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Original poster

Have you ever recognised or been recognised on MN?

167 replies

Spidey66 · 21/02/2021 13:22

This thread is inspired by people "namechanging because this is outing'"

Have you ever recognised or been recognised by someone on MN? Have you ever thought "that's my friend/sister/mum/colleague" because of something posted here? Or had someone in real life say they recognised a post here as being you?

OP posts:
DioneTheDiabolist · 21/02/2021 13:23

No. No one I know uses Mumsnet.

skeggycaggy · 21/02/2021 13:23

Yes, I’ve recognised people on MN. Don’t know if anyone has recognised me though!

Doimatter · 21/02/2021 13:24

I was recognised on a Facebook group. I got a message saying are you xxxx from MN. I said no . But it scared me

MrsSpenserGregson · 21/02/2021 13:25

I was the Maui bride Grin

FinallyFluid · 21/02/2021 13:26

One hundred years ago, someone posted photos of a MN meet up, someone at slimming world mentioned it to me. That freaked me out.

Piinkjuice · 21/02/2021 13:28

I’ve got a colleague and we chat about things at work and then I see a post on MN with the exact same details but some of the personal details have been changed. Im 99.999 percent sure it’s not her but I still find it so odd 😂

Piinkjuice · 21/02/2021 13:30

I did have it once when someone commented that they thought they knew me in real life. I was complaining about a work bully and they seemed to agree with me. I’ll never know if it was legitimate or not.

JosephineBaker · 21/02/2021 13:37

I think I've recognised two people here from RL. That was a bit weird.

Alicenwonderland · 21/02/2021 13:40

I joined because a friend told me my neighbour was the subject of a nasty post. It was such a massively unique situation there was no way it could be anyone but her. I told the neighbour, she joined and it all blew up! I've been on ever since although there's no way on earth I'd tell the neighbour now! It definitely had daily mail potential! I was very green about Mumsnet at the time!

Twickerhun · 21/02/2021 13:42

Yeah I have recognised people here, and kept quiet. My SIL is on here but denies it.

Someone recognised me. They posted my own name on my baby names thread (under a different username) and asked if I had thought about using my first name and second name and posted it with a laughing face. No idea who that was but who ever it was - HI!

Dogsaresomucheasier · 21/02/2021 13:43

I know a few people use mumsnet and may well recognise me. I think I’ve recognised my department head on here. I name change if I’m posting something very sensitive.

ImAncient · 21/02/2021 13:47

Yes on a schools one. I recognised at least 3 people. I name change regularly because of it. I had a different name as well for the schools one in case. If I’m posting about something local or about where I’m from originally I have different names for that also. I’ve been on here for years & name change regularly.

saraclara · 21/02/2021 13:49

I've been recognised very recently. It was no problem at all, and enabled me to reconnect with someone from a past forum, which was nice.
Given that I've posted stuff that is reasonably identifying I expected it to happen at some point. I don't make personal OPs though, so there's not really anything that could blow up in real life.

I imagine that I've been spotted by others too, but they just haven't said anything yet.

ParkheadParadise · 21/02/2021 13:50

I was once asked by a neighbour if I was on MN.
What I had posted was very identifying. She didn't offer to tell me her username😜🤪
She's never mentioned it again.

Kangaroo1 · 21/02/2021 13:50

Yes, I recognised my SIL. Have used all my willpower not to search for her username to be nosy 😁

Waxonwaxoff0 · 21/02/2021 13:51

I recognised a Facebook acquaintance as she posted the exact same status as a post on here. Never been recognised myself that I know of.

Sideorderofchips · 21/02/2021 13:51

Yes I've recognised the ow a couple of times on here and each time I've replied it's been removed due to privacy concerns 🤷‍♀️

SkepticalCat · 21/02/2021 13:52

I've recognised two people on here. One was years ago - I recognised a situation she was posting about, I clicked her profile and there was a photograph of herself. Another was more recently, again because they had posted about a situation they had discussed the same day in real life (very specific, but not a particularly personal situation). I read the post, clocked that I knew who they are, but promptly decided to 'forget' I'd seen it. No searching their username etc. I've now forgotten the username anyway.

Ch3rish · 21/02/2021 13:54

No but just left week I did search someone's posts after they'd posted on a neighbour issue thread as what they'd posted could have been about one of my neighbors. From her other posts she was quite open about living in London, nowhere near me, so just a conincidence which I'm sure must happen a lot

Tingalingle · 21/02/2021 13:54

Yes, twice.

I’ve also been messaged by someone who confidently identified me as ‘Cathy from the holiday place’ (nope), so clearly my highly identifiable details are shared with my doppelgänger.

LApprentiSorcier · 21/02/2021 13:55

I was on a thread once that was referring to an area. I commented and then as the thread progressed it transpired the area was about 5 minutes from my house. Lots of posters coming on saying 'I walk past there every day' etc. I kept quiet but I did drive myself mad wondering if any of the other posters were people I knew (not a big city or a tourist area so unlikely you'd be there unless you lived nearby).

Velvian · 21/02/2021 13:58

I recognised my SIL. No one has ever said they have recognised me, but I'm pretty lazy with identifying details and name changing these days.

WellTidy · 21/02/2021 14:02

Yea. I posted about DS who has special needs, asking for information to help and giving the information I could to other posters - I think it may have been about schools. A former work colleague and a once good friend who id list no contact with got in touch out of the blue to ask if I was WellTidy. I thought I might as well confirm I was, but I didn’t like it. At one stage I thought it was nice as it was an opportunity to renew the friendship, but that wasn’t forthcoming and it made me sad as I was clearly in a bad place with DS’ special needs and she obviously knew that from my posts.

ParkheadParadise · 21/02/2021 14:07

@Kangaroo1
I would need to have a nosy😄

If I knew any of my SIL's were on here I would be stalking them to make sure they weren't bad-mouthing my brothers😉😉

MissDollyMix · 21/02/2021 14:08

I ‘recognised’ the mother of one of DS’s friends. I haven’t said anything to her though. To be fair, she doesn’t post that often.