I'm on a zillion different content sites. I'm starting to try, now, to consolidate as much as I can under the name "Ms Terri" so that I can cross-promote -- which is impossible to do when I am using secret aliases! Also, it's just getting too complicated trying to keep all the aliases separate. Plus, my hope is that being more open about who I am may make me think twice before getting into flamey internet arguments that I later regret.

In that spirit (gulp), I'm starting to "come out" with some of my formerly top-secret aliases. I've done most of my content work under the name
May Monten, and I started my life on the internet on Epinions under the name
AuntieEmma.
I look at some of my old stuff now, and it's really not all THAT terrible. I don't know why I put all that energy into keeping it so secret.
I think that I felt I was so exposed, on the internet, with my words available to anyone in the whole world. For someone as private as I am -- and who grew up in a generation before the internet was around -- it was very scary! It's only recently that I realized that no one cares, and that far from being over-exposed, I can yell and wave my arms all day long online, and still not attract any attention.

That's a bad thing if you're trying to promote, but a very good thing if you are fundamentally shy.
