So, I decided to make an account here

[Beleth]

Hi. I'm Beleth. You may remember me from such volunteer gigs as "My Four Years Running The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe Forums".

I'm mainly signing up here because I want to stake my claim to this username. I did this at the Atheism+ Forum long ago, and I realized that it was hard to appear neutral if I had an account at one place but not the other. I don't expect to be a very active participant either here or there. I find the whole situation rather counterproductive.

I do want to address one thing while I'm making this intro post, though. After I signed up I did a vanity search for my name, and I came across this from Dilurk last September:

A few weeks ago I noticed Beleth, one of the admins at SGU had started following Integralmath. The twitter exchange there was interesting as well. A supporter of RW following Justicar? Today I note from Beleth on twitter:

Beleth resigns

I do have to wonder.

I get that a lot. The reason I resigned really is the reason I gave in that post: that my current job gives me a chance to help a lot of underprivileged people, and I wanted to focus on that.

Anyway. I follow Justicar because he presents his case thoroughly and understandably, even if his style of standing in front of a stark white whiteboard hung on a stark white wall while wearing a zip-up turtleneck is a little creepy. But I follow a bunch of Skepchicks too, and followed Melody before she summarily blocked me. I like to make up my own mind, and I can't do that without getting both sides of the story.

[JackSkeptic]

Welcome Beleth, I assume as you've been here before you know most of the activity is in the Periodic Table of Swearing thread.

[Dick Strawkins]

Hi. I'm Beleth. You may remember me from such volunteer gigs as "My Four Years Running The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe Forums".

I'm mainly signing up here because I want to stake my claim to this username. I did this at the Atheism+ Forum long ago, and I realized that it was hard to appear neutral if I had an account at one place but not the other. I don't expect to be a very active participant either here or there. I find the whole situation rather counterproductive.

I do want to address one thing while I'm making this intro post, though. After I signed up I did a vanity search for my name, and I came across this from Dilurk last September:

A few weeks ago I noticed Beleth, one of the admins at SGU had started following Integralmath. The twitter exchange there was interesting as well. A supporter of RW following Justicar? Today I note from Beleth on twitter:

Beleth resigns

I do have to wonder.

I get that a lot. The reason I resigned really is the reason I gave in that post: that my current job gives me a chance to help a lot of underprivileged people, and I wanted to focus on that.

Anyway. I follow Justicar because he presents his case thoroughly and understandably, even if his style of standing in front of a stark white whiteboard hung on a stark white wall while wearing a zip-up turtleneck is a little creepy. But I follow a bunch of Skepchicks too, and followed Melody before she summarily blocked me. I like to make up my own mind, and I can't do that without getting both sides of the story.

Welcome Beleth!
There isn't really two sides to this story - the slymepit are really a loose coalition of people who have very different viewpoints on a lot of subjects but, in general, are more in favor of open debate and a diversity of opinions.

[Beleth]

Welcome Beleth, I assume as you've been here before you know most of the activity is in the Periodic Table of Swearing thread.

I did notice that. It's a challenge to keep caught up in that thread! And I didn't think a welcome post was appropriate there.

Welcome Beleth!
There isn't really two sides to this story - the slymepit are really a loose coalition of people who have very different viewpoints on a lot of subjects but, in general, are more in favor of open debate and a diversity of opinions.

Openness and diversity are good.

Thank you both for welcoming me!

[Apples]

Welcome, Beleth! - it's impossible to derail the PToS thread, and you can dip in and out as you please (unless it's Israel-Palestine, in which case there's a dedicated thread). If you introduce yourself there, people might tell you to fuck off and offer you a bag of donuts or a basket of snakes and some crab juice, but no need for formalities, regardless. Cheers.

[rayshul]

Welcome to the 'pit.

Congrats on the job - always bloody sweet to do something for a living that you love *and* has real social merit too.

I sometimes wonder if Justicar takes off his turtleneck, his head will fall off.

[daisyw]

Welcome, Beleth. Enjoy yourself and have fun here.

[TheMan]

Just popping in to say hello. A nice thing to do starting an account here for balance. Looking forward to your posts.

[The Burger King]

I'm mainly signing up here because I want to stake my claim to this username.

The Burger King franchise already has a stake in my user name :o

I've come across people on the internet who have done similar as you say, stake a claim to their username by making a account on a site, at which I do not understand really why people would care to do this. I mean anybody can make up whatever username they want on whatever internet site they want. Therefore are you going to have a stake in your user name on every website on the internet as well, maybe even in irc?

[TheMan]

I'm mainly signing up here because I want to stake my claim to this username.

The Burger King franchise already has a stake in my user name :o

I've come across people on the internet who have done similar as you say, stake a claim to their username by making a account on a site, at which I do not understand really why people would care to do this. I mean anybody can make up whatever username they want on whatever internet site they want. Therefore are you going to have a stake in your user name on every website on the internet as well, maybe even in irc?

Sauce citations needed

[Beleth]

I've come across people on the internet who have done similar as you say, stake a claim to their username by making a account on a site, at which I do not understand really why people would care to do this. I mean anybody can make up whatever username they want on whatever internet site they want. Therefore are you going to have a stake in your user name on every website on the internet as well, maybe even in irc?

