Me too, this seems disturbingly common here. If there’s some really good reason to stay “actually” anonymous that I haven’t considered, I want to know about it. As it stands now, “Grognor” is highly traceable to a real name. Some people use their real names as internet nicknames, and others (like gwern) use fake names that look so much like real names that you’d never tell the difference.
If there’s some really good reason to stay “actually” anonymous that I haven’t considered, I want to know about it.
This is a site where people discuss the the ethics of infanticide, PUA and politics in general. Unless you are very, very good at self-censoring, you will leave textual evidence that you can probably change your mind on these kinds of things, or that you’re willing to have civil discussions with people who have disgusting and abhorrent views. The subcultures in which this is possibly a positive trait are a tiny fractioin of the size of the ones where it is mildly to massively negative.
IOW having traceable views that are outside polite opinion can bite you on the ass.
Worrying about this prevented me from creating an account for a long time, but once I did I didn’t bother to avoid the problem. That was probably unwise. Now that it’s happened, is there a way to delete this username if I switch accounts?
Go to Preferences and click on “DELETE”, give confirmation and your account will be deleted. Old comments and posts will still work, but the account name on them will be replaced with “[deleted]” (you could manually edit all your posts to blanks, if you should feel the need to, but please don’t; it harms the blog).
I wonder if my username can be traced to my real name… If there’s a reason to worry about being traced, then I oopsed.
But I think that connecting my online identity to my real name has many psychological benefits for me—it prevents me from being stupid or offensive, because my actual reputation is on the line.
I’m curious about why you (and others) are worried about being traced.
Because “Sarah” scares me. Also, some things I admit there would be embarrassing for those close to me to know about.
Me too, this seems disturbingly common here. If there’s some really good reason to stay “actually” anonymous that I haven’t considered, I want to know about it. As it stands now, “Grognor” is highly traceable to a real name. Some people use their real names as internet nicknames, and others (like gwern) use fake names that look so much like real names that you’d never tell the difference.
This discrepancy is causing in me a confusion.
This is a site where people discuss the the ethics of infanticide, PUA and politics in general. Unless you are very, very good at self-censoring, you will leave textual evidence that you can probably change your mind on these kinds of things, or that you’re willing to have civil discussions with people who have disgusting and abhorrent views. The subcultures in which this is possibly a positive trait are a tiny fractioin of the size of the ones where it is mildly to massively negative.
IOW having traceable views that are outside polite opinion can bite you on the ass.
Worrying about this prevented me from creating an account for a long time, but once I did I didn’t bother to avoid the problem. That was probably unwise. Now that it’s happened, is there a way to delete this username if I switch accounts?
Go to Preferences and click on “DELETE”, give confirmation and your account will be deleted. Old comments and posts will still work, but the account name on them will be replaced with “[deleted]” (you could manually edit all your posts to blanks, if you should feel the need to, but please don’t; it harms the blog).
You’re gentleperson and a scholar. I suppose I could wait to delete my account until its existence might be dangerous to me.
I wonder if my username can be traced to my real name… If there’s a reason to worry about being traced, then I oopsed.
But I think that connecting my online identity to my real name has many psychological benefits for me—it prevents me from being stupid or offensive, because my actual reputation is on the line.