In defense of your online identity

Fandom, Writing

online-identity

After our Otakon panel, John asked me if he should change his online identity.

On most social networks, John goes by @GundamGuy, a name he’s been using since before I met him eight years ago. As basic as it is, he laid claim to it early enough that he has it nearly everywhere. Well, except Blogspot. A few years ago, we found out about another Gundam Guy, an up-and-coming blogger and go-to source for news about the Gundam anime franchise.

The Gundam Guy blog is increasingly popular, so this Otakon, John started introducing himself with a caveat: “not that Gundam Guy.” Since John is one half of our own blog on a Gundam-related topic, there were a few times he’d mention our blog and run into an awkward moment when people assumed it was the Gundam Guy blog.

John knew there would be other Gundam Guys, but none that would become this well-known. Now he thinks it would be less confusing—for both of them—for him to change his name.

Still, I can’t imagine following that advice myself when it comes to laureninspace.

My whole life, my screen names have ever been very inspired. Age 11: Magusina, my feminization of the Chrono Trigger character Magus. Age 13: Renchan, a cringeworthy infantile nickname that I thought made me sound Japanese. Age 16: Decembering, a pretentious take on my birth month and… possibly nostalgia?

These were all pretty dumb, but laureninspace takes the cake. I picked it while I was hanging out with friends at my 21st birthday party, watching Flight of the Conchords. A friend told me about this thing he’d just discovered, Twitter, that we could use to group chat with each other instead of texting. Since it was just some dumb thing to do with friends, I put hardly any thought into it at all. As Bret and Jemaine warbled out “Bowie’s In Space” on screen, I had my handle.

I never expected that laureninspace (or sometimes, Otaku Journalist) would be the name by which clients and bosses alike first meet me. I didn’t foresee the Daily Dot, Forbes, and anybody else I’ve written for tweeting or retweeting it.

Post-Livejournal, I can’t partition my identity with pseudonyms. Thanks to the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, which encourage users to share personal information that they can sell to advertisers, you can follow me from place to place. Wherever I go online, my identity is visible to anyone who cares to look. I don’t think it’s really possible to split your identity any more. If you have a nickname in one place, it’s likely tied to your real name somewhere else. That’s why I think it would be a Big Deal if John dropped GundamGuy, at least at first.

I’ve had a lot of time to cultivate this opinion because this question of online identity is something readers ask me about regularly. Here are the three most common:

Q. In order to be taken seriously, should I keep my fandom work under a pseudonym and my professional work under my real name?

A. Nah. I got my current non-fandom-related job through anime fandom. Likewise, John got his position after noting he was president of the college anime club on his resume. I think my fandom writing at Anime News Network and Forbes is professional and reflects well on me. It’s only in rare cases, like with my romantic fanfiction, that I use a pseudonym and intentionally try to separate it from my real name—though I’m sure you can find it if you try. Most of the time, I want people to find the work I write under my handle!

Q. I am interested in X topic and Y topic. Should I combine them into one project, or go the opposite way and write about them under two different names?

A. As we say in Super Robot anime, combine! The title of this blog combines two of my interests—anime fandom and journalistic writing—because I believe that blending two interests into a more specific niche helps you stand out. Once again, there are some outliers. For example, my candle blog is an odd vestigial limb in my portfolio of work—it isn’t even close to my other interests, and because of that, a lot of people don’t even realize I run it. But that’s fine. Being online encourages you to be a caricature of yourself, something tweetable and shorthand. If you’re the only person interested in both X and Y and discussing them together in interesting ways, congrats, you’ve just become the go-to person for that combo.

Q. I publish my geek articles/blog posts/etc. under an obscure nickname. Now that I want to find paying jobs in fandom, should I change it to my real name?

A. Actually, I think having an unusual handle can help you stand out. If you have a name (like say, Otaku Journalist) that explains what you are about, it might be more descriptive than your real name, especially if your real name isn’t totally unique. Or if you have an odd Twitter name, but your account has thousands of followers, you want people to know about your ability to build an audience. The most important thing is that you make it easy for your potential editors to find your previous work quickly, and usually that is best accomplished by applying under the same name you writer under.

Creation is really tied to identity. Your identity feeds into your expertise and what you are capable of creating, and in turn your body of work supports and strengthens that identity. As you continue to produce new work, people will associate your handle with a certain kind of product. Even if you think the name is a little silly or overly niche, it’s your brand.

There will be times that your online identity no longer serves you, and John might be getting to that point. But in a world where our identities have fewer and fewer partitions, I say keep the goofy, expressive screen name as long as you can.

See also: Does “Geek Stuff” Belong On Your Resume?

Photo by Thom

Otaku Links: Sampuru Size

Otaku Links

otaku_links_sampuru

By the time you read this, I’ll have already gone off the grid! After Otakon, I needed a vacation from my vacation, so I’m heading out to a friend’s lake house to go boating and play board games for a few days.

  • The honest and gratifying story of how Josh “Comics Curmodgeon” Fruhlinger kickstarted, self-published, and actual made some cash on his DC-based geek social media fiction.
  • Aja wrote about what happens when shipping goes too far. It’s fun to imagine two characters in a relationship together, but what happens when shipping leaves the imagination and becomes a very real campaign to goad creators into making our favorite characters’ stories match what we want?
  • So glad to catch up with Viga at Otakon. Her YouTube channel, where she reviews indie comics and gushes about idol anime, just hit 1,000 subscribers, so you should check it out.
  • On Monday, I asked Otaku Journalist readers to plug their own projects. I was blown away by Jamie’s Anime Chicago, a 700+ person club—and academic symposium—in her home city! Their article on how the Tokyo subway compares to Chicago transit makes me want to go back to Japan immediately.
  • Just discovered the Five Geek Social Fallacies through cartoon legend Iron Spike. This 2003 post helps us question some of the awkward social beliefs we might have. I’ve definitely believed these before, especially #4.

