fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2287 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2287 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

IMO, you are perfectly fine as long as you are not giving out your real location, name, birth date or place of work on public online sites. While someone making the right guesses about who you are when you're not signed in may be slightly creepy, it's not like they can use the information you divulged anonymously to track you down IRL unless your personal information can already be found under your user name. This means information you shared on other sites too, not just on fandomsecrets. If you are using the same nickname consistently, you can be tracked across the web and information you shared on other sites can be dug up.

This is what I think can and can't be shared under an online handle. You might be comfortable sharing more or sharing less, and that's okay. This is just my opinion.
- If I have a rare name, I will only share it privately with people I trust.
- If I have an uncommon name, I will never ever ever share it online unless I'm anonymous, I can use a different account that's separate from the one I'm using, or I'm sharing it over private messages with someone I trust.
- If I have an extremely common first name, I can share it.
- If I have an extremely common first and last name combo like "John Smith", I can share my name online if I don't share my location or my occupation, if my occupation is not common. (For example, "John Smith the cashier" is okay, "John Smith the NASA engineer" is not.)

- If I live in a small town or village, I will never share my location except in private.
- If I live in a small city, I will share it if I don't share any other personal info.
- If I live in a large city, I can share it.

- I can share my birthday if I've not shared anything else or if I've shared one of my common names + location.
- I will not share my birthday if I've shared my first+last names. Never ever ever.

- I will never share my place of work.
- I can share my occupation if it is common (receptionist, bartender), but I won't share it if there it is the only job of its kind in my location. (I won't tell people I'm a dentist if I'm the only dentist in my city and I've shared where I live. I can tell people I'm a dentist if I gave out my state/country location and there are more than a handful of dentists in my state/country.).
- I can talk about some of my experiences at work if I don't share my name, location, employer or any other identifying info. ("I am a civil engineer, this is what people have most misconceptions about with regards to my job" is okay, "I am a department head at my university and I see most of my students at the beginning of the year..." is okay, "I am the head of [specific department]" is too much info IMHO.)

In addition, I will never share any other uniquely identifying information. An unusual allergy (allergy to water will not be shared, allergy to peanuts can be shared), photos of birthmarks or unusual scars, parentage (if my family are the only Kenyans in town, for example), participation in experiences that made the news - basically, anything that can positively ID me even without a name.

TL:DR - You should be safe as long as you are not sharing your real name, DoB, location, employer and occupation all under one nickname, or your full name name+location or full name name+DoB. Fake info are fine. Fake info are great, actually. Using the same online name on multiple sites makes it easy for your friends to find you but it also makes it easy for trolls to find you. You can linking your real and online nicknames as long as you know what you are getting into, for real life drama can potentially ruin your online life and online drama can potentially ruin your real life too.

TL:TL:DR:DR - Practice safe surfing everyone!

[ SECRET POST #2287 ]

Re: All the personal questions