For some editors of Wikipedia, having their "real life" identity discovered can be a major problem, threatening their well-being, careers, or even personal safety. There are a variety of steps you can take to help protect yourself from this happening.

1. Don't use your real name.
2. Don't use a name that alludes to your real name.
3. Don't use a username you've used before.
4. If all your usernames all over are variants on something like "SeismicGuy", name yourself "Fluffy Nose" here, if you've never gone by Fluffy Nose before--it should be totally unrelated to you, and new.
5. Use a unique Gmail for your WP activities like Fluffynose@gmail.com. Never mail anyone from this Gmail except via the web-based interface, to conceal your IP address (Gmail does not forward a sender's IP address in the email headers).
6. Don't even enable mail if you're extra nervous--you can live without it.
7. Don't edit any articles related to your job, known activities, or known relationships.
8. Give out nothing about yourself on a personal level; keep the job "on-wiki".
9. Never meet anyone from Wikipedia in real life, over Skype, or anything else that gives them more than what they see "on-wiki".
10. Exclusively edit using proxy-based Internet access, or only edit from public locations/connections, to conceal your IP presence.

The more of these ten ideas you apply, the less likely it is to happen.