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?

Shit, where can I see the profles, then? (sorry, slightly pissed, also technologically challenged). Must check I've not accidentally posted my own home address or anything thick like that.

And why can we not edit out typos, for the love of God?

Thingumy - revealing you to who? revealing what exactly? And what is wrong with family photos online, I just don't get it. A photo is just a moment in time. Any weirdo can see your children anyway, that is if you take them out in public. It's just paranoia I think.

Stranded - why would your dh say something like that to you? Where has his info come from? I'd question his sources and his motives.

happy - there are people on MN who work in professions were it really is better that the general public can't get hold of details of their privates lives. Plus of course families where a child' identity/location (or even the poster's) needs to be done for safety reasons.

I don't have FB,fuck that shit.

Brecon - if you hover over a name and it becomes underlined then you can click into a person's profile.

I think we have to remember that the world is changing, my generation spent a fair bit of our lives online. Kids now are spending even more of their lives online. The next generation are likely to spend all of their lives online. I imagine that a lot of the divide in opinion about how much you share will be correlated to the age. There'll be exceptions or course, but most people I know in my age group (especially as I'm mainly friends with geeks who got into forums etc early on) couldn't care less.

Baroque, there may be the odd judge/criminal/celeb on here who needs to keep quiet, the rest just have an over inflated sense of self-importance or paranoia.

stranded, I'm really that someone said that to your DH. What a perv. Why didn't your DH call him on it and say "why are you perving over my little blonde daughter, and estimating black market prices for her, you absolute creep "

Some us of may have escaped abusers in the past and prefer to keep anon

It's not just high powered career peeps and celebs that like to remain private.

Ooh, lots of responses. I have insomnia, btw

I guess I'm particularly thinking of just a few people who talk about really quite sensitive things to do with their husbands and relationships, under a name that has links to photos of said husband and kids. Although I don't think people should not talk about private relationships on here, I think they should make sure the people they're talking about can't be identified. I remember with one poster in particular, I thought her husband actually sounded familiar. I looked at her profile but I didn't recognise him. However I easily could have - he worked in a city and industry that I have previously worked in. OK, maybe it wouldn't really matter that I knew, I wouldn't do anything about it, but it's not as unlikely as some might think that they might be recognised... I think there are something like 850,000 of members on MN, and only a couple of hundred (I reckon) post regularly. Makes it seem like a tightknit community when it's really not. And, as Sakura says, once it's there it's there forever and people do trawl old threads...

Seems like a waste of thought..reveal what you want or don't but never stress about it..

I've been a regular forum user for the past 3-4 years now. I've posted very personal stuff about things going on in my life and about how I feel, but not personal identification stuff IYSWIM. I'm careful on FB with privacy settings and mostly know (or get to know at some point) the regulars on the forums I use. I'm fairly new to MNet and only one other poster "knows" who I am (from my other forum although we haven't met in RL either). If someone was to identify me from my posts here, I wouldn't consider it a a problem as I'm very open in RL.

However, I have recently posted on MNet about a current relationship issue on which I am seeking support, but am avoiding posting about it on my usual forum. I've found the annonymity here to be a positive in these circumstances, because the person with whom I am/have been involved also uses my usual forum.

When I first set up my profile on here, I was happy to fill it in, but have since altered it to be unavailable as I see that most people posting on MNet don't have a readable profile.

I don't worry about it because I am personally of the opinion that privacy is either dead or on it's last legs.

I only use a nickname at all because it's fun and because I'm Tee2072 every`where online. Even on my blog. Go on, google me. I could use some more hits on there. My niece named me Tee when she started to talk and the 2072 was randomly generated umpteen years ago when Tee was already taken on some board I wanted to join.

I have no problem with people kn-*owing my real name is Robyn, I live in Belfast, I have a 17 month old son named Adam and my husband's name is Simon. My husband doesn't even use an alias on the 'net, but uses Simon. And he's quite well known in some internet circles.

Think about all the private information you give to HMRC, for example. And we all know how well they've done protecting our data.

I understand if you are in hiding from an abusive person. Or are famous, or what have you. But if you are just a regular person on the 'net, the fear of being recognized boggles my mind.

I'm with Riven I think. She is obviously easily identifiable to anyone in her town. You know, I could be pushing the buggy around her town, see her and think "hmm, is it? Is this REALLY the woman who served pizza and fishfingers one night?". But, as she says "who gives a fuck?".

Of course there are weirdos out there - but, someone could equally spot "Riven" in Tesco and decide to poke around her life, follow her home and be creepy - doesn't need to be on interweb!

I doubt very much my abuser gives a flying fuck what I'm doing now and to believe that he would is just risible!

People on here who know my local area would probably be able to pin down the part of the city I live in (heck someone asked me if my water supply was back on the other week - which was a very specific area of town hit by problems).

People who didn't know the city would probably have a tougher time pinning down my location. Certain things, like my job, I'm quite open about (it's hard to be an undercover teacher on here), but work-related things are always kept very very general with no identifying information.

As for profiles - mine's got nowt on, my FB's on lockdown as well... mainly because I have an ex who occasionally gets bored and resorts to a few threats for my safety (I take solace in the fact he's a lazy bastard who confines himself to armchair stalking). Basically anything linked to my real name gets no extra information added and visible to me at all - even my FB has naff all on it, and definitely no phone numbers etc. As for photos of me - considering even my FB photo just has my cat on, not likely. The only photos of me online are my wedding ones I need to get round to removing now people have seen them - I hate photos of myself anyway!

I wasn't just talking about celebs/judges/criminals.

Solicitors (they're not all highly paid, high flying types), teachers, those with vocations in various religions (oh how many people would love to be able to get into the private lives of some of those and rip them to shreds). Those with shitty employers who would like nothing more than an excuse to fire someoe

People who foster/adopt, those who have escaped from violent relationships

Lots of reasons why someone want to remain unidentifiable on-line.

People have been stalked on here before.

Just because you or I aren't concerned about the issue of privacy doesn't mean that other people don't have a valid reason for doing so.

Stranded's DH is in law enforcement before people start worrying too much about the comments. I'd surmise from what he said that he'd had a meeting about child trafficking or something equally relevant.

I could probably be found if people cared. But there's more info available on my CV on websites and I do change details to make it less immediately obvious, so you'd have to be pretty determined really.

I'd be a bit schocked if Dave Cameron came round your house and hadn't looked you up.