Surprisingly, I am not the real Hans Rey
I sense an opportunity for STW to start selling Blue Ticks
I like to think that I've kept a fairly low profile on here. But realistically I've met a number of users, or former users. I've probably revealed more about myself to people in my industry than I have here. I reached an age where I don't much care if people know I'm a ****.
I've never tried to hide anything apart from where my bikes are kept.
I dought very much anyone is interested in me enough to try and find out anything else about me.
It doesn’t help that people are crap at using the tools built in to FB etc to make sure total randoms can’t see pictures of your kids etc
I had to remove one friend who was forever playing those "what vegetable are you?" and "what dog would you be?" and "I bet you can't name 10 places that have a Y in their name!" quizzes and other assorted bollocks on FB and as a result was forever getting hacked which would then generate another raft of friend requests and "will you play whack-a-mole with me?!" invites which was all the same hack/spam.
Disconcertingly, I've been recognised by a poster on here who clearly knew who I am irl. Forget who, it was years ago and hasn't happened since. Conversely, there are folks I know irl who lurk here sometimes and see that I post.
So not particularly anonymous, but luckily I don't post anything very interesting. I also try not to post anything I'd be too embarrassed about saying in front of folks who know me (I may have a high embarrassment threshold, mind). I also avoid specifics of my work.
I also try not to post anything I’d be too embarrassed about saying
I just tell anyone anything, that way no one can ever blackmail me over anything / cause embarrassment as there's pretty much nothing I wouldn't tell someone if they just asked...
PIN and banking passwords excepted...
there’s pretty much nothing I wouldn’t tell someone if they just asked…
Indeed. Not that they necessarily even have to ask...😁
I hire a short, fat, hairy person to represent me in public.
In reality, you may know me as a leading male model, amateur astronaut, world famous musician and international playboy.
Slumming it on here with plebs like you keeps me humble and grounded.
Not.
It doesn’t help that people are crap at using the tools built in to FB etc to make sure total randoms can’t see pictures of your kids etc
Nor does it help that those privacy settings and "I don't want to see this" options seem to get renamed, rearranged, reorganised and re-defaulted by app updates from time to time.
I’m John & for fun I play drums . I don’t use this ID anywhere else so probably tending more towards anonymity than not .
I’m on FB under my real name, almost never use Instagram, and never ever post on LinkedIn.
convert
usermames is a bit of a thowback really
The only thing I would say to that is that certainly within my professional/social circle there’s a bit of a revival of a wish for anonymity online. I know a good number of teachers that have changed their Facebook and other social media profiles to something other than their real name, especially if their role has anything pastoral or ‘management’ in it.
As a teacher (in a pastoral role), it's deffo tricky to navigate social media these days.
At my school and locally, it's less about direct abuse from students and parents. The big thing currently is ripping images, etc. from your accounts and setting up 'bait' TikTok accounts using them. It's basically the 2020s version of RateMyTeacher.com. Kids deffo pick and choose their targets and I think I'm clean currently but unless you go actively hunting them (and for your mental health why would you do that?) it's really tough to know...
I'm careful about not revealing too much info online but not obsessively so. Having said that, from just what I post on here you would know my wife's name and pretty much where I live (in terms of locality). I do have multiple SM accounts on each platform for different 'aspects' of my life. None have my real name obviously used.
TBH if kids at school found my personal accounts, pretty much all they'd have to work with is pictures of me riding my bike and various random photography stuff. They know I'm obsessed by bikes already and I teach Photography to them...
Hmm,
I have 14 email addresses, don’t have the same user ID across any forum or website (but older ones are variations), have only 1 social media account linked to my primary email address and rarely/never upload photos. Strava and here is probably the biggest insight into me and my life as they’re my name and give a rough idea about location and place of work. People on here will have an understanding of where I live and what I do, but little else.
I generally try to keep it quite anonymous just through personal preference. I'm not a big sharer of personal stuff on social media / online generally. I don't have a job that would be useful to share any kind of advice from on here so don't do that. I don't post photos of mine or my familie's faces on here and (I think) I have only shared a loose location of the region I live in. I barely ride a mountain bike any more so chances of meeting any of you in real life are very slim anyway.
Given all that, I'm sure someone with basic skills and nefarious intentions could soon find out a lot more about me if they wanted to.
As others have said, stuff posted on here is forever and is open to the whole internet. But then again, I very rarely post on social media apart from selling stuff on Facebook.
As IRL I am a shy awkward weirdo with zero social skills whatsoever, I find having an anonymous internet username kinda liberating and say stuff I never would be able to normally.
That said, I'm not massively careful about hiding myself here, I have shown pics of my fairly unique bike, have said whereabouts I live and other hints. I daresay if someone had been paying attention they'd recognise me if we met somewhere. Not that that's very likely, as I hardly ever get out on the bike 🙁
Oh and you won't find a picture of me, as I have a severe photo allergy :p
Not very, plenty of people off here have met me or been to my house.
Apparently I'm neither as old or as grumpy as I come across.
I don’t overshare, but I haven’t gone overboard with trying to hide. Never really done facebook, but finding it’s the only game in town for a lot of groups these days as individual and club websites have more and more moved over there. I’m tempted to switch my facebook into my own name after a few years as anonymous account. My real name is shared with a Hollywood actor, a bigshot financier, a lord who was a cabinet minister, a prominent gangster, an ambassador and big cheese at the FCO among others, so you need to be pretty specific or scroll a long way down google results to get a sniff of me. That said, I’ve met and ridden with quite a few on here and you are all lovely.
As a teacher (in a pastoral role), it’s deffo tricky to navigate social media these days.
At my school and locally, it’s less about direct abuse from students and parents. The big thing currently is ripping images, etc. from your accounts and setting up ‘bait’ TikTok accounts using them. It’s basically the 2020s version of RateMyTeacher.com. Kids deffo pick and choose their targets and I think I’m clean currently but unless you go actively hunting them (and for your mental health why would you do that?) it’s really tough to know…
I'm a little bit worried about this. I live in the same town and share the uncommon surname with my brother, a teacher.
My facebook profile pic doesnt show my face, it shows me skiing. I leant my brother my coat for his school ski trip, so at least some of the kids have seen him dressed exactly like I am in my profile pic.
Luckily I think he is well liked at his school, so hopefully I dont have a paedophile alter ego on tiktok
