Discussion How likely could someone you know "irl" ID you based on your post history?

[livershapedbox]

I guess it'd be obvious to my sister, but I wouldn't really care if she found out, at worst she might tease me about some embarrassing things I posted about that she doesn't know about yet.
There are other people that could connect the dots enough to suspect it, but not enough to be completely sure and they are unlikely to ever stumble upon this site anyway

 

[cme-dme]

Probably not anybody irl as I don't talk about mental health things very often irl but I have an online friend who probably could id me. If you already know who I am, my username here could raise eyebrows if you know what you're looking for. I also have talked about my interests, likes and dislikes on here before which could all be used to id me. I used to have my birthday public on my profile but I disabled that because it's far too precise of a data point to have out in the open.

 

[Eriktf]

yes some might but i dont think they even know of SS and if they do i dont think they randomy finds my profile

 

[FoxSauce]

Well idk if people really know me here in irl and I doubt moslty but im moslty worried this could be used against in the future not just here tho.

Idk if anyone feels like this?

 

[Malfunction]

Doubt I'd be identified.

My username is not one I've used anywhere else and I've not really posted anything revealing. My situation is also pretty common. I don't really share much in person let alone online to begin with.

If it happened, I don't think I'd care.

 

[SoulCage]

We could make this into a poll, because it would be interesting to see the summary of our data...

I believe (most people here seem to believe it too) that it's easy to figure out who you are, even if you try to be careful.

In the beginning I thought I was afraid about "revealing" myself, but I grew more suicidal and therefore cared less about it, because I might gonna die anyway soon (well so much for that......)
I was annoyed by limiting myself and felt better whenever I released my real thoughts. So I continued..
I think the people I know might have heard of the site, but were influenced by the narrative that this is a place of doomers and a cult. They don't know the real benefit of this site and therefore are too disgusted to bother with reading user posts. As usual... Influenced by media opinions and not by facts

The only thing I will not post is an active attempt, because I think that someone might be able to interfere. I would post it with a long delay, just to say goodbye to everyone here, but without fearing being interrupted.

 

[starboy2k]

If anybody I know in real life is also on here (which wouldn't be surprising because literally everyone I have had a conversation with within the past year are annoying family pro-lifers) you are one of the reasons why I am on here, I hate you, and I wont miss you when I finally off myself.

 

[Blurry_Buildings]

I don't think anyone I know would care, even if they found my account here. I act like a somewhat normal person in my limited interactions with people, and could easily explain this.

I try to change my typing style sometimes though. My parents were/are very strict with wanting me to use correct grammar, even in my speach. It's hard for me to intentionally not use correct grammar, unless I am creating run-on sentences, which I have a bad habit of doing whenever I type anything. I've been trying to change that recently by typing like normal people do, without grammar, and with the smile/ frown faces.

 

[EternalShore]

-typing style

hmmmmmmm~ rofl~
if only I had irl's who actually cared about me whatsoever, I might worry! xDDD altho, it's more so depressing really~ I've literally been on this site in class before, and no one cared~ altho, I did eventually remove the banner! hehe~ I'd be more worried about online frens, but at the same time, half of them come from here, and I've probably mentioned this site to another third~
oh, ig, there could be family members? But that'd more than likely just be because of bad op-sec on my part~

 

[Satori Komeiji]

I haven't posted much so far but I believe I've already revealed enough that somebody who really knows me such as my mom or my online friend could ID me. It's unavoidable though unless you intentionally use red herrings or obfuscate the information you provide about yourself and alter your writing style. I don't have the energy to do things like that and I also don't like lying, even to internet strangers on a public forum.

 

[Sprite_Geist]

Very unlikely. I do not have many people in my life to begin with, and around 95% of those who see me regularly are acquaintances; we do not know each other personally in the real world, so it is doubtful that they would recognize me online just from my writing/speech patterns.

 

[Dejected 55]

They would have to know me... they would also have to know about this site... and either have their own issues that brought them here OR be specifically looking for me. Either way, that would make them attuned to seeing and recognizing my posts. So, I doubt anyone I know would be here... but if they were, undoubtedly they would be able to identify me.

 

[mangorose]

Very unlikely considering this is my first post

 

[Carrot]

They would know.

I'm sometimes in a mood to hide information, sometimes I don't care to hide anything. I'd need to stay consistent for it to work.

I don't care much, I don't have much to hide.

 

[Anura]

Highly unlikely because I haven't posted that much and I try not to give out too much personal info online. The way I act online is also pretty different to the way I am irl, so I'd say I'm pretty safe from being recognised.

 

[AnimeSlayersFan]

I think people know way less about you than you think, people are just preoccupied with themselves. For someone to know who I was here, they'll have to do some detective work, but it's the same as saying someone you meet in real life can track you down and kill you when you are vulnerable, this would be probably really easy, people have stable routines more or less, but we don't live in constant fear of this happening, nor we wish to do it to others.
There's a base level of apathy that keeps people pacified enough not to worry about you.

 

[alwaysalone]

Highly doubtful anyone would know it's me. I do find that since joining this site I tend to wonder if people I know are here and I just don't know. A young man I was acquainted with committed suicide a few days ago. I wondered if he'd been a member. There were a few things I knew about him I've seen some others here say but it's pretty general. I hope if he was here he had some relief before he died.

