Discussion on:

Is your online doppleganger a plus or a minus?

Im actually one of those unfortunate people who apparently DOES have a doppelganger in the porn industry.

Beyond that, despite my long held beliefs to the contrary there are actually TONS of people with my name, and in a strange twist of fate an inordinate number of them are related to IT in some way or another.

I find though that if people will do as little as attach the geographical area where I live to the search criteria my problems go away, and my personal website, linkedin account, and some other generally positive stuff hop right to the top.

You're right. And I think most people would know that the extremes of name matches (porn industry personnel) can be discounted. It's when the fields are related as in, as you say, IT that things could get a little more complicated.

I found at least two dopplegangers... one was like me, a relatively well-traveled IT professional (he's into hardware systems, I'm into software development) who also engages in a variety of sports (we both do team sports and outdoor stuff) and is an amateur musician (I play drums, he does guitars). It's so freaky at first as he was also my age! But all is well as he seems to have a good reputation.

However, I did find another doppleganger, younger than I am who is a suspected murderer. Fortunately, I've never been to the place where he supposedly committed the crime (honest!)

Talk about extreme plus AND minus!

All you have to do is find a couple more doppelgangers that can sing and play music and you are all set. Then you can use your name as the name of the band.

Having a doppelganger who is a suspected murderer would tend to make people take you VERY seriously!

Ok, so I actually laughed at your post and the thought of someone having a doppleganger in porn. Then I decided to google myself. Not only is my doppleganger a pretty huge (no pun intended) gay porn star, he's currently in rehab for a severe drug addiction. I call that karma for laughing...

Eh, I hope your name isn't one of those stage names that are typically used

Hung Way Lo?

I'm the only Ed Woychowsky, it's kind of lonely. On the plus side, if I screw-up I know who to blame.

Hey! If we develop multiple personalities, we can enjoy the blame game!!!

We refrain from double billing.

... until I searched for it on Amazon. Instead of finding the six books I've written or photographed, I found seven. The extra book was a self-published, clearly schizophrenic rant against the giant world-wide conspiracy that kept my doppleganger from finding God. Very, very creepy.

Set up your cam to photograph yourself sleeping. Just in case it's not a case of the overactive id.

that is creepy!

Imagine if the sleepwalking double was actually more successful than it's daytime alter ego? That'd be depressing.

But as long as he's not working gratis, you get to cash the checks.

Nearly allways a plus. I discovered that I have two dopplegangers that are both university lecturers like me. On Facebook there is a page created to celebrate one of the others, so I added my bit to it. The only negative one has been a UK Member of parliament who spelt his name slightly different - Piers instead of Peter, who was involved with a young lady to the detriment of his career.

hi im trying to search doppleganger but can only find: Doppelganger. are these the same thing? it seems from wiki it is.

It is a german word 'Doppelgänger'.
So I guess doppelganger is the right version.

The original word is German. In German, all nouns are capitalized. In English, only proper nouns are capitalized; common nouns are not. When words from other languages are assimilated into English, they follow English capitalization rules.

that is the difference in the words, not the cap D vs small d.

I suspect it was the doppLEganger vs doppELganger that was the issue and not whether the word was capitalized. If we wanted to nitpick, doppelgaenger would be the better choice for spelling if the umlaut is not available.

Are you kidding?! Tell me you are kidding!

English is most likely not the posters original language, so I doubt the English derivative of a German word, is very commonplace in their culture.
I think it was a legitimate question, as opposed to an underhand slight at spelling. IMHO.

... and doppelganger. Mine are all pretty swanky: artists, PhDs and so on. You don't get me until about page 3 on Google. It's better than it used to be; I always got a probate case for a dead Texan as most of the first six choices.

...sounds like a pageant winner. Miss Spelt, like Miss Cornfield or Miss Sweet Pea Patch.

.

he is dead, from multisite metastatic cancer, poor bloke.

In my second life, I was a successful solo artist guitarist/singer/composer. I was even offered a contract - by the same manager that introduced Bjork to the world, no less. I turned down the offer, as it would have meant giving up a very successful IT "day job" career. Then one evening at a Hard Rock Cafe, I heard the proud announcement that they had obtained an autographed guitar once owned by a namesake I had somehow never heard of, studio guitarist/singer/composer "Wayne Perkins". Checking the Internet, I discovered that this namesake and I actually had so much in common that the hair stood on my kneck (even living in the same city for a time), except for the fact that this "Wayne Perkins" had actually performed for a while with the Rolling Stones. And to think I thought I had given up all hope of being a famous musician!

Interesting!
There is a Kenneth Spencer in the US who is a prolific writer on software development, ASP.NET, and similar subjects. As a software developer myself, but one with far fewer credentials and achievements than my online doppelganger, it is a plus for me!

