In short: No. But it goes much deeper than that. When I'm trying to "teach" or "inform" someone I don't know, such as on PH, I talk how I type. I try to explain it everything simply and be positive and I like to question EVERYTHING...however, the more comfortable I become with said "student" I slowly become more snarky (in a fun way) and weird. I also have no filter on my mouth, so anything and everything will come flying out. Confrontation is not unusual l here :P Not to mention sarcastic and my mind is in the gutter...a lot. Everything can and will be turned into a sexual joke. I try to have fun. My first few months here on PH (full of negativity towards myself) were very unlike MICHELLE, and now that Im starting to get over whatever set me down that bad road, Im starting to get back to my normal self. Im 19, and most people who meet me think Im about 25. I hang out with all the 27/28/29 year olds at my Crossfit box because too many stupid college people anger me, if that says anything about me.

If I were the snarky, weird person on PaleoHacks as I am in real life people would think I was like the worst person in the world. Context is very important :P :D

I'm a mixed bag. On the interwebs I speak my mind. Around my friends I mostly shut up. I don't want to nag them too much. My family, I am always on their case. Work? I am a teacher, this year I have used Food Inc, Fathead and parts of The World According to Monsanto as film studies. At school I use my position to teach more than my designated topic, I teach about the "bigger picture". Some kids really don't care, I have scared a few of them into cutting right back on bread. Either way I have sown plenty of seeds of doubt in a lot of young minds. Ideas are powerful things.

For me here online I try to be authentic to the part of my real self which is relevant to paleo. For example, being a grad student is %100 relevant, but it has come up a few times. However, being a barefooter, and someone who has become more health-conscious over the years -- yeah, that's relevant. Whether or not I meet up with other PHers isn't all that important to me, but more so that I learn from people and have a place to constructively share my experiences of the lifestyle.

That said, if I meet other PHers, that would be great. The only other paleo person I know IRL is my mate, and a sense of community would be nice. But maybe that's why I'm so active here in the first place.

online im not trying to get laid so i guess im more genuine.

I'm equally bland and boring in both places. :-))

I do, however, talk about different things in the real world as my friends are other seniors who are enjoying my weight loss success and good health but have little interest in ancestral eating. We go to bingo, we knit together, we admire each other's container gardens and solar lights, we talk sports (football, basketball, NASCAR, golf) and we rib each other about little things that don't matter much in the scale of things.

I do feel free to talk about my eating changes, and I compare notes with a friend whose husband is diabetic, but I think we're all past the point in life where we're actively trying to change each other.

I don't spend nearly as much time editing and double checking things that I say out loud. :)

I am far more polite in real life. I tear apart misinformation with the same fervor however.

It's easier to walk away from people in real life...

I can relate to Gilliebean's answer. I tend to be more patient and give more benefit of the doubt IRL.

For some reason the online context makes me less empathetic and more polarized. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a different person, just that I'm more likely to think of an online interaction as an interaction with a statement itself, rather than with a person.

It's something I'm working on, because I actually really value being kind and finding a point of mutual understanding with people, even if our beliefs are very different.

Id like to think that people dont have that same bored expression on their faces when i talk passionatly about my hatred for all things grain. Would be nice to meet some people in the flesh though

Am I the same person on PaleoHacks as I am in person? Unequivocally, "Yes."

My professional life is an amalgamation of Personal Training/Health Coaching, Fitness Writing (print magazines/blogs), and Fitness Center Management. At home, often to the annoyance of my decidedly "non-paleo" wife, I "practice what I preach".

On this subject, I have found the following quote to be quite true...

"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything." ~Mark Twain

I am the same me in person, I think. I am very quiet and conservative though when people first meet me and I doubt i express that on the internet. I'm shy, quiet, and i definitely do not talk about health & nutrition with people. On the internet I feel like I have this 'known' about me and anorexia, which I wish never had developed because I feel as though no one will listen to me and every single question/problem I address is 'your still anorexic' or something.

I am me. I have been active in gluten forums long before I changed over to a primal diet. I have met many of these forum people in real life and they have always been just who they said they were. I bet it will be the same for my paleo friends. I was planning on being at the Ancestral Symposium but will have to miss it because my first grandchild is about to be born. I do plan on going on the Low Carb Cruise so you can meet me there.

I try to be less of a know-it-all IRL. I don't always succeed. ;)

Well, besides the fact that none of you can see that I'm 6' tall, cute as a button, smell really nice, give great hugs, and have a tendency to put people over my shoulders in a firemen's carry, what you "see" here is pretty much it.

