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AIBU?

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Original poster

To keep namechanging?

62 replies

LeSquigh · 04/01/2015 00:19

I'm a regular. Except you wouldn't know this because I name change excessively. Mostly because everything I post seems to have the potential to out me. I am probably being over paranoid about this admittedly.

I've decided to try and stick with this name for a while though.

Am I the only one that does this on an almost post by post basis?

OP posts:
thoth · 04/01/2015 00:21

Indiscretion is my middle name! Wink ahem.

Bananayellow · 04/01/2015 00:23

I never did but I do now. I suspect I could have been easily recognised.

It's a shame because when I interact with familiar posters I'd love them to know who I am. I like responding to some posters in particular and there are one or two I identify with or who have a similar outlook to me.

SillyBugger · 04/01/2015 00:29

Me too OP.

MerryMo · 04/01/2015 00:29

I name change from time to time.

I have been on here for years and years.

I never used to name change but then there were a spate of threads where people would question other posters about a thread and bring up stuff from their old threads when it got heated.

It really made me realise how much someone could put together from all my past posts so I do change my name now.Not all the time but a couple of times a year maybe!

DandyHighwayman · 04/01/2015 00:33

I used to be a Name, on all them popular posters lists yadda yadda.

I kinda miss me older persona but a few teeny weeny things made me chose to nc regular-like.

Bulbasaur · 04/01/2015 00:37

I change names to start threads so it's not traced back to any other thread. But I keep this moniker for general chatting.

ilovesooty · 04/01/2015 00:47

I've never name changed since I've been here.

HappenstanceMarmite · 04/01/2015 01:05

I don't get this. Recognised by whom?

slightlyworriednc · 04/01/2015 01:09

Me too OP! Sometimes I want to say 'but you know me' to a poster I feel I know well!

slightlyworriednc · 04/01/2015 01:12

Me too OP! Sometimes I want to say 'but you know me' to a poster I feel I know well!

cricketpitch · 04/01/2015 01:14

I namechanged once as I PMd someone with my name and address for a specific reason.

I like my name though and although I am not particularly known I feel I am being true to myself and that it somehow makes my relationship with others here more honest - especially when someone has been helpful, supportive and genuinely caring. However there is probably enough detail about me now for someone who thought they recognised a RL incident to do a search and put it all together. Should namechange soon I think.

BingBongMerrilyOnHigh · 04/01/2015 01:21

Me too. Someone I'm not keen on, who I've mentioned under previous name, is apparently a lurker/poster. So I nc occasionally for privacy. I'd rather not have the hassle, they can't keep their nose out of my business in RL, so I'm somewhat circumspect about using one name on here.

ShadowSuperNova · 04/01/2015 01:26

Regular name changer here too. Although not quite on a post by post basis!

HedgehogsDontBite · 04/01/2015 01:29

I don't get this. Recognised by whom?

Someone you know in real life. On another forum I was recognised by my brother who finds it funny to be a shit stirrer. He trawled through all my previous posts, printed off any where I'd said anything negative about my family and then gleefully read them all out at a family get together. Now I'm a regular name changer.

PhaedraIsMyName · 04/01/2015 01:59

I name changed as I was Caitlin17 and someone said on a thread about name changing that she had name changed to Caitlin117.

I asked several times why she would bother changing to a not particularly exciting name which was only one digit different. She didn't reply and another poster told me off for asking.

I wish I'd reported it as later that night she posted a number of venomous and vicious comments about a poster who was discussing her miscarriage on another part of the site I don't use.

I'm pretty certain I knew who it was and that it was done solely to make people think I was the person making the vicious comments. Thankfully someone spotted the difference in names, she was banned and there was a thread in Site Stuff making clear it wasn't me.

Other than that I don't change names.

catsofa · 04/01/2015 02:14

I don't change much just because I can't keep track of different aliases, and am prone to starting an "outable" thread under cover of a new name, then accidentally commenting on it in a way that clearly shows that I'm the OP using my usual name. Thus defeating the whole bloody point.

Would do it more if I had the intelligence to actually do it properly!

AmantesSuntAmentes · 04/01/2015 02:24

I've been here for over a decade, on and off. I've name changed quite a lot, for similar reasons. Although I don't feel so inclined to, now it appears more busy.

AmantesSuntAmentes · 04/01/2015 02:25

(Those 'similar reasons' being RL identity protection, not trolling!)

PhaedraIsMyName · 04/01/2015 02:34

I did wonder during the Scottish referendum threads if certain people there were at risk of being easily identified.

ohdearitshappeningtome · 04/01/2015 02:39

Thing is: it doesn't matter what your name is, you still can be identified bye the story you tell on a thread!

You may name change but there's always the case of wrong place wrong time and somebody recognises you from that information you give

LapsedTwentysomething · 04/01/2015 02:55

I NC a lot too.

Ilovesooty, I remember your username from another forum I used to use years ago.

ShadowSuperNova · 04/01/2015 07:23

Of course you can still potentially be identified by the story you tell on a thread, whether it's your first post in a new name or under a name you've used fora decade.

Just if you've name changed recently, someone who recognises you can't go digging through years worth of your posts, whether out of pure nosiness or whether they're looking for ammunition against you.

crapcrapcrapcrap · 04/01/2015 07:39

I've been here a long time. Nothing to hide really, but I've always NCed regularly. It just seems sensible.

Pagwatch · 04/01/2015 07:47

I have never name changed but I quite understand why people want to.
I guess I don't really care if I am outed - I have never said anything on here that I am ashamed of or where my life would get complicated if it were revealed iyswim.
It's a personal choice.
I guess the only thing I dislike about the namechanging is that it often feels as if I get to recognise a poster and then it seems as if they just go missing.

Skatingfastonthinice · 04/01/2015 08:14

I've been around for years, but I namechange every 6 months or so. Just have done. Smile
I'm also careful about what stories and information I give out, so no one is likely to say 'Oh, I know you... I like being anonymous.