to change my mumsnet name ?

[stirfry]

After all the recent trouble with trolls and regulars like cod being driven away by someone she knew in rl I suddenly find I feel like i need to be annoymous on mn.

I used to have pic's of me and dc all over my profile but now i'm worried in case someone i know in rl recognises me and takes offence to something i posted.

Am i just being paranoid?

No I know how you feel. I am very identifiable on here and also have pics on. DOesn't bother me most of the time and I don't say stuff I wouldn't in rl (or change name first)

But it does mean I don't necessarily discuss more personal things in my life and because I have some good friends here now (hello Oct 2007 postnatal girls ) I don't like that sometimes I leave out stuff I would normally talk about with mates

i have thought about this too, not that i have put pics etc up, but think it is sensible to namecahnge every so often. I may well do it when i can think of a new one

Do people on Mumsnet never get together ?

I dont understand this 'real life' thing, surely Mumsnet is real life anyway ?

If it worries you then change it, of course you are not being unreasonable

have changed it already worzsel, this is the new me

Not paranoid at all. Over the years the hints in your posts will add up to make you tracable. It wouldn't matter so much, but MN is used to discuss things that are very personal, sensitive and controversial.

I have one online identity aside from on MN. That one I have used since I first got online and I am open about who I am. Anyone can look up my real name and address. MN is different.

no you're not being paranoid. somebody recognised me, and let me know in a once-off name change post. I haven't a clue who it is. It's about time I changed my name again. I can't stop revealing too much infor.

i posted once that i thought ds' ex gf was great but spoiled.

positive her mum saw it as she kept mentioning how she didn't spoil her kids.

t'other night, dh said ( in front of my dds Boyfriend) about mumsnet - can't remember the context, then i threatened the boyfriend not to tell his mum

its nice to be able to post - my life is falling apart, i found my dh with a goat, my children are demons, and not have someone coming up to you IRL and saying " oh did your dd really do that?!"

Or worse, knowing your husband shagged your sister's goat, but not letting on that they know! I find that worse somehow. Who knows who they've told what. And meanwhile, you're blissfully unaware, merrily typing away, peeling back your soul on mn.

I have 2 names on MN - this one which is really me IYSWIM, and another one which I use to post about a sensitive relationship issue that I have.
I'm happy to say that Hollyhobbie lives in Holland etc, but I wouldn't disclose that info in my other 'persona' - I've talked about MN too much in real life to not be 100% sure that my girlfriends aren't on here too.

I am gradually becoming less anonymous, pictures on my profile are one give away! I feel very at home her now, am not sure why. Maybe I am being naive.

Dd(8) knows my mn name and I worry occasionally that she will tell somebody. We live in a very rural location so I would be pretty identifiable anyway.

I don't really post stuff I wouldn't want people in RL to know about, but I would lose any anonymity I do have.

You get used to a name though don't you and I wouldn't feel me anymore.

What I used to do was change the name just slightly, enough so people would guess it the same poster, but the messages wouldn't show up in a search.

I realise now I should have used a common word rather than a unique one.

I don't mention my children/location/work stuff under this name if possible. This is my giddy, grumpy, everyday name. I use disposable names for advice about that.

I have never felt comfortable putting piccies of DSs or myself up. I don't mind certain threads finding out my real name and what i do for a living but no more than i would mention anywhere else iyswim.

i am paranoid about bumping into someone i know in RL on mnet, to the point that i don't post about things i think could reveal me (eg... today a mum at nursery...)

I got spotted on here and it caused RL trouble (to say the least ) anyway, I am now a perma-newbie despite being here for for years and years. I would rather people ignored me as a newbie than knew me from RL.

I did have one person recongnise me on here, because did have pics on my profile. It hasn't cause any problems but when you know someone knows who you are you do definately feel less able to just let it all out when you want to.

Yes, I am paranoid and I'm a newbie. It's a shame to have to change your name, makes it difficult to bond with other MN when they don't know anything about you, cos you have had to change your identity yet again.

tiredsville, exactly! it does make it difficult to bond with others.

I have been on and off here for a few years but have never felt as paranoid as i do at the moment.

it is public forum so yes some caution necessary.the informality of the medium

after all it is a leap of faith you could be talking to a hairy handed trucker called Tallulah who likes to wear a priddy dress and spit on da porch

so would the general consensus be that if we changed our name but slightly its the best thing to do? In other words regulars could work out who you were but then namesearch would only bring up a certain number of posts about you and therefore you could remain less ientifiable to rl people?

what is namesearch?

Is the best plan, forevercleaning, as otherwise the namesearch provides a fairly accurate profile one way and another. After all, if someone has been posting on here for several years using the same name, they would have given away an awful lot of info about themselves. I gave away too much info in my first MN incarnation and had all my posts deleted.

If you go to the search messages function, you can search on posting name. It will bring up all of your (or whoever's) posts - except chat posts which are deleted after a week, I think.