The BBC (British Broadcasting Company) did a documentary once on the unfortunate addicts of online gaming and a specialized treatment camp for these addicts. A person with my exact name was interviewed and confessed to not having any friend or family life and being so addicted that he not only ate and lived while playing, but even when to the bathroom behind his computer game. As I was a self employed contractor at the time I wrote the BBC and asked them to remove the full name of this person from their online article on the subject. I explained that this was hurting my reputation and was costing me contracts. They graciously obliged, calling him "Tim L" instead. Now came the tricky part... Getting a reputable publishing organization to do the right thing is not the most difficult thing to do... But to get all the gaming forums and blogs that copy pasted the article to do the same was a full time job for about 6 months. I think my google rank is improving now, but a few blogs that carry the story never did acknowledge my request. Luckily those site didn't have the high pagerank that the BBC news site did, so they are now less of a threat. I'm purposely leaving out the link to any remaining occurrences as well as any direct quotes so as not to increase the issue, so please don't post the link if you find them

The first search result that appears when you Google my full name is for a Florida Sex Offender. At least they have a picture up but this can't be helping me.

http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/flyer.do?personId=7079

Mine include a Photographer, a University Graduate and an MP amongst many. On 192.com there are 200 (although few with the right middle name) but none of them are me.

Mine all seem to be moderately successful professionals. Photograpers, actors, athletes, etc. One is a drummer for a local band.

This would be a lot easier for the less fortunate ones though, if people stopped assuming everything they see on their computer screen has to be accurate.

If you Google my name, all you get are links, news reports etc to a famous runner.
We look totally different and I don't really do sports, but it means that if/when anyone Googles my name, they will have a hard time finding anything relevant.

all of them are a minus
http://twitter.com/search/users?q=Jan+Michael+&category=people&source=users
http://searchservice.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=sitesearch.results&orig=search_Header&origpfc=Home&type=People&qry=jan-mike&submit=Search
http://www.facebook.com/search/?init=srp&sfxp&q=jan-mike
http://www.friendster.com/searchfriends.php?query=Jan-mike
http://www.bing.com/search?q=jan-michael+guanzon&form=QBLH&qs=HS&sk=&pq=&sp=1&sc=8-0

Robert Duncan > Google search
About 6,770,000 results
Good luck finding me- I can't!!

toni, i have to deal with so many dopplegangers when I was trying to optimize my Web site

I'm my own doppleganger - a definite minus

I can understand the conundrum of having a name like Toni and getting letters addressed to "Mister". My first name is Jan (I am Flemish Belgian), and I got Victoria Secret catalogs in the mail addressed to "Miss". However, my hardship is dwarfed by an acquaintance whose name is Ashleigh. He is still furious with his parents and their admiration for "Gone with the Wind."

My name results in several university professors, a fortune 500 executive and a politician, but the top hit is a decorated military veteran who's name appears on "the wall," aka Viet Nam war memorial.

So I have a question, what would happen if someone is searching for me and doesn't find me? Or gets side tracked by what they do find? Do I look lame in comparison? I understand a bit about human nature, I have to think somewhere in the back of their mind this might work against me, in a number of ways, potentially.

Not having any obviously controversial doppelganger is a plus I suppose. But I wonder if people will ever be turned down for a job because they aren't readily searchable, or as some result of the search other than the obvious like a porno magnate.

What if my doppelgangers 'show me up?'

"I searched for you on the web and just couldn't come up with anything..."

Or "are you related to this army special forces Bob Smith* that served in Viet Nam?" (I am not)

Ironically "uncontroversial" could become "lackluster," especially given the extreme competition for jobs these days. We all know PMs often have '2 seconds' to sort the pile of applicants into 'for consideration' versus not.

These searches ultimately don't seem like a good idea to me, my '2 seconds' could hang on a faceless algorithm on a distant server?

At the end of "The Watchmen" Dr. Manhattan says he's leaving for "a galaxy where things aren't so complicated." Drop me off on a class M planet somewhere over there, please...

* not my name

One's a mid-level manager for a company in NYC and New Jersey. The other *shudder* is some kind of weird christian evangelistic cult member based out of Florida.

On the other hand, I've been stopped a couple times on the streets of Boston and asked by total strangers if I'm Stephen King. This is a strange weird world we live in.

Did you sign autographs and have pictures taken with the strangers?

I suppose it could be worse, there was a guy in my office who looked like Jeffrey Dahmer when the news broke. We were slightly concerned for a short period of time, but fortunately the real one was in jail.

Ever since I was a kid and was maltreated by a dentist, I have been scared of them.

So, when I went to a new dentist (an Aussie as it happens) and found to my horror that he was a dead ringer for Larry Olivier as he looked in Marathon Man, I had difficulty in sitting in the seat. My fear of dentists is probably phobic, and it took me a few visits to realise that he was a very kind bloke. Now that is the sort of doppelganger than I don't need to meet.

the first thing that popped into my mind when you said dentist

I was lucky, my first dentist was a George Clooney doppleganger.

For some reason, I looked forward to the appointments.