Fall out from identifying posts

Who knows?

Many of us on the Good Morning thread have met in real life on many occasions, so a tad difficult to remain anonymous.

Someone once recognised herself on a thread featured on Gransnet's Facebook page - obviously more people are on FB than GN so that increased the chances of being recognised.

There was quite a kerfuffle - no idea of the fall out, hope it wasn't too bad!

My family know I post on GN.
Posters are very quick to alert others, when they are giving away too much personal info and the posts are usually deleted.
If anyone really wanted out someone, with a bit of effort and know how, it could be done. It is the same for any other social media sites, for example Facebook.

I think of the advice, I used to give my teaching colleagues: Don't post anything you would not want your granny, nor future employer to read.

In saying that, my granny died in 1956 and I am not looking for a job!

Anyone who even vaguely knows me in RL and was on GN would know me immediately.
As soon as I joined GN I realised that it was quite an ‘intimate’ site, and quickly learned to watch my p’s and q’s (but not my apostrophes )
I never post anything personal about my members of my family, unless it’s nice.
I’d never post a ‘relationship’ type thread.
I mentioned a young man who I knew who was in trouble once, and a kind poster suggested that it needed to be taken down.
You need to self regulate

I guess it is better to stay away from those threads if you find them worrying. There are plenty of other ones that don’t do that. I agree, it could be a bit dangerous re confidentiality. It’s so far away for me , thousands and thousands of miles, that I don’t really care.

Good advice Fanny.

Riverwalk

Someone once recognised herself on a thread featured on Gransnet's Facebook page - obviously more people are on FB than GN so that increased the chances of being recognised.

There was quite a kerfuffle - no idea of the fall out, hope it wasn't too bad!

Ooh! They repost threads on FB!
I didn’t know that

I think of the advice, I used to give my teaching colleagues: Don't post anything you would not want your granny, nor future employer to read.

In saying that, my granny died in 1956 and I am not looking for a job!

😁 Ditto although one Granny died before I was born and the other in 1951.

Marydoll

Good advice Fanny.

Thanks Mary x

FannyCornforth

Riverwalk

Someone once recognised herself on a thread featured on Gransnet's Facebook page - obviously more people are on FB than GN so that increased the chances of being recognised.

There was quite a kerfuffle - no idea of the fall out, hope it wasn't too bad!

Ooh! They repost threads on FB!
I didn’t know that

Some publications as far afield as Australia quote posts with usernames in their articles about older people.

If someone knows your username all they have to do is Google the name and put Gransnet they can then access lots of your posts. I warned about this a few months ago, you need to be careful what you want to keep confidential.

Yes, I think many of us were very naive when we first started to post here. And the reason I was advised to change user name, as it was too easily linked to me.

If I am writing about someone
else, say as an example of a particular experience, I will slightly change the details so they may be male online but are female in real life.

I never use the real names of family nor friends.

Hmm food for thought.

Galaxy, I shall read your posts with interest and change the gender of those mentioned.😉🤣

Ah but sometimes I dont do it, so you will never know

🤣

I changed my name when someone identified me and took a short break, but that was in the first couple of years and I have had no problems since.

Also, we do have GN meet-ups. Severaal of us meet in Oxford a couple of times a year, so do know each other.

I am one of those carteful calculating people and try to make sure that I never write anything that might 'incriminate' me.

Marydoll

I never use the real names of family nor friends.

many situations would be recognisable to close relatives and friends- names make little difference.

Fleurpepper

Marydoll

I never use the real names of family nor friends.

many situations would be recognisable to close relatives and friends- names make little difference.

Does that matter though, as long as you don’t post hurtful comments about other people who may know you? Making your views known about other issues is not really ‘outing’ because people who know you will already be aware of them.

The threads that I worry about most are not the ‘today I did this or attended this’ type threads, but the estrangement threads, because sometimes comments are made on those which would be very destructive to relationships if the poster was known to a reader.

Casdon

Fleurpepper

Marydoll

I never use the real names of family nor friends.

many situations would be recognisable to close relatives and friends- names make little difference.

Does that matter though, as long as you don’t post hurtful comments about other people who may know you? Making your views known about other issues is not really ‘outing’ because people who know you will already be aware of them.

The threads that I worry about most are not the ‘today I did this or attended this’ type threads, but the estrangement threads, because sometimes comments are made on those which would be very destructive to relationships if the poster was known to a reader.

You are correct, Casdon.

I would never go on relationship threads and there is nothing I post, which would hurt my family.

I do know of one poster, whose daughter found her username, read the posts and the fallout wasn't pleasant.

Very true, Casdon