To "out yourself"

[Gotanewusernamenow]

Hi I'm fairly new on mumsnet. I've read a few posts where people have wrote.."have to name change or I will out myself". What does this mean exactly?

It means people will recognise you in real life

The names on here are anonymous but sometimes you might write about something so specific that your friends and family might recognise you (this is outing yourself).

If you've previously written about things that are private / sensitive etc then you might not want them linked to you so you can name change so the stuff which is obviously you in real life is separate from the private stuff.

Yes but wouldn't they recognize by the post who it was?/(sorry to seem thick)

No because posters use anonymous usernames...

Think OP means recognise by what has been written in the post. Well, yes, if it's a unique situation or there's identifying details then you may think "Hmm I think I know this person." By name changing, the poster avoids others being able to look up other posts they have made which they may wish to be kept anonymous.

That's exactly why people name change. If I post about my mad aunt Doris swallowing a love goldfish at a funeral, that's quite identifying, and anyone who knew me in real life would know it was me. If I namechange before I post it, they might read the post and know it was me, but when they searched my username they wouldn't find any other posts because I had used a new name just for that. If I didn't name change and they recognised me, they could search my normal username and find everything I ever posted on here, and I would be outed.

It's to break the trail so nobody goes "Oh I recognise this person. Let me see what else they've posted about!'

AAhhh...got it now.. Yes margotlovedtom1. What you said...about what has been written in post. I didn't explain it properly.
Thanks for all your replies.

Yes "explodedcloud" spot on.as you all were.til the penny dropped. Just sussing out bold text now..thank you all.

To bold
word but don't leave the spaces in.

Thanks explodedcloud

:)

Makes me laugh a bit as very few situations are truly unique so unless you know you have friends on here outing is unlikely.
So many threads have comments like "oh OP, I think I know which town/school/employer you are talking about" they are often wrong.

What they said!