Have you read a thread and knew the person in real life?

[sheknowsitstoolate]

Have you ever clicked on a post and realised you knew who the person was? Did you say anything to them about it? I have read some and thought I could know the person but there was never been anything definitive to say it was 🫣

Yes, a couple of times, both from the school I work at - once a member of staff and once a parent.

Yes, and she was telling awful lies for sympathy. Needless to say I didn’t tell her I read it and identified her

Nope, but someone identified me from the horsey tack room posts. I'm very easy to identify if someone knows me irl.

Good idea! But now I’m worried she’s already seen this and it will out me even more 😄

Ooh what’s sock puppeting @TwigletsAndRadishes ??

i wish I’d come on to MN earlier - I used to just go to the parenting tweens or parenting teens section - I’ve only looked on the trending / active/ AIBU part this year.
ive learned so much. I can imagine when it was smaller it was also better.

I only use the free bit with ads - do many people pay for premium?

My friend once spotted me on here and asked if it was me. I was really surprised as I hadn't put anything particularly identifying. I think because we had babies the same age we were on the same types of threads.

😁 It’s a twisty turny thing for sure.

Not recognised the OP but have recognised who they were talking about on a thread about builders.

I thought I recognised someone on the Baby names thread. I did a search and she was also posting about a specific breed of dog, so I knew it was her.

She sounded lovely on Mumsnet and I can confirm that she is also lovely in RL.

I didn't say anything to her.

Yes, have recognised 2 people. One a mum from
school, 100% her and another one my best friends. Mentioned it to her and yes it was her.

Recognised a neighbour who commented on schools in our village

It was a wake up call for me about how easily an innocuous post coukd nake you identifiable and people could see other personal posts too

But I always change details when I'm posting, to make me less recognisable. And would hesitate to post REALLY personal stuff, just in case

Yes. I said something to one person. Nothing to the others

No. And it makes me realise how few people I know irl!

I would be quite identifiable, should anyone care enough to read through my posts, but then nothing exciting ever happens to me so I don't think they'd bother.

Gosh, I am having a miserable day, aren't I? Time to go and eat some cake, I think...

I was just about to post something similar haha - when I was pregnant with my 3rd I posted in a baby names thread asking for suggestions to go with my other two girls names & my friend recognised it was me and messaged me 🤣 luckily she liked the names I was thinking about & helped me decide 😊 x

Sockpuppeting is where you use one name on a thread,and use another name futher along the thread

So you'd use name a to write something and name change to name b to write something else and maybe name c to do it again

People did it to derail a thread so mumsnet stopped it so that if you write using name a and then change it to name b,it will automatically default to name a even though your now using name b on other threads

It can be done by mistake (I've done it myself not noticing I'd name changed between posts) so it can be handy for that

I didn’t actually know the person, but had read a scathing trip advisor review of an attraction and then saw a post criticizing the same attraction. Same phrase, circumstances etc so was definitely the same person.

Many people know me. I’ve had the same name since I’ve been on mn. Maybe 18yrs. Not sure when I registered tbh

I am who I am.

over the years I’ve posted about dh dying - ivf and other personal stuff and obv queen of tv 😂

Never really like the fact you can name change on mn or the fact threads go poof when people are sussed

one of the reasons I love tattle. One name and posts rarely get deleted

I haven't but someone was once convinced they knew me. Years ago I posted about exh having the dc and changing plans and I changed a few details, including the ages and sexes of the dc. Someone came on and said I was obviously her dh's ex as the details fit. My ex has never remarried so it definitely wasn't her/me! She was nasty and a few other people joined in saying I'd been caught out. It was horrible so I left the thread, which was a shame as it was an issue I was pretty upset about. I should have emailed MN but I didn't think of it at the time.

Yes, read one that was my sister in law slagging my brother and I never said anything but I did text him and sneakily prompt him to do a bit better. We went out later that day and I kind of pushed him to get her a gift and some flowers. I felt like a puppet master. He can be a fucking divvy sometimes and he means well, but I think he is just a bit dim. I understand why she was slagging him online, but knowing them IRL and seeing people say LTB was sooo weird. I wanted to jump in and defend him, but I knew she would know it was me if I did. I don’t think she knows I’m on here but she actually is the one who showed me mumsnet.

Yes, my close friend’s sister posted about a family situation which my friend had been talking to me about the same day. All of the details were identical, I advanced searched the OP and she had shared enough details about her life for me to be sure it was her. I admit I read all her post history and would periodically look up her username to read new post, my friend and her sister didn’t have the best relationship at the time and on two occasions the sister started threads specifically about my friend. I didn’t ever tell my friend (or her sister) and never will. At some point after a few months her posts suddenly stopped so I assume she changed username. This was about 10 years ago now and I’ve not knowingly come across her since. I now make sure to change some details when I post about situations that could be recognisable and I do name change periodically too.

I think half the posters on Relationships and AIBU do that. Or if not lies exactly, witholding important details of the truth.

Yes posted about me completely misconstruing what actually happened clearly feeling that I was the asshole. Hilariously though unanimously called out by other posters re sounding like she is the issue even with her bending the truth…

I'm sure lots of people aren't honest on here, but if the story sounds wildly different to real life, it's possible that it's not the person you think it is.

That sounds like a threat to most of us!

She lied about her husband killing himself the day after the death of their child - it was horrific the details she made up :(