Photo via Fake Food Japan

Blogging is a two-way street

Fandom

blogging-street

Last week, my Twitter account got temporarily disabled in some sort of glitch. It was down for only five hours, but I didn’t know that when I tried to log in and couldn’t, so I panicked—and then got embarrassed with myself for how panicked I was. It’s just social media, but without the ability to broadcast my thoughts, I felt like I’d lost a big part of my self expression.

Here on Otaku Journalist, that sounding board effect is even more pronounced. While on Twitter I can broadcast what’s important to me to 5,700 people, this blog gets about 12,000 unique visitors a month. Google says about 2,000 of those people are regular visitors. This is a personal space, but not a private one. Every time I use this space to share something, it’s looked at by way more people than the sum total of my family and friends combined.

It’s easy to forget that, with blog comments going the way of the VCR. (This is not a subtle hint to comment; I don’t comment on blogs much anymore either.) When I blog, I don’t think about the thousands of people who will see the post. I don’t envision a particular face. I just sit at my computer, alone, and try to convey whatever I think is important to share. It creates the perception of a platform where I am active, you are passive. I talk, you listen.

But this weekend at Otakon reminded me that this isn’t true at all.

These past three days, I talked to so many Otaku Journalist readers. One of you recognized me in the hall, and I want you to know that made my day. Some of you told me that you had one of my books on your Kindle, or were touched by a particular post I’d written lately. That was the me part. The you part was this—I know and follow and fangirl about so many of you! I’m your Twitter contact or your subscriber or I read your blog or attend your convention panels or sent you an email once while I was reporting something or we share a mutual friend. While it would have been a huge ego-boost in itself to have people recognize and praise my work, it was infinitely more rewarding to realize that the people doing the praising were people I admire.

It’s not so simple as the blogger being the creator, and the reader being the audience. And it’s way better than if that were the case. You’re an Otaku Journalist reader second. And first, you’re somebody that’s capable of awesome things that inspire me, even if I haven’t met you yet.

I’ve said before that blogging changed my life. There is an article about this, and I didn’t even write it. It’s not simply the act of writing online that changed things for the better, it’s that it gave me a place to be seen and heard by people like you. It’s given this awkward introvert a place to network and reach opportunities I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And, I realized, it’s given me an in for going up to people I admire at places like Otakon to approach them as an equal.

The very fact of anime being created half a world away means that American fans will always be people who know how to take the initiative—to form clubs and conventions and fan projects. While I’ve been working on my blog and my books and, most recently, the Gunpla database, you’ve been building cool stuff in parallel. It’s reminded me that blogging isn’t a platform; it’s a way for me to participate in a conversation that’s been going on since before this blog began.

Please use the comments to shamelessly promote a fan project you’re working on. I’d love to plug it in this week’s Otaku Links. I’m pretty sure I’ll already have heard of, or perhaps already be a fan of, whatever you post. We’re all influencers, we’re all fans. This is a two way street.

Welcome to the Gunpla DB Beta!

Figures and Toys

gunpladb-announce

Here it is, the project that has been in the works since January, and which I’ve been cagey about since around Monday. Turns out this is an echo from two years ago, and I’m launching yet another Gunpla related venture.

This is Gunpla DB, short for Gunpla Database, an English-language search engine and repository for all existing Gunpla models. It checks Bandai Hobby and Amazon for the most accurate and up-to-date information on Gunpla models, their specs, how much they cost, and where they are currently available.

Well, that’s the pitch. We’re still in beta, so we have exactly 890 of the 1,300+ existing Gunpla created since 1980. And we need help before we can expand. Here’s how you can use the site now:

Soon we will also allow users to contribute their own information and images! For now, we’re relying on a database algorithm we’ve been perfecting for the better part of six months. Hence the sometimes-blurry images—thumbnails are way more reliable than high resolution.

This project would not have been possible without John, who first came up with the idea after yet again asking me to use my basic Japanese skills to search for a Gunpla in Bandai’s database, and wondering why there wasn’t a site that would allow him to do it himself. But the real MVP of the project was our developer, Crimm, who provided all the database know-how that you see here and put countless hours into the project. We hired Crimm to help us with our vision, but his tireless work honestly became the vision.

So please, check out our labor of love. Just be gentle, since it’s still a work in progress!

See you at Otakon 2016!

Anime

gunpla-shirt

About a decade ago, Otakon was the first convention I ever attended. On Thursday, I’m going back for what must be the seventh or eighth time.

If you’re looking for me at Otakon, I will being wearing the shirt in the photo one of the days. (Probably my other self-made Gunpla shirt another day, too.)

I will also be presenting on two panels:

Friday, 2 PM — Anime News Network Q&A

I’m on this panel because I am an ANN reviewer, and also I asked nicely on Twitter. I’ll let organizer Christophe Macdonald do the driving, but I’ll be ready to answer questions about writing about anime.

Sunday, 10:15 AM — 37 Years of Gundam Anime

This is John’s and my first panel together. Well, first one since we led a Hanafuda workshop at our college anime con back in 2009! We had a ton of fun building a massive slideshow that covers all the highlights (and lowlights) of Gundam shows over the last four decades.

I will also be distributing the 500-odd flyers I had made to advertise my latest business venture, the same one I hinted at on Monday. I, John, and our amazing developer, Crimm, have been working since February on an August launch, and it looks like we might just make it. Can’t wait to share more, soon!