 

[Nightfoot]

It's highly unlikely someone I know could identify me based on my posts.

 

[wormbrained]

borderline if not completely zero, not even if they were a family member. i dont share a lot of stuff here, i dont really talk to a lot of people irl and the ones i do i also don't share a lot with them and more obviously none of them even know this forum exists.

 

[SchizoGymnast]

A small handful of people I know really well would recognize me right away. No one else would have a clue.

 

[NoPoint2Life]

I get caught up giving a lot of details because I just think everything is part of how I feel and it shows how much every little thing overwhelms me. So sadly, anyone would know right away. It is scary.

Luckily I don't know that many people!

 

[Average Joe]

Edit: as I wrote, I'm not worried about this, it was more of an open musing to others, wondering if they've shared would allow for the to be identified by those they know! Basically - how obvious is it that you are you?

I've been thinking about this more since coming back to the site.
I've posted a lot of details about the critically shit events of my life, to the point that I'm pretty sure most of the people who currently or used to know me well since things started going to hell could probably figure out it was me, if they went to the trouble of sticking around long enough to be able to search and dig through my post history.

It would be a decent amount of work, but not especially difficult. I'm not too worried by it since at one point or another, I've told all such people about my mental state - met with varying degrees of giving a fuck.
But it does give me pause about posting intensely personal shit I've not told certain people or anyone about.

I'm glad you're not worried about this, but it is pretty important to consider as you have done. When I first started posting, anyone could find me however the helpful mods helped me edit posts and managed to move my venting page into The Sanctuary.
In my experience anyways, I just mention to a close friend that I have a site for venting. I think if you mentioned the site's name though. your chances of being 'found' would probably increase significantly.

I'd recommend that if you want to post something with intensely personal shit, you might be better off putting it into The Sanctuary.
It is something I worry about though, but not even on this site. Just strangers finding my information in general. If you have that fear then please don't google yourself.

 

[klantedklaw]

It's very easy for a determined person to id you. However to think that they are determined to id you online and not help you irl seems a bit far fetched.

 

[Celerity]

They could figure it out if they were determined (and masochistic) enough to read through my post history. That said, I can't imagine many people outside family who would really give a flying fuck.

 

[Cauliflour]

My artstyle is fairly distinct. I have drawings on here (doodles and vent drawings that are only shared on this website). I have drawings on my main online persona (which I've never shown here). If someone wanted to get dirt on me, it would be fairly easy to put 2 and 2 together. I think about it a lot so I try to be nice and keep out of drama but I've accepted that one day my reputation is gonna go down the drain. Hell, some people irl are starting to question my sanity. I'm just not a very good actor I think. Also I like to vent on here so there's that too. I'm never gonna be popular on any social media though and I try to stay out of petty internet drama so I don't think people care enough about me to actually go digging for dirt.

 

[CumbriaCTB]

Contributing Factors

• My location is literally in my username although it's one of the largest counties in Britain by land area so good luck!
• I've posted my age on here a few times.
• There are photographs of the interior of my house - no window shots though.
• I've shared my height and weight on here before. A 6ft woman stands out in a region with an average height below the national average.
• I've talked about being teetotal which is very unusual in my alcohol-centric culture.
• Most of the people I've associated with in the past had mental health issues (mostly normie attention-seeky stuff though) so have at least some chance of being on here.
• I'm well-known in my local community for being extremely mentally ill, evening injuring myself and making suicidal gestures in public.
• I can actually string a sentence together despite being raised in an anti-intellectual culture. Most people IRL would describe me as "very articulate" even though this level of English is normal for a native speaker (aside from the excess of colons and semi-colons: I love them too much drop them) who has actually, you know, read a book since finishing mandatory education lmao
• At some point I'm probably going to let it slip that I'm a redhead (fellow redheads should understand why that's relevant to my suicidal ideation) so I may as well get the word out now.

Negating Factors

• SaSu is blocked in the UK. This is likely the biggest negating factor.
• I live in the UK equivalent of a hick town so very few people are going to have the know-how to use a VPN.
• My culture creates a lot of mental illness due to its toxicity (I also suspect Cluster B disorders are in the local genepool at above-average rates; it would certainly explain the horrible culture) and I know I'm not the only "special character" locally. Hard to narrow it down if there are multiple town crazies after all.
• I haven't left the house since January and, even before then, I would barely interact with anybody due to social anhedonia.
• I've always kept my online presence completely separate from IRL aside from normie social media which I no longer use.
• I have never used a Herdwick for my profile picture on any other website and "CumbriaCTB" is obviously a username that could only appear on this forum lmao

If somebody here, member or lurker, actually knows who I am then I honestly couldn't care less. I'm chronically ill, don't need to job-hunt as I live on disability benefits, and have given up on socialising completely so my reputation locally is worth diddily-squat. The only thing I would actually care about is... why? I'm really not sure how the average Cumbrian would benefit from a site like this; the reason I'm here is precisely because I'm not the average Cumbrian which, then again, implies that anybody who recognises me on here isn't the average Cumbrian either...