I’m constantly torn between having one personality online or having several. ‘Back in the day’, which is until 2005 when the wheels on my life can flying out from under me, I had about 30 profiles on line. I kept a spreadsheet of the personalities. I assigned them children, types of cars they drove, their computer types and configurations (I was selling computer memory and flash cards at the time). I would often times start a thread in a newsgroup or forum with one personality and then reply with another personality. Then even toss in a third one to get the thread going. Most of the time the ‘real’ public would then kick in and a long thread about the product I was trying to promote would ensue.

I began getting conflicted about this during my divorce and lots of discussions with marriage counselors about honesty etc. So I flushed them all. Their user names, their personalities, etc. All TOAST! Now I am wondering if there isn’t a happy medium though. Afterall, do I really want to have my personal life and my business life all wrapped into one online identity? I have some pretty ‘out-there’ ideas on things and can really get rolling on some less than politically correct topics by just a nudge or two from the community.

What do you think? What’s your stance on online personalities? Where does ‘honesty’ play a role?