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This is why I try to use the same name across websites. I want to be identified as the same person. Just resist the urge to post information you don't want othe

This is why I try to use the same name across websites. I want to be identified as the same person. Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have.

betaby 2y ago
> Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have. Self-censor you mean? I personally like that information anonymous account `William Shakespeare` posted around 1585–1613.
- derektank 2y ago
  I don't understand what point you're trying to draw here. William Shakespeare was by no means anonymous in his day and age and he almost certainly had to consider the views of the aristocracy and other elite figures that might watch his plays i.e. self censor. Ben Johnson, a contemporary playwright, was imprisoned for writing "The Isle of Dogs".
  - eks391 2y ago
    I think parent is saying that by self-censoring, expression others enjoy is lost, with the example of Shakespear as an expresser whose impact would have been lost if he'd decided to be anonymous instead.
cruffle_duffle 2y ago
The secret is multiple accounts. I too have a Brand Name Account(tm) I like to float around but it sure as heck isn’t this one. Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy while others aren’t so much. Plus laziness kicks in and soon enough your Brand Name Account gets tainted and you have to consider taking it out back to the dumpster. Such is life I guess.
- moehm 2y ago
  > Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy And it's as easy to dox yourself by responding with the wrong account, as I have seen multiple times on Reddit.
  - idontlikeirc 2y ago
    This happens a lot with viral-bait accounts. One of the top posts on the UFO board just got caught sockpuppeting this week.
  - john_the_writer 2y ago
    trick here.. create different chrome profiles, with different color schemes. Peach is my "nice person" account. Red is for accounts that I want to be a little more argumentative. I do this at work too.. where I have to have different user profiles to emulate working as an admin, staff, client, sub-client. Blue seems adminny :)
    - CRConrad 2y ago
      I do a similar thing with my terminal emulator: Different background colours in PuTTY depending on which server it's connected to. Green for Dev, red for Prod...
- sangnoir 2y ago
  > The secret is multiple accounts. There was a "show hn" many months ago that did stylometry on HN commenters to show which accounts were most stylistically similar; I ran a throwaway account of mine through it, and it showed my account in the top 3 - which was impressive. Having multiple accounts won't save you when your own word choice, grammar and style can uniquely identify you to anyone sufficiently motivated to link your disparate identities at any point in the future. The author even said their tool was rather basic; IIRC the basis was all pairs similarity on n-grams
  - 2y ago
prophesi 2y ago
We often don't know what is or isn't information we don't want others to have, and it will be a lot harder, if not impossible, to delete it after-the-fact. Especially when you consider how it only takes a few innocuous data points to derive what might be information you'd rather not disclose.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Then I wouldn't be able to talk about my kinks anywhere

This is why I try to use the same name across websites. I want to be identified as the same person. Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have.

betaby 2y ago

> Just resist the urge to post information you don't want others to have. Self-censor you mean? I personally like that information anonymous account `William Shakespeare` posted around 1585–1613.

derektank 2y ago
I don't understand what point you're trying to draw here. William Shakespeare was by no means anonymous in his day and age and he almost certainly had to consider the views of the aristocracy and other elite figures that might watch his plays i.e. self censor. Ben Johnson, a contemporary playwright, was imprisoned for writing "The Isle of Dogs".
- eks391 2y ago
  I think parent is saying that by self-censoring, expression others enjoy is lost, with the example of Shakespear as an expresser whose impact would have been lost if he'd decided to be anonymous instead.

cruffle_duffle 2y ago

The secret is multiple accounts. I too have a Brand Name Account(tm) I like to float around but it sure as heck isn’t this one. Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy while others aren’t so much. Plus laziness kicks in and soon enough your Brand Name Account gets tainted and you have to consider taking it out back to the dumpster. Such is life I guess.

moehm 2y ago
> Doing the multiple account thing isn’t as easy as it sounds though. Some sites like Reddit make switching between accounts incredibly easy And it's as easy to dox yourself by responding with the wrong account, as I have seen multiple times on Reddit.
- idontlikeirc 2y ago
  This happens a lot with viral-bait accounts. One of the top posts on the UFO board just got caught sockpuppeting this week.
- john_the_writer 2y ago
  trick here.. create different chrome profiles, with different color schemes. Peach is my "nice person" account. Red is for accounts that I want to be a little more argumentative. I do this at work too.. where I have to have different user profiles to emulate working as an admin, staff, client, sub-client. Blue seems adminny :)
  - CRConrad 2y ago
    I do a similar thing with my terminal emulator: Different background colours in PuTTY depending on which server it's connected to. Green for Dev, red for Prod...
sangnoir 2y ago
> The secret is multiple accounts. There was a "show hn" many months ago that did stylometry on HN commenters to show which accounts were most stylistically similar; I ran a throwaway account of mine through it, and it showed my account in the top 3 - which was impressive. Having multiple accounts won't save you when your own word choice, grammar and style can uniquely identify you to anyone sufficiently motivated to link your disparate identities at any point in the future. The author even said their tool was rather basic; IIRC the basis was all pairs similarity on n-grams
- 2y ago

prophesi 2y ago

We often don't know what is or isn't information we don't want others to have, and it will be a lot harder, if not impossible, to delete it after-the-fact. Especially when you consider how it only takes a few innocuous data points to derive what might be information you'd rather not disclose.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago

Then I wouldn't be able to talk about my kinks anywhere