E-mail Not the Place to be Incognito

May 18, 2009 by Judith

When it comes to forums or message boards, even other areas of the Internet where one can communicate with others, using a nick-name or “handle” is accepted practice. Many times these nick-names reflect your hobby or interests. In these venues that is just fine.

E-mail is not the place to use a nick-name or handle or to hide your true identity.
The From: field of every e-mail you send should clearly reflect your proper name: John A. Doe or John Doe. Just using your first name, in the case of John can make those you communicate with have to determine “which” John you may be. J. Doe — you could use that, but it is a bit formal. j doe, john doe or j a doe — all small caps; not acceptable either (unless you are a gradeschooler). The From: field should reflect your full name in proper case.

Using a pseudonym, nick-name or handle in e-mail makes one wonder why you don’t want to be identified; what is it that you are trying to hide? To assume that everyone knows who you are by your nickname is not a good idea either. Not to mention that you could very easily be mistaken as a spammer and deleted. There simply is no good reason to hide your identity in e-mails.

But wait, I was just told otherwise the other day…

The excuse that was recently provided for this practice was that using their real name in the From: field “caused me much grief as my computer was sending viruses to my numerous contacts.” What!?

You deserved the grief if you were not properly protecting your computer and those you communicate with by using a virus program and keeping it updated. So now you hide your identity so that when you make mistakes people don’t know who you are? If you make a mistake be “man enough” to take your comeuppance.

I’ve yet to receive an valid excuse as to why one should not want to use their full and proper name in the From: field. That is unless you do have something to hide — and that’s exactly what everyone will presume!

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Comments

4 Responses to “E-mail Not the Place to be Incognito”

on May 24th, 2007 6:13 am

What if you have a personal site where your full name is not known and you receive comments on this site and want to reply without divulging your full name? Surely an email address with your nickname would be appropriate in this case? ;-)

I find a fair number of personal bloggers do not share their full name on their blogs.
on May 24th, 2007 10:34 am

Thanks for asking Jummy! I am specifically talking about e-mail. Blogs are an entirely different venue and animal!

That’s why I mention “forums or message boards, even other areas of the Internet where one can communicate with others, using a nick-name or “handle” is accepted practice…” E-mail is simply not the venue to be anonymous.

HTH! ;-)

Judith
Barney on May 23rd, 2009 7:45 pm

I think this depends on the context and who you’re writing to. If you have a relationship that works on full names then you should use that in your From: field; if you know each other only by nickname then it makes sense to use a nickname.

And if you’re using you’re email account to send a message on behalf of someone else, then you should really use their name and email address.

I think it’s a shame that it’s generally difficult to change the from line as you compose each email message. In theory you should even be able to put multiple names & email addresses in there if you want to share the claim to authorship of the message.
Judith on May 26th, 2009 3:08 pm

Hey, Barney:

On this one we will have to agree to disagree. The From: field should be your actual name — no matter what. Now, if you are communicating off-forums with those who know you by your nickname — I can understand that and all you would have to do is create a new personality or account reflecting as much. The key is to not try and be tricky or hide your true identity.

As far as shared authorship, all one has to do is state in the e-mail who was involved in the creation and Cc: them so everyone is aware if was a joint effort. Easy!

Thanks for your comments!

At your service,
Judith