4 ms·

Depending on your search engine of choice, given just his first and last name, you will discover either his middle name or his blog on the first or second page

by Imnimo 6y ago

Depending on your search engine of choice, given just his first and last name, you will discover either his middle name or his blog on the first or second page of results. If a patient wanted to look him up online, it wouldn't take much, and if a person familiar with his blog wanted to find his real name, it also wouldn't take much. I did it just now in a few minutes of Googling. Now, regardless of all that, it still seems like it would be a nice thing to do for news media to respect his wishes. But it also seems like a bit much to say that publishing his name would be all that significant of a change to his level of anonymity.

_-___________-_ 6y ago
> I did it just now in a few minutes of Googling. A few minutes? Google literally suggests it as an autocomplete for me.
- Imnimo 6y ago
  That's what I get for using the address bar rather than the actual website!
- strstr 6y ago
  This was previously not the case. Cat is out of the bag though.
  - toofy 6y ago
    The cats been out of the bag for a long, long time. I mean, look, if he had already had anonymity, I would absolutely be considerably more understanding of the outrage behind this, but let’s be honest, his name has been connected to ssc (simple google search levels of easy) for a long time. That fact has really made me question the motives behind why he chose this particular hill to die on.
    - tomhoward 6y ago
      The issue was debated to death when the initial story flared up, but the strongest counter-point I saw was this: Publication of his name in a NYT feature would have made a huge difference to the awareness level of his identity, vs just being able to be sniffed out by determined online sleuths, and would have dramatically altered his identifiability with respect to his clients. I can see it both ways and don't care to argue the topic any further, but this position deserves to be put.
      - toofy 6y ago
        I think it’s a bit dishonest for us to imply it would have taken a determined online sleuth — unless we now consider anyone who would have simply googled a name to be a determined sleuth. I agree though, it’s kind of a silly thing to put much concern into. I’m done worrying about it as well lol.
        tomhoward 6y ago
        In the original discussions, people were reporting different degrees of ease of finding his name via Google. Some said it came up in autocomplete on Google when you started typing his name, whereas others didn't get this, including myself. Perhaps it was influenced by region, as I'm outside the U.S. Of course it became a whole lot easier to identify him soon after he took down his blog, as it suddenly became a much bigger discussion topic online. But being written about in the NYT still takes it to a whole new level. Without that, it's just something that nerds like us talk about on obscure discussion forums like this. When it's in a feature article in the NYT, it becomes something ordinary people talk about at dinners and cocktail parties.
- ageitgey 6y ago
  I have no particular interest in SSC or this controversy around it, so I have no search history around him. I just tried this and the search suggestion drop-down totally had his full name listed. That sucks.
- basch 6y ago
  Google also has "related searches" at the bottom of the results page. It works both ways. Searching First Middle, the related searches return First Middle Last. Searching First Last still for the most part accomplishes what he wants, not bringing up a lot about his online life, however the related searches hint at it, by showing First Last Middle, and First Last 'Blog'.
Joeboy 6y ago
I think these things have become truer since the NYT debacle, due to people spamming his real name in lots of public places. Among many other examples, somebody set up a linkedin profile under his real name, listing his occupation as "author of slatestarcodex blog".
- Viliam1234 6y ago
  There was a campaign on Twitter recently, people encouraging each other to post Scott Alexander's full name, because "if all the hundreds of people who know his real last name just started saying it we could put an end to this ridiculous farce". Translation: if enough people join this doxing campaign, it will be difficul to report our accounts for violating Twitter terms of service. The usual suspects have joined, including David Gerard from RationalWiki. (Not linking the tweet here, because it contains the dox.)
red_admiral 6y ago
It's still a difference though if a patient searching for his real name to check if he's properly licenced etc. gets SSC as their first search result or not. Anyone selling stuff online knows that if it takes "a few minutes of googling" to find you, you might as well not exist; whether you're #1 or #2 on the search results can already have a huge impact on your bottom line and the how many people even advance to the second page of results?

by Imnimo 6y ago

_-___________-_ 6y ago

> I did it just now in a few minutes of Googling. A few minutes? Google literally suggests it as an autocomplete for me.

Imnimo 6y ago
That's what I get for using the address bar rather than the actual website!
strstr 6y ago
This was previously not the case. Cat is out of the bag though.
- toofy 6y ago
  The cats been out of the bag for a long, long time. I mean, look, if he had already had anonymity, I would absolutely be considerably more understanding of the outrage behind this, but let’s be honest, his name has been connected to ssc (simple google search levels of easy) for a long time. That fact has really made me question the motives behind why he chose this particular hill to die on.
  - tomhoward 6y ago
    The issue was debated to death when the initial story flared up, but the strongest counter-point I saw was this: Publication of his name in a NYT feature would have made a huge difference to the awareness level of his identity, vs just being able to be sniffed out by determined online sleuths, and would have dramatically altered his identifiability with respect to his clients. I can see it both ways and don't care to argue the topic any further, but this position deserves to be put.
    - toofy 6y ago
      I think it’s a bit dishonest for us to imply it would have taken a determined online sleuth — unless we now consider anyone who would have simply googled a name to be a determined sleuth. I agree though, it’s kind of a silly thing to put much concern into. I’m done worrying about it as well lol.
      - tomhoward 6y ago
        In the original discussions, people were reporting different degrees of ease of finding his name via Google. Some said it came up in autocomplete on Google when you started typing his name, whereas others didn't get this, including myself. Perhaps it was influenced by region, as I'm outside the U.S. Of course it became a whole lot easier to identify him soon after he took down his blog, as it suddenly became a much bigger discussion topic online. But being written about in the NYT still takes it to a whole new level. Without that, it's just something that nerds like us talk about on obscure discussion forums like this. When it's in a feature article in the NYT, it becomes something ordinary people talk about at dinners and cocktail parties.
ageitgey 6y ago
I have no particular interest in SSC or this controversy around it, so I have no search history around him. I just tried this and the search suggestion drop-down totally had his full name listed. That sucks.
basch 6y ago
Google also has "related searches" at the bottom of the results page. It works both ways. Searching First Middle, the related searches return First Middle Last. Searching First Last still for the most part accomplishes what he wants, not bringing up a lot about his online life, however the related searches hint at it, by showing First Last Middle, and First Last 'Blog'.

Joeboy 6y ago

I think these things have become truer since the NYT debacle, due to people spamming his real name in lots of public places. Among many other examples, somebody set up a linkedin profile under his real name, listing his occupation as "author of slatestarcodex blog".

Viliam1234 6y ago
There was a campaign on Twitter recently, people encouraging each other to post Scott Alexander's full name, because "if all the hundreds of people who know his real last name just started saying it we could put an end to this ridiculous farce". Translation: if enough people join this doxing campaign, it will be difficul to report our accounts for violating Twitter terms of service. The usual suspects have joined, including David Gerard from RationalWiki. (Not linking the tweet here, because it contains the dox.)

red_admiral 6y ago

It's still a difference though if a patient searching for his real name to check if he's properly licenced etc. gets SSC as their first search result or not. Anyone selling stuff online knows that if it takes "a few minutes of googling" to find you, you might as well not exist; whether you're #1 or #2 on the search results can already have a huge impact on your bottom line and the how many people even advance to the second page of results?