not to understand why some people reveal such a large amount of personal info on here?

[ChateauDeLaShite]

It's not so much the fact that they are revealing it but the fact that they don't namechange! Writing intimate details about family, relationships etc. and coupling this with photographs on their profile which make them easily identifiable... isn't it just asking for trouble? Some people on here are very easily traceable in real life, and have posted things about how horrible their husband is, sex life, child issues, money issues - all under the same name!

I just think it's not very sensible and leaves you vulnerable to people either just winding you up or setting out to do something truly malicious. Or do people really not mind strangers knowing more about them than most of their friends?

I find it very odd, especially with the financial threads or the long-running problem threads where a personal situation develops. I can't imagine being that naive to reveal so much information online and I namechange regularly to protect my data.

I'm not complaining about it though. I am a nosy parker and I love reading some of the relationship sagas or getting insights into other people's lives.

If someone I know in RL were on here and if they happened to read certain threads and if they happened to be in the right frame o fmind they could eaily go 'oh look that's Trillian!', folowed swiftly by 'WTF is she doing on MN?'

So someone from RL could find MN me with enough legwork.

But I don't particularly feel that someone from MN could find RL me.

And frankly I doubt either could be bothered. I'm not that interesting.

I have open profile but tbh most people know im misdees sister and about my DH and my DDs SNs. If I dont want people knowing on here or in RL I have a few name changes, so if i want it untraceable I name change.

I have a profile? I have only been a member for 6 days so you can let me off that one haha

The only things ive revealed are, Im doing ww, and I love David Tennant!

If anyone can find me with those details then they deserve a medal

I just dont understand why people post photos of themselves, that way they are totally identifiable

Oh I was thinking about this the other day! I never put real names on here...stalkers and whatnotscare the life out of me! My children have no say in what I do with their pics...so I keep it all private.

did you not beer, thouoght it was common knowledge!

I knew you're misdee's sister

I never post anything on here that I wouldn't say in real life - I don't have any deep dark secrets I feel the urge to unload to the MN masses - so I don't care about having pictures on my profile/saying where I work/talking about my family. Not everybody feels the need for anonymity.

I don't talk about anything that I wouldn't be happy to discuss in real life.

exactly serenity - I lost my anonymity the moment I became the church organist - my name (and I'm the only one with this name in the UK!) and telephone number, along with the church I play at every single Sunday is published in our monthly church magazine. Which is found in Drs surgeries, library, and half of town

(when exH and I bought our 2nd house together here in this town I went to the solicitor with him and the woman said "oh you're the organist at X church aren't you"........she'd seen my name in the magazine even though she didn't even go to church ) I find that more freaky than anonymous people online knowing what I CHOOSE to put on here tbh.........

ooo beer, yes i love my doggy :)

thats easy beer his on my profile love your doggy too, very sweet

I've grown up online, can't think how long ago I started using forums. Tbh I really don't care.

I'm already used to being known about by strangers, try being a goth in a village with no other goths. Couple of years after I left school I overheard a group of kids who were definitely too young to have been at the school when I was there whispering about me and what I'd done at school (no, I have no clue.. though I suspect it had something to do with me allegedly cursing someone).

What are you all so scared of? What is going to happen if some people know something about you? Seriously, nobody on MN is that interesting (myself included). Why bother remaining anonymous? why bother name changing? I think the internet paranoia is a bit dated now . Strangers/friends, we are all one.

to be fair happybubble - I can understand why some people may not want to be identifiable. Lots of good reasons why someone may want to keep their identity (or their children's) away from the general public search facility.

I've been using the interweb forums for over 11 years.

I don't have a big enough ego to think that anyone would give a toss about my posts but there are some stranger fuckers out there that enjoy piecing your internet name and posting history and then revealing you.

I don't post anything personal because of that.

Personally I think the amount of info on FB - especially pics of dc's - is more worrying. When your dh comes home after a meeting he has been at and tells you how much your small, blonde daughter would fetch on the black market it's enough to make you take internet security very seriously.

I've not namechanged in 5 years or so.
I've never thought it was that important, although to be fair, I don't have pics on my profile.

Had a weird incident about a month ago when a poster sort of kept following me on threads around MN and making "suggestive" comments. Then s/he accidentally let it slip that she'd been reading a thread I was on 2 years ago in which I'd talked about some sensitive emotional stuff. She didn't realise the thread she'd been reading was so old.

It spooked me out that someone would a) go trawling ancient threads and b) use info on those threads to use against someone at a later date.

I considered namechanging or deleting all my old info, but came to the conclusion that you're always going to get maniacs online, and that's part of it.

FB stuff is only worrying if you leave your account privacy settings so all and sundry can access every last little detail about your life.