I have been doing this for many years now. I am "spiffytech" everywhere on the Internet, and that identity has extended to my physical relationships. In my college LUG, everyone knew me pretty much exclusively by my handle. This topic once came up there. I asked a friend who I'd known for four years if he actually knew my real name, and he had to stop and think for several minutes before he could respond with my name. Another friend I'd known for about as long said the only reason he knew my name at all was because it's in the "From" line in my emails.

Despite the fact that I never operate online under my given name, the fact that my username is tightly tied to my identity and reputation prevents me from employing it as a shield of anonymity to hide behind while I lob uncivil or disrespectful remarks at other Netizens. I don't generally feel tempted to do anyway, but I can't say how much of that is due to my consistent use of my username.

I've seen this bleeding over happen fairly regularly, actually, not just in the LUG. It seems to be fairly common in groups where people interact heavily online and less heavily in person.

(Also, hi spiffy!)

That's pretty cool. I wish someone would call me by my online handle.

Hello Brian :)

I generally stick with certain handles, having 3-4 at all times, some going back over 10 years. My HN one is unique to HN, though. I just wanted to check out the site so I picked any ol' handle, then once comments were upvoted it gained value to me.

Anyways, one of my long-term handles I wanted to erase from the internet and I succeeded with three exceptions, one due to my own laziness (edit: which I'm dealing with this morning), another because no one answered company email (but I eventually got through when the site was revamped), and the other because the company went out of business but the site remains online. It'd be nice to get my profile there expunged because it's slightly embarrassing but there's no valid way to contact them (not even via WHOis).

This is what I do. I'm 'blowski' on here, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, email, etc. It's a handle which stuck years ago. So although it's not my real name, it's pretty easy to identify me by it. My profile page also lists my real name and job.