Wow our pictues and posts are right out there for the entire world to see, huh?

I just logged out and then googled myself and the word Permies. What came up in the search was a multitude of links including my about me page. I just was pretty surprised that as a non-member (remember that I was not logged in at this time) I was able to see every post, every fact about me, everything I would have been happy to share with Permies members, but perhaps not the whole world.

Just putting that out there.

Now you can see what the WWW stands for.  Or maybe why some don't use their real names.

Peace

This post has been edited to comply with Paul's rules. Sorry Paul!

It's always a worry using one's legal name for online stuff. There's just too much room for weirdness, darkness, deceit, and mayhem. I'm more comfortable when a search turns up other folks in a different country, usually on Face-Thingy or Linked-Out. None of us are hard to track down, but we don't need to give bots and scrapers a freebie either.

I don't know the mechanisms, but perhaps you can talk staff into rebranding your previous posts with a newly chosen name that reflects your personality or something. Pleased to meet you, Carolina Tamarack.

This post has been edited to comply with Paul's rules. Sorry Paul!

https://permies.com/t/106355/real-sounding-edge-cases

Saying your user name isn't your real name, breaks the policy.   Some of you might want to edit your posts

Whenever this subject comes up, I spend some time thinking about what could I possibly post here that I wouldn't want people to find with a search. I think I write respectfully about people in general. I guess if I were having a problem with a neighbor, I might want to write about it more candidly than they would really appreciate. Or I might write about ignoring local ordinances and incriminate myself for building a shed without pulling permits or composting feces...that kind of thing. But like, mostly, if the HR guy at some potential employer discovered I spend a lot of time gardening, it's hard to imagine how that might hurt anything. It feels like you all must have more interesting lives than I do.

(I'm aware that the chances of being randomly stalked are about a million times higher for anyone who presents as a woman, so there's a big helping of male privilege in the above stance that doesn't need to be corrected.)

I originally created this thread when I wanted to share about something that had gone seriously wrong in my life yesterday, and perhaps get advice, but then I realized that nonmember parties who were involved could see it, and so I was unable to do talk to anyone. It was a little sad because I really needed to get my frustrations off my chest and I was unable to do so.  So anyway, that is the history behind this post, and today is a new day.  My appreciation to the staff here who helped me out yesterday.

Pie members have access to a secret forum google cannot see.

Ah yes, the super secret pie-only forum! I will have to pay it a visit this evening. Thank you.