We’ve often seen cases where the people creating profiles on the various social networking sites, e-mail providers, and other outlets exaggerate, lie, or otherwise manipulate their representations of self. For the proprietors of these sites and services, it has proved to be a true challenge, often requiring teams of staff members to police their ranks.

The blogging world, on the other hand, has been somewhat more protected from impersonation (at least that’s the accepted consensus). There have been instances in the past, such as Belle de Jour. However, many of the authenticity of these matters were rumored though never proved true. But no more!

Suw Charman writes at the Social Software Weblog about a true hoax that has been revealed by the author:

A three year old blog chronicling the life of a woman called Layne Johnson has been revealed as a fake. According to the Mercury News, the Plain Layne Weblog had thousands of readers who were drawn by her polished, witty postings about “her relationships, her travels and her adventures at ‘Minicorp’, the nickname she gave her high-tech Minnesota employer”.

Layne not only kept a blog, she commented on other people’s, created profiles on social networking sites and exchanged emails and instant messages with fans.

Source: Social Software Weblog, “Plain Layne Weblog was ‘interactive fiction’”

So if you fake your identity on Friendster, your a Fakester. If you fake your identity on a blog, what are you?