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I think most people make alt identities not through some sense of exploring self, but to make sure they don’t get “cancelled” in real life based on some post th

I think most people make alt identities not through some sense of exploring self, but to make sure they don’t get “cancelled” in real life based on some post that goes viral and generates outrage.

the8472 7y ago
Twitter dogpiles are a fairly modern concern. People have been using different nicknames on the internet as part of basic information hygiene for a long time. For kids it's a basic "talking to strangers", bullying and "teenagers doing teenager things" protection. For some it's to avoid stalking. Another reason it to just not have a history attached to yourself when you join some specific community, it's baggage.
deoxykev 7y ago
Not to mention future employers combing through your history. Anything could be taken out of context and used against you. You see this all the time with political candidates-- that one drunken photo of you at a party in college? Who knows, it could bite you 30 years down the road, in ways that you never expected.
stevenicr 7y ago
I've been thinking similar lines for some months now, and wondering if anyone has setup a "find me here if deplatformed from there" type of site or something? something like about.me with one nickname, that lists twitter, tube, insta, mastadon, keybase, pgp key, etc etc I almost think it would need to be available on the main web, but also cloned on a blockchain like history on the dark web in order to be truly useful.. It's gotten to the point where I am avoiding services (like anchor.fm) because building a water cooler crowd is useless when you can be deplatformed in a split second without notice and without recourse.. If we had an unstoppable about.me, maybe append only lists like securescuttlebutt? or something out there, and people knew to go looking there, I think this would be beneficial.
- luckylion 7y ago
  > something like about.me with one nickname, that lists twitter, tube, insta, mastadon, keybase, pgp key, etc etc Wouldn't that just make cross-service deplatforming easier? "hey, $serviceProvider, that person said $offensiveThing on $differentPlatform. I'm outraged that you provide a platform to such vile individuals"
  - stevenicr 7y ago
    well yes, but I think it's going to make it easier for the not-so-tech-savvy to find more.. the doxxers are going to find all that an more to wage a whine campaign - so might as well make it easier for the non-haters to find other places to engage.. hopefully there will be services that are impossible to shutdown in the list - of course that will vary by region and issues I would think.
zweep 7y ago
I only speak pseudonymously now and throw out identities the way that drug dealers throw out cell phones. And even then, with the threat of future AI-assisted doxxing I don’t discuss some topics, online or IRL, that I freely discussed IRL pre-Internet.
- C14L 7y ago
  That's a very good point. In the future, an AI may well be able to find all identities of a person based on ways they express themselves, etc.
  - sethammons 7y ago
    My work uses anonymous surveys for feedback. On freeform answers, I change my diction, grammar, case usage, etc. I'm still pretty sure that someone could identify my response as me. But hopefully an AI would be stumped!
    - Slashbot 7y ago
      My work sent out an 'anonymous' survey .. didn't bother filling it out.. email contained a button (not even just a human readable url) and the link had enough crap on the end of it to make think it was anything but anonymous.
deleted 7y ago
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the8472 7y ago

Twitter dogpiles are a fairly modern concern. People have been using different nicknames on the internet as part of basic information hygiene for a long time. For kids it's a basic "talking to strangers", bullying and "teenagers doing teenager things" protection. For some it's to avoid stalking. Another reason it to just not have a history attached to yourself when you join some specific community, it's baggage.

deoxykev 7y ago

Not to mention future employers combing through your history. Anything could be taken out of context and used against you. You see this all the time with political candidates-- that one drunken photo of you at a party in college? Who knows, it could bite you 30 years down the road, in ways that you never expected.

stevenicr 7y ago

I've been thinking similar lines for some months now, and wondering if anyone has setup a "find me here if deplatformed from there" type of site or something? something like about.me with one nickname, that lists twitter, tube, insta, mastadon, keybase, pgp key, etc etc I almost think it would need to be available on the main web, but also cloned on a blockchain like history on the dark web in order to be truly useful.. It's gotten to the point where I am avoiding services (like anchor.fm) because building a water cooler crowd is useless when you can be deplatformed in a split second without notice and without recourse.. If we had an unstoppable about.me, maybe append only lists like securescuttlebutt? or something out there, and people knew to go looking there, I think this would be beneficial.

luckylion 7y ago
> something like about.me with one nickname, that lists twitter, tube, insta, mastadon, keybase, pgp key, etc etc Wouldn't that just make cross-service deplatforming easier? "hey, $serviceProvider, that person said $offensiveThing on $differentPlatform. I'm outraged that you provide a platform to such vile individuals"
- stevenicr 7y ago
  well yes, but I think it's going to make it easier for the not-so-tech-savvy to find more.. the doxxers are going to find all that an more to wage a whine campaign - so might as well make it easier for the non-haters to find other places to engage.. hopefully there will be services that are impossible to shutdown in the list - of course that will vary by region and issues I would think.

zweep 7y ago

I only speak pseudonymously now and throw out identities the way that drug dealers throw out cell phones. And even then, with the threat of future AI-assisted doxxing I don’t discuss some topics, online or IRL, that I freely discussed IRL pre-Internet.

C14L 7y ago
That's a very good point. In the future, an AI may well be able to find all identities of a person based on ways they express themselves, etc.
- sethammons 7y ago
  My work uses anonymous surveys for feedback. On freeform answers, I change my diction, grammar, case usage, etc. I'm still pretty sure that someone could identify my response as me. But hopefully an AI would be stumped!
  - Slashbot 7y ago
    My work sent out an 'anonymous' survey .. didn't bother filling it out.. email contained a button (not even just a human readable url) and the link had enough crap on the end of it to make think it was anything but anonymous.

deleted 7y ago

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