Offline Names Addressing Online Community Web Pages

Abstract

Avoidance criteria are obtained and used to help prevent offline encounters between members of an online community by limiting online communications between members who share some aspect of offline life, thereby reducing the risk of offline encounters that could otherwise arise from online interaction. For each member of the online community, a system provider obtains one or more avoidance criteria ratified by the member and associates them with the member. Avoidance criteria include aspects of the member's offline life, such as geographic regions in which the member resides or plans to travel, organizations in which the member is active, and other interests and activities of the member. Respective avoidance criteria of different members are compared to determine whether the members share at least one avoidance criterion. Online communication between members who share an avoidance criterion is automatically limited.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 - 24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . A computerized method for use by an online service provider for online identity management, the method comprising:
 a computer system reading a user's offline identity information from secure storage;   the computer system automatically generating from the user's offline identity information a proposed web address which includes at least a portion of the user's offline identity information; and   the computer system displaying the proposed web address to the user.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the user has multiple online identities managed by the online service provider. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the computer system automatically generates from the user's offline identity information a proposed web address which includes at least one of the following: the user's offline personal name, the user's offline family name. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the computer system automatically generates from the user's offline identity information a proposed web address which includes the user's offline legal name. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system gathering offline identity information from the user during registration of the user as a member of an online community. 
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system informing the user that entering an offline name is required to participate in an online community. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system requiring that the user accept a level of offline encounter risk before the user can participate fully in an online community, where the level offline encounter risk represents the user's willingness to risk encountering offline some other member of the online community. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system accepting the proposed web address from the user. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the proposed web address includes an offline name of the user, and the method further comprises the computer system using the proposed web address in a social network. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the proposed web address includes a nickname of the user, and the method further comprises the computer system using the proposed web address in a social network. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system subsequently disabling the proposed web address. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system subsequently disabling the proposed web address without notifying the user. 
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the method further comprises the computer system changing the proposed web address. 
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the computer system uses the proposed web address as a web address of a personal web page of the user. 
     
     
         39 . A computerized method for use by an online service provider for online identity management, the method comprising:
 a computer system reading a user's offline name from offline identity information located in a secure storage;   the computer system automatically generating a web address which includes at least a portion of the user's offline name; and   the computer system managing access to a web page in an online community using the generated web address.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the computer system uses the generated web address as a web address of a personal web page of the user in a social network. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the online community is part of a social network. 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the user has multiple online identities managed at least in part by the online service provider. 
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the computer system reads the user's offline name from offline identity information located in a database of user registrations in the secure storage. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the computer system manages access to a web page of the user in a social network using the generated web address.