Ack, no, not every web site! Just forums with a skeptical bent, and which come up on my radar.

It's a little paranoid, I know. But I've discovered that "Beleth" is far from being a unique nick on the Web, so IME it's better to come to a place like this and register it than to have someone who is not me, but plays Lineage II or listens to death metal or knows Middle-earth genealogy or knows what the Goetia is or has played In Nomine or has come across that particular string of six characters anywhere else, and then have people confuse them with me.

[The Burger King]

I'm not sure I agree with your reason and yes it does sounds very paranoid. Has someone called Beleth joined a "skeptical bent" website and has came up on your radar before? Have they posed as you on those particular sites? Can you not merely make it easier and deny that you are on that person on a particular website or even better post links somewhere on a website/s your well known on, linking your profile account to sites your also on as well?

[Beleth]

I assessed the risk and implemented a solution which, in my opinion, adequately dealt with that risk.
You are free to disagree.

[rayshul]

I've had my nicknames hijacked in similar forums to other ones I've been on. Occasionally my whole "personality" too. It's super weird. I'm with Beleth on this one. ^_^

[daisyw]

I've come across people on the internet who have done similar as you say, stake a claim to their username by making a account on a site, at which I do not understand really why people would care to do this. I mean anybody can make up whatever username they want on whatever internet site they want. Therefore are you going to have a stake in your user name on every website on the internet as well, maybe even in irc?

Ack, no, not every web site! Just forums with a skeptical bent, and which come up on my radar.

It's a little paranoid, I know. But I've discovered that "Beleth" is far from being a unique nick on the Web, so IME it's better to come to a place like this and register it than to have someone who is not me, but plays Lineage II or listens to death metal or knows Middle-earth genealogy or knows what the Goetia is or has played In Nomine or has come across that particular string of six characters anywhere else, and then have people confuse them with me.

It is understandable that you would register an account here with your username so nobody else could claim it. In fact, it is a good thing to do.

That Beleth on last.fm that you linked to is a band. Are you sure that they're a death metal band though? They're a black metal band as far as I can tell.

[The Burger King]

@Beleth

Can you elaborate as to exactly what the risk is, at which you implemented a solution to dealing with the risk?

[Beleth]

That Beleth on last.fm that you linked to is a band. Are you sure that they're a death metal band though? They're a black metal band as far as I can tell.

You are probably right. I stand corrected.

@Beleth
Can you elaborate as to exactly what the risk is, at which you implemented a solution to dealing with the risk?

Have you read post 11 yet? It's all there.

[The Burger King]

@rayshul

I'm glad you with Beleth however your not not helping Beleth. Rayshul you mind giving me examples besides anecdotal evidence? I hope you understand that I can't take some strangers word for it that I randomly come across on the internet.


@AspieAtheist

Yes but why not register your name on every site on the internet? Read down below as to why this may not be such a good idea.


@Beleth

Actually I have read post 11, and I'm not really seeing any type of a risk that needs to be solved there, but thank you for the reference as it will help me with this next part of this response.

Referring to post 11, I agree that I am free to disagree as well as I have a right to criticize your logic. You can sign up to any site to "stake a claim to your name", but after reading your explanation of your point for doing so it still seems that your being preemptive without good reason in your approach to the point of being paranoid. There isn't really a good reason you gave as to why you would stake a claim to your name from what I read.

In your first post you justified your reasoning to join this site because you wanted to appear neutral to "both sides". I think it's absurd to think that just because a individual signed up to a particular groups website that they must somehow automatically agree with what that particular group advocates, and that to become neutral to both sides as to not favor one group to another that one must join the opposing groups site (LULZ).

You then added in post number 11 a different justification as to why you stake a claim to your name. As when you google searched your own name, you came across names that are exactly the same as yours (surprised?). From what you said in post 11, these people could potentially join this site or any skeptical minded site with the same name, at which this supposedly gives you justification to your rational to preemptively stake a claim to your name. However if this is true for you, it is also true for others as well.

So would you recommend everybody else to be preemptive in staking a claim to their name on sites based on your rational?

To get more into, if one follows your rational then you should also vindicate yourself on other sites where another individual with the same name as yours has joined, even if it's not a skeptically minded site. As by your own rational your preemptively protecting your name so the outside audience does not confuse you with them.

[rayshul]

Hm, I'm not sure I can give you examples beyond the anecdotal evidence it's happened to me? What more would you look for?

I'm not sure I'm helping Beleth... she seems to be doing just fine herself.

I'm saying I think it's a good move. I'm... really not sure where you're going now with this. She's doing something, you've made your point that for some reason (?) you don't like it, and she's going to do it anyway so...

...profit?

Very confusing.

[Lsuoma]

Can I just say that this is possibly the most pointless discussion ever on the Pit?

[rayshul]

Can I just say that this is possibly the most pointless discussion ever on the Pit?

Agreed, this is some sad wank.

[The Burger King]

@Lsuoma

I find it relevant.

@rayshul

I didn't mean to make you upset.

[Beleth]

Can I just say that this is possibly the most pointless discussion ever on the Pit?

Agreed. I'm done.

[The Burger King]

@Beleth

No problem Beleth.

Faith No More - We Care A Lot
[youtube]d1g9PFtSCKw[/youtube]