left nasty comments on her reviews. She actually lost a job because her potential employers went to look at her reviews and saw angry accusations flung her way. At worst, they saw her as guilty of all sorts of horrible things. At best, they saw that other people didn't like her and she didn't play well with others.
I've been looking for work off and on for almost three years, and although I'm not willing to play the popularity game - I call them as I see them both when writing and rating reviews - I am also not interested in having all of the nastiness these people push out viewed by potential employers.
I also like to use a handle because I don't always have a sense of the quality of an online publication until I've been around it for a while and I do have some sense of reputation because, even though it's a completely different sort of writing, I do make my living as a writer. In addition, regardless of their quality, there's a tendency to look down on sites that don't pay terribly well or don't have a formal editorial process while I look at them as an opportunity to regularly write for publication on topics of my own choice and keep my writing sharp. My writing has never been so crisp. At the same time, I don't want to lose all opportunity for that higher paying and more prestigious work because they look down on some of the other places I've published my work.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-10-25 03:45 am (UTC)That said, there are several reasons why I'm more comfortable with the handle. One I keep coming back to is keeping my professional name out of the flame wars and assorted nastiness out there. Some people still believe in guilt by association.
There are a lot of people on one of the ranked review sites who feel that their reviews are posted so people can tell them how great they are and expect you to put their reviews at the top of the heap no matter what. I don't do that - I call them as I see them. As a consequence, I get a lot of nasty email and - more pertinently - comments on my own review.
I have a friend who used to put that site on her resume. She's an excellent reviewer and also rated other people's reviews as she saw them rather than going with the popularity vote. People also sent her hate mail and left nasty comments on her reviews. She actually lost a job because her potential employers went to look at her reviews and saw angry accusations flung her way. At worst, they saw her as guilty of all sorts of horrible things. At best, they saw that other people didn't like her and she didn't play well with others.
I've been looking for work off and on for almost three years, and although I'm not willing to play the popularity game - I call them as I see them both when writing and rating reviews - I am also not interested in having all of the nastiness these people push out viewed by potential employers.
I also like to use a handle because I don't always have a sense of the quality of an online publication until I've been around it for a while and I do have some sense of reputation because, even though it's a completely different sort of writing, I do make my living as a writer. In addition, regardless of their quality, there's a tendency to look down on sites that don't pay terribly well or don't have a formal editorial process while I look at them as an opportunity to regularly write for publication on topics of my own choice and keep my writing sharp. My writing has never been so crisp. At the same time, I don't want to lose all opportunity for that higher paying and more prestigious work because they look down on some of the other places I've published my work.
Just my two cents.