To wonder why it’s necessary to NC on MN

[Ilovemypantry]

I’ve always wondered why posters say that they’ve NC for a particular post. Surely nobody would know who they were anyway, the beauty of MN is that everyone is anonymous and can’t be identified by their username?

It’s usually because they’re posting something personal and don’t want that post to be linked to their usual username. You can do an advanced search on MN you see, so it’s easy to link previous posts together and if someone who knew you was on here they’d probably be able to guess it was you.

ilovesooty it was particularly funny because she had been so very dim about it.

I don't remember exactly, but her posting had been along the lines of
"It's my 30th birthday next Tuesday,"
"My gran was called Siobhan and I was named after her,"
"I'm from Barnstaple originally,"
"I'm a solicitor and own my own company."

Er, it will take me about two cups of tea to find you, love. You're not a challenge.

People make a big thing about a NC then post something not remotely identifiable, eg. "I dont like doing the school run because people park on the yellow zig zag lines"

They might have whinged to their partner/mil/sister about the same problem earlier in the day and thought they might recognise the rant, and therefore realise it's them posting. Randomers might not be able to ID them but people who know them could!

Some posters do a lot of advance searches on people, its a form of stalking really and link it with current threads they are on, I don't post that much anyway but still name change every so often.

Ive personally done it as I don’t want all my posts linked. I’m assuming some others might have the same reason.

In fact I'd like the facility to be restricted It is for some people. When we had the security breach I couldn't get into this account so I created another one. I was unable to change my username on the new one though, and MN refused to explain why it was restricted. Eventually I managed to work out how to log back into this one.

I sometimes change my username because if you put all my comments together and did a bit of googling you could work out who I am. I don't know if any MNers would be that interested, but just in case!

They are not guessing identity from user name alone, it’s more details in the posts that can be linked altogether.

No one needs to apologise or explain as to why they protect their privacy and their family’s.

Remember the same people who sneer about you name changing would also flame you for being identifiable.

I name change because once I’ve posted on living overseas about just moving back from Barbados with my 4 children, on primary education about the small village school my children will attend, on a thread in AIBU about husband’s work patterns about my DH working off shore, and a thread about the house I want to buy then I’ve provided enough specific details for my SIL to recognise me & I don’t want her then to read my thread about my MIL

I name change periodically. Usually when I feel like my current username has enough details about me on it.

Part of the other issue now is that papers like the dailyfail will go on MN and will post dilemmas from AIBU (one of mine got used and although it was massively boring in terms of some of the stories which get taken, it was enough for me to have the thread removed and that’s when my name change story began). So many people read the online dailyfail that if you then suspect you know the person from the story where ‘my sister stole my husband so I ruined her wedding dress’ you can just come on MN and search previous posts from that username and then the audience is larger than just MN

I can see now how you could be identified if someone was actually that interested in finding out. I personally couldn’t be bothered to go searching and trawling through previous posts

I name change quite often because I change details in my posts so as to not be too identifiable (when it’s not relevant to the post I’m making) and then I don’t want people going back over previous posts and coming back with things like but you said you had kids aged 2 and 4, now they’re 6 and 7 or you’ve said you do this job now it’s a different job etc

I personally couldn’t be bothered to go searching and trawling through previous posts

Even if you read a post that you thought might be your friend?

Imagine your friend tells you about this annoying problem involving a teacher and a kid at school. She then posts on AIBU for advice. You recognise her dilemma. If she hasn't name changed, you'd be able to see all of her posting history. Would you really not have a peek in case she's posted about you before?

Because people join the dots. If I post something about a situation in my life which is then recognised by someone who I know IRL, all they need to do is search my name and see my posts about all kinds of other personal things that they weren’t aware of.

As an extreme (made up) example - imagine I post that my mil went through our bedroom and drawers at the weekend so we took the keys off her. Someone I know recognised this and wonders if it’s me that’s posted it. They then search my name and see references to my twins so are sure it’s me. They then see me post about past sexual abuse as a child, that my husband has had an affair or I’ve just had an abortion - all private things. Can you see now why people don’t want nosy people joining the dots?

@onionface
Nope....couldn’t be bothered