Has anyone ever seen a thread that's been started about them by someone they know in RL?

[generalunrest]

Or had someone they know in real life see a thread you've started asking something personal about them on MN?

More of a WWYD really, I've noticed there's a lot of posters who say they've changed their normal nickname as they know their family/friends go on MN, but would that stop someone recognising their own details on the thread??

I don't think she posts any more - I got the impression it was a one-off because I searched her posting name and found nothing after the thread was deleted. But I found out from a friend that she copied the thread and pasted it into an email and sent it round to all her friends to get sympathy for her POV - which I suppose is fair enough, since she didn't get it from MN - but - my posting name is now known to all her RL friends who know who I am!!
I thought about name-changing but then thought f*ck it, I'm just going to try really hard not to post anything I wouldn't shout out in the street... which is a bit difficult as I post on the sphincter injury support thread. Damn.

I often wonder if I will end up on MN in one of those 'AIBU to judge this woman I saw in Ikea threatening her DS with extreme violence if he didnt stop climbing on the Kropstaks?'

I sometimes want to post about something bothering me about someone I know but how horrible for them if they read it. So I dont.

A comical rant from one angle can be a devastating revealation (sp) from another.

What was the Pizza Express thread? I missed that one.

Just read my last line. but .

Me, I did it . I started a thread about someone else. We were on the same ante/post-natal email list. Her children seemed to develop the most bizarre medical problems. Finally she had a breastmilk problem, said her baby was allergic to her milk, basically. I asked about it on Usenet "Can this be true?" tone -- in vague and I don't think condemning terms, nothing I said could have identified her if you didn't already know the story quite well.

S&*t hit the fan, she saw my thread, hollered at me loudly, and shut down the email list (I hadn't realised that she was the 'owner') because I had violated the "sanctity" of the group -- we didn't have a confientiality clause or anything like that, btw.

I got thoroughly slated by some others on the list, but loads of people came out of the woodwork to congratulate me for questioning it, they saw her as a verifiable nutter.

Am now much more careful about what I say about anybody online.

jon ronson's wife (if that was for real) v. amusing

Pizza Express one: someone posted to say that a load of women with children had made a mess at PE and just left it all for the staff to tidy up (not just dirty plates, but rubbish on the floor etc). Can't remember how the thread went but a PE woman came on to say yes that was us...

There was a horrible one sometime last year. Someone posted about her friend and the problems they were having. She had a real rant about her. IIRC, most posters were sympathetic to the friend, not the OP. Anyhow, said friend then posted something like, 'you utter bitch...'. It was all abit especially as it transpired the OP had introduced this friend to MN, so said friend was highly likely to see the post.

Blimey, it happens much more often than I thought it would!

The cross over between RL and the cyber world is a bit tricky. My DH uses a forum where some of the people meet up and that makes me really uncomfortable cos I see the two worlds as completely different and should be kept separate. People come on MN to get some 'unbiased' advice, so for it to spill into your real world is pretty scary!

RC - that's horrible. I was about the thread about me but at least my former friend didn't call me an utter bitch. Wow. Really, what gets into some people??

Oh yes. I'm frequently talked about on here by someone I know in rl. It is horrid.

Pizza one was hilarious, mainly cos it was a friend of mine

That's awful Cluckadoodledoo, have you ever brought it up with them?

lljkk - my son developed an allergy to dairy and soya protein and this gets passed on very easily through breast milk, so had to go on medicated formula where the protein had already been broken down so his gut didn't react to it. Effectively you could say he was allergic to my milk, although i just said he was allergic to what i ate rather than me! But it is possible.

I am always baffled when people distinguish between real life and the internet. At the end of each PC is a real person. There is only one life. It is real. Too many people feel that being remote doesn't make it real, but that's barmy in my books.

Just my opinion.

was it flightattendant's mate who came on having found out she was being discussed? Thought it was handled very well but the mate was not to be placated....

I had a run in with a CRAZY woman in the shoe shop today

soo wanted to post about it but I just know she would be a MNer

Which mad Tikkabilla lady.

Please tell me

Eleanora what was the jon ronson's wife one??

(me and dp sort of hart him )

I haven't, but a couple of times I have wondered if it was me then realised not.

There is a situation I'd love to get MN advice on but won't as the friend involved is on here. She doesn't know who I am though, at least I don't think she does [paranoid]

It's a tricky situation and not really in a position to be able to. I think she knows i'll read it so I try to just ignore it now.

IM(horrible)E, just don't do it. However anodyne and inoffensive you're being things can come back and bite you very hard on the arse

[sadder and wiser emoticon]