PS: 4 of the things listed above are true. Hint: one of them is "what you see here" :)

I'd like to hope I'm the same person. I've never felt that being anonymous was a license to behave differently than I would in real life.

I'm me. The only difference is that I get to geek out on here in ways that would bore the crap out of most people I talk to during the day. My friends and family thank all of you for indulging me.

My real life account was closed for inactivity. Oh, wait, that's my line in Second Life.

I'm the same grumpy old codger in the physical world as I am here.

I'm a lot more assertive than I am in real life. Also in real life I'm the kind of person who usually keeps their mouth shut even if I feel like I could add something to the conversation. But I'm getting much better about growing a spine, which I basically have to credit entirely to my job. I'm pretty sure I also come off as a lot more brusque here than I ever do in real life.

I'm much nicer on here then I am in real life, I don't think i've really cursed anyone out or have swore once.

However I did this morning at work.

The same. Snarky, but generally nice. Kind of a hippie sap.

As far as advice I give, yes, I'm the same in the "real" world...being a nutritional therapist, I talk about nutrition all the time...but I am more willing to share things here about myself that I don't tend to share much with people in my life...most people I am friends with eat really differently than I do, and don't get my diet at all, which is fine...I don't tend to talk about being in lifetime recovery for eating disorder, but I think I've mentioned that on here several times, and quite a few people have told me they're in the smae boat...that is something I have some shame issues around for sure, so it feels good to be more open about it on here...

Better in real life

I'm too old and grouchy to bother with alter egos in person, or the internet.

work and home is 2 different people though, Mr. black and white engineering guy VS. beer drinking redneck playing with cars and guns. (I am getting better with the beer drinking though, Nor-cal margaritas for the summer)

Ooh - I feel like a minor celebrity right now! (But how could anyone NOT have realized that a picture of a raccoon holding a knife HAD to be Stabby? I think I just got there first with that one. )

As for me, yeah, I am pretty much the same me everywhere nowadays although I DO regularly surprise the people at work who get fooled by surface appearances. Once they actually talk to me they realize that I am NOT the 50+ standard American suburban matron I look like and that I am really slightly strange.

And as I get older it just seems to be too much work to "put up a front". I always used to say that it would be really cool once I got old enough to be considered "eccentric" rather than just weird - got a few years to go still I think, but I'm gettin' there.

So, if we ever meet IRL, I don't think anyone would have trouble reconciling the physical me with the virtual me. Good question, by the way.

My diet-related PH and real world anxieties are different.

I have 2 primary PH anxieties:

(i) that I will disseminate false information persuasively; or

(ii) that I will seem disrespectful or dismissive toward PHers with whom I disagree.

I fundamentally respect everyone here, and the idea that I would discourage others' opinions or participation is anathema to me. In the real world I am pretty sarcastic and abrasive, and I take great pains to make sure that those parts of my personality don't carry over to PH. On this front I do not always succeed, unfortunately, but I do my best.

In the real world I have different anxieties. I try not to talk about the paleo diet, but I frequently can't resist, and as a result I get made fun of for talking about it too much among friends. So my main concern away from PH is that I am annoying people. I'd much rather entertain and stimulate them.

The paleo paradigm is so radical that I've found I cannot positively impact someone's health via passing comments or brief discussion. The person has to care enough to commit to hearing a thorough account of the diet and its supporting evidence and theory. I find the issues to be intellectually stimulating, but to my surprise many of my friends - several who are smarter and more educated than me - do not.

Ironically, I'm less likely to talk about racy issues like libido on PH because I fear that it will get dug up by the wrong person and taken out of context. With friends, however, I'm not shy at all with just about any topic, which is kind of a shame because this is a great forum to discuss such issues and how they relate to diet. That's just a decision that I made at the beginning.

as in all things, ill defer to kamal on this. hes the only PHer ive met in person. there are several i talk to off the boards, though.

im fairly authentic on the interwebs, i think. i probably come off as more abrasive online than i do in person because im fairly outspoken and opinionated, but its all me. i know next to nothing about paleo nutrition outside of my own experiences, so i try to stick to that and the basic generalities. i love paleo, but i think my version of it is probably looser than many other PHers.

I have to admit. I'm not nearly as much of a blowhard about "healthy fats" and paleo in person because I'm still losing weight. I know it's kind of screwed up but I feel like I need to be at my goal weight before I can be really vocal about what a life changing switch going paleo has been. I'm 40 down, 60 to go. I don't plan on being an evangelist but if someone starts going on a rant about healthy grains or veganism in front of (or to me) me I won't keep my mouth shut like I do now.