GoVeg.com is in fact a person
Nope. It was not a mistake when I created this node as a "person." GoVeg.com is a real name of a real person.
"Please explain this malarkey!" you demand. All right, I will...
In late July, 2003, then 23-year-old Karin Robertson decided that she wanted to promote awareness of animal rights and vegetarianism as well as her employer, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)(not People for Eating Tasty Animals). PETA was running a website called GoVeg.com. It is what you might expect - a website with a wealth of information about vegetarianism and tidbits on different animals and why they are not quite as dumb as we'd all believe. Karin wanted to be more outspoken about her veggie lifestyle and her employer, but found it difficult to strike up conversations about it. That's where her idea kicks in.
When she legally changed her name to GoVeg.com, of course the name on all forms of identification from her driver's license to her passport had to be modified to reflect that change. Now when she's at the bank, airport, or any other public place where one might request to see your ID, she is predictably met with skepticism and questions.
"People are really perplexed," GoVeg.com said. "They say, 'You've got to be joking.'"
Man, typing quotes with a name like that is weird.
Questions about GoVeg's name helps her break the ice on discussing such issues as the treatment of animals on farms or processing plants to relative strangers. This unusual moniker change has been met with praise, but also criticism.
"It sounds like she needs to get a life," said Kara Flynn, a spokeswoman for the National Pork Producers Council. "If she actually went on a farm and saw what was happening there, she might be pleasantly surprised."
But comments like that haven't daunted website girl. GoVeg.com's mother, Melanie Robertson - a kindergarten teacher - of Culver, Indiana said that her daughter has had a long-standing interest in the conditions of animals on farms since doing a science project in school. When she was still a high schooler, the animal activist formerly known as Karin Robertson joined an animal rights group on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie. Melanie was at first not very receptive to the name change - obviously she liked the one she gave GoVeg, the same name of an old college friend of hers.
GoVeg.com's father, Bob, a fisheries biologist, who has had to adopt a mostly vegetarian diet after having triple bypass surgery in 2001, has also not been entirely pleased. He takes plenty of gentle ribbing from his buddies - some of whom are hunters.
To her parents, GoVeg.com is still Karin and always will be, but they are generally proud of her and have faith that she has a really good reason for doing it. But for those who are going to refer to her by her new name, don't shorten it: she likes the whole name together.
Don't call her "Veg" or "Dot" as some have attempted to do.
UPDATE 2/23/08: In August of 2006 she reverted back to her birth name. She said later "I never thought I would be Goveg.com forever. It was just a great way to pique people's interest."
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2003-08-01-goveg_x.htm