archebuld2
I've been hesitant to post this, as I've still not yet been rumbled on it.

A while back, in March 2002, I joined a forum. At the time, I was a wee child with merely 15 years and three months of life behind me. I had come to realise, through reading, that the young were poorly tolerated on these forums, frequently mocked and derided.

So, I "invented" a person to be. For ease of calculation, I decided this person was born in 1980. This made me 22, rather than 15. Much more respectable, I reasoned.

The lie grew from there. I don't recall exactly why, but I reasoned it'd be cool to be a Japanese person, living in Britain, on this British forum. I created a back story, a job, and a persona. The persona was loosely based on my own, the back story and job bore no resemblance to my own.

As the forum grew and aged, much like this one, it developed a core of main users. I remember the names still.

darth_diggler, creamerybutter, Cherry_Eater, Fred_Durst_101, Oi_Oi_Spanky, sixshot6, Escaped_Monkey, Darth_Morbus.. apologies to any I've missed, but these stick most in my mind, and I know one or two also post on b3ta.

I don't know if anyone else here has ever tried to keep up a false identity. Looking back, the feeling is bizarre. I'd go to school in the morning, and be me. After school, I'd do my homework, have tea etc, and then I'd go online and become somebody else. Psychologically, it might have been an escape from what was- at the time- quite an unhappy life for me.

As time carried on, though, my avatar's life became more complex. He found a wife and got married. His mother died. He had a child. Somehow, I managed to keep this life up, and I managed to not get rumbled.

Couple of years ago, I got my first proper job, and I was studying at the same time, with a girlfriend; I simply stopped coming online as much, and when I was online, I didn't fancy maintaining a second life. My own life had become better, so I didn't really need the escape.

I still pop back now and then, but it's only really to see who I still recognise on there. I feel 6 years of this fantasy is quite a long time, so I guess I'm now "coming clean", and putting it behind me completely.

I feel quite bad for having deceived so many people, but I also realise it's only online, and doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. I guess quite a few of them began to suspect I wasn't who I claimed to be.

Apologies for taking so long to kill him, but archebuld2 is finally dead.
( Thinker, Mon 14 Jul 2008, 11:15, Reply)