To be laid back about my identity on here?

[lesley33]

When I first came on mumsnet several years ago I registered with the idea of keeping my identity secret. But increasingly I have found it hard not to join in threads without posting lots of identifying details. So as a result I have become fairly relaxed. I don't think it would be too hard for someone who knows me in rl to work out who I am. AIBU in being this way?

Just to say in terms of identifying details, they intially came out because:

1. I posted I was the mum of 4 teenagers - normal to talk about your kids on a parenting forum.

1. I posted that I work on a project with challenging families on the threads about social workers/kids in care, etc when explaining any knowledge I had.

1. I posted that my DP was a woman in posts about being gay.

1. I posted that I lived in the north of England on threads where money and housing costs mentioned.

In my defence when posting things about family or friends I do tend to change lots and lots of identifying details.

I probably wouldn't have started a thread in the most trafficked section of the site itemising it all! I don't mind leaving little nuggets scattered here and there!

Sorry but - who cares? 99.99999% of MN'ers won't know you will they? I don't care who anyone is on here and whatever personal stuff someone posts - well - who's got time to work it out? And why would they want to unless you're saying something truly outrageous?

I personally think that it is odd that you work with families, yet hold the views that you do tbh, as to the rest, it isn't anything that revealing, unless you post as well about personal stuff, which then iwould not want family to see it, all i see is benefit bashing, from you, though.

You could be anyone Lesley!!
Unless you tell your RL friends which posts are yours/ your username.

i dont think its a big deal really, i dont care if people know stuff about me or work out who i am either. if you want to post something personal can always name change

Well I wouldn't want my work colleagues to work out who I was and read that I'm going for a new job, or trying for a baby for example.

Meh, im the same. If some1 in RL saw my posts they would know it was me, and thats withough looking at my pictures.

It seems to me OP that you are kind of quietly determined to out yourself. You drop in way too much information - the vast majority of which is irrelevant. Have a word with yourself and remember this - nobody gives a shiny shite who you are in real life.

It's totally not a big deal. I've posted my real name on here.

Privacy and anonymity are dead or dying. The sooner people accept this the less stressed they'll be.

I don't like to make it too easy but if anyone suspected they knew me it would be extremely easy to work it out. I have I'm sure posted my birtday, village I live in (or general area) line of work, childrens names

OP, where do you live (just NE or NW will do :o) always on the lookout for people near me IRL

If i want to post anything and i dont want people to know its me, i name change. Other than that my life isnt really interesting enough for anybody to be that bothered lol

Personally I think it's great that you want to identify yourself for everyone. Given that I tend to ignore threads with your name on the OP as being written by a wind up merchant it would mean I could do the same should I have the misfortune to meet you in real life.

Up to you really if you aren't bothered about anonymity, don't really see the point of this thread though just to say you aren't bothered, many posters have lots of pictures of themselves on their profile making them identifiable so you are far from the only one.