Name changing? Why?

[Underworld345]

Reading a lot of posts recently and so many state at the start about name changing as may be “outing”. I don’t get it?

Username should make you un-identifiable. Why are you identifiable from your old name? Why do you need to name change?

Also, even if you have name changed, why do people feel the need to state that. Just get on with the post...

If people recognise a poster from information in their post they could go back and read their other threads or comments.

They name change so that if anyone recognises who they are in RL, they can't search back through their previous posts and read all about their piles etc

And they state that they have name changed so they dont get the whole..ooh interesting first post etc troll hunting.

I name change often.. it’s so there isn’t a trail back to other posts. And people mention it to avoid the “interesting first post op ” comments

Where you live
How many dc
How many parents and in laws
What mil bought you for Xmas last year
What supermarket you use and your favourite food
A new pair of shoes you bought
Where you went on holiday last year
The new kitchen you bought
= if that's all connected by one username not hard to recognise someone you know in RL, and bear in mind can be splashed all over the dailyfuckmail.

Yeah that makes sense but why state it? Maybe I’m being stupid but seems a lot of people state they have name changed...is it something to do with trolling/fake threads?

Ahh ok cross post!

These threads come up regularly.

I name change regularly (and state that I've NC'd if I start a new thread with a new name) for precisely those reasons given by PPs.

I never really search a username though to see if it’s their first thread...I don’t really care about someone’s history, just if the threads interesting!

I guess it’s a way to detect if it’s a troll thread though.

Yeah as pp have said posting history might be too familiar and they don’t want anyone to connect them. Some people do read the history so in theory if you knew them in real life then you might recognise them. But for many it’s just an extra precaution if they’re posting about something they wouldn’t want people to link to them.

You can track people down if they post enough information about themselves. There was on prolific poster who posted a fair bit of info across a number of threads. People were warning her how identifiable she was. It took me less than 30 min to have her full name, address, a photo of her on her workplace website and a pretty good guess as to which school her DC were in. I had never met her and live hundreds of miles away and I am not particularly tech savvy.

So people sometimes name champagne to make it harder to piece the info together.

champagne?????

change

No one should ever feel the need to apologise or explain about keeping their private life private.

My daughter's called Summer and I'm her Mumma. I tend not to post too much too personal mind x

I never really search a username though to see if it’s their first thread...

It’s possible that some of the other circa 7 million users on the site do, though.

As a complete contrast, there are some users who have used the same username for over 18 years! I know because I started a thread about it: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/a3376839-Longest-serving-username-PLUS-freaky-numerological-coincidence

Mind you most posts which people say are outing are anything but 🙄

I comment on lots of threads about different things.
If it was all under the same username you'd easily be able to find out the following about me (and this is just what I remember posting about, there's probably more)

• my age
• marital status and when things changed
• area of the county where I live
• my job and when I started it
• my job history
• number and age of children
• I think ive said their names on baby name threads
• number/ gender/ age of siblings and their children
• same for in laws
• my height / weight and body type

If you knew me and read all that you'd figure out who I am pretty quickly I think. I mean, you might not but it would be enough to make you wonder. Then personal issues with family or work might be known about where I would rather them not be. I use mumsnet because its anonymous, I talk to friends about things I'm happy people knowing about. I like things to be kept private sometimes.

Some people are obsessed with troll hunting.

Quite frankly I'm appalled when sone people don't change names !!!

I change name occasionally, if I can think of something good or meaningful. Simple as that for me.

TBH I don't even know how to search for a user's past threads or posts. I'm easy to hide from!

I NC regularly as I've recognised 2 people on here from their posts over the years, and would hate for that to be me.
One was a fairly innocuous baby name thread, but the other was concerning a possible affair and it was undoubtedly the of one of my good friends.

Some people are obsessed with troll hunting

I agree. Is an attempt to not be hounded about a lack of history under that user name. It’s often fruitless though since anyone could say that.

I have said before that there should be something to identify regular members, join date, number of posts, anything really, if they’re going to let people name change. It would put a stop to people feeling like they have to justify themselves and give a clue of whether someone should be wary of a newer poster.

You do get some dickheads who treated length of membership as a status symbol or treat newer members as leper’s but on the whole it’s fine because most people aren’t complete arseholes.