How anonymous are you?

Not very.  If someone could be arsed to trawl back through all the drivel I post on here, they'd probably pick up enough snippets eventually to figure out where I live if they really wanted to. Plenty of other random people know where I live or can easily find out off the forum, so I don't lose much sleep over it tbh.

Not telling

Not bothered at all about anonymity on here, the stupid name was chosen when I didn’t know I was going to get hooked on the forum. Use the same name on Pinkbike purely for consistency. My real name, Adrian Clarke, well it’s hardly unique.

Not consciously.
I clearly don’t use my real name but I’m sure someone could work out who I was if they really wanted to.
I don’t think I post anything too dodgy so am not too fussed.

Well, when you are interviewing someone for a job, and they say they couldn't find me on the web, but then told me all about my line manager. Let's say he didn't get the job.

Not very. If someone could be arsed to trawl back through all the drivel I post on here, they’d probably pick up enough snippets eventually to figure out where I live if they really wanted to. Plenty of other random people know where I live or can easily find out off the forum, so I don’t lose much sleep over it tbh.

Likewise.

Pretty sure I've posted photos of the front door etc on door threads...

I take a similar view to you. I’m happy to share real world info with genuine members I interact with / be happy to meet in person for rides if required.

I’d still like to retain a semblance of anon to the raw internet and world at large.

I think as a whole, outside of wood stove conversations, this is probably one of the least controversial places out there to be uncovered if did happen. For the most part everyone is polite anon or not and I wouldn’t change it.

I'm so anonymous that my replying to this thread means I'm going to now track down everyone who reads it and kill them.

Anyone who can be arsed can find out who I am.  Its not terribly exciting nor much use to anyone.  I try not to make it too obvious or easy however.

https://youtube.com/shorts/Z09wD8avAjk?feature=share

I like to preserve my mythical malevolent presence.

<p>Big mistake posting under the illusion that you’ve anonymous. Unless you are very careful indeed to cover your tracks, you aren’t. <br /><br /></p><p>Don’t post anything you’d be embarrassed to post under your real name is my rule. Ok I push the boundary a little, but not too much. </p>

I’be held off with a few things but not bothered overall. I’m not that interesting to be bothered about giving too much away 🤣

Not very anonymous, but then I find the way I use the internet is the way I'd try to interact in the real world. Try not to be a dick and be conscious of what I post. Hence I've typed out so many responses to threads then decided not to hit submit, as either its adding nothing new to the discussion or on reflection  the tone isn't right.

I still stand by my banning from Twitter for calling Farage an abusive term I'd happliy use to his face.

This is my only online persona other than Google knowing exactly what I'm thinking ect.

I've just missed out on a internal interview because I'm not social enough. or they found out I'm a grumpy sod in the morning

Not very. Used my real name on here a few times and have talked about where I grew up and where I live now. Had a few arguments on here and had a few warnings for calling people names. Would do the same in the real world though 😂

Haven’t knowingly met many forum members apart from when selling or buying bikes from them. Everyone I have met has been lovely.

My ex bosses husband is also a frequent lurker and sometime poster. Used to make me laugh when she would mention something I’d posted on here. Again both really lovely people though.

I like to keep vaguely anon here as I feel more comfortable being open about stuff.

Also, my real name is unique as far as I know, and due to my previous occupation can be easily tied to various other internet presences and profiles. So I like to keep a step apart from all that too.

I'm Dave but like fossy I prefer to keep my personal and work lives separate, if only because I've seen what unfettered access to your social media can bring up. I'm not hiding my personality but it's more a case of using "you know who I'm am but can't prove it" as a way to comply with social media policies since nobody can claim that anything I post could be insinuated to be said in an official capacity.

As I am using my real name then only partly anonymous as only surname.

Here is one of the places I post under my own name. As a result, I’m careful about what I share in terms of personal information, but I also do it because I means I’ll never post something here that I wouldn’t say to someone’s face, nor would I be concerned if it was read back to me in court or to my employer 🙂

.

Used to be very anonymous as it was part of my contract at my old job, no mention of what I did on social media etc as I was a cash delivery driver, got even more strict when I became a key holder for the whole cash processing site. Since changing jobs I've become more relaxed about what I post here and elsewhere but have always taken the view that I would never post anything that I wouldn't say I real life, either in general or to a particular person. I do lead a pretty anonymous life in general though, I like to keep a low profile and just get on with my own little world when I can so there's very few pictures of me out there. I could probably be found from my ramblings on here due to pictures of my cars and places I've mentioned as regular haunts but in over 10 years of posting on here I've only once had someone I didn't know call me by my username and that was because they recognized the bike I was on and that was at a Cotic-organised ride in the FOD anf had mentioned in here I was going to it.

So in general I am pretty anonymous, here and in real life.

If you could be bothered to trawl through my old posts, it would take about 10 minutes to track me down as I live in a small village known to many and work in the oldest, well-known shop here.

If you can track down where my big red mining ship is in the galaxy then you’re doing well.l 😀

In all honesty being anonymous on here never crossed my mind when I chose my surname as my username.

I used to have a very vague user name but changed it after The Great Hack whenever that was. Now I use parts of my son's name and he wishes I didn't. As for anonymity on here... I do try to keep things vague enough that if  friends, family or work colleagues read my posts/comments they couldn't identify me.

What is this anonymous you speak of 🙂

I don’t post piccies of my face but tbh that’s due to not being instafriendly and I wouldn’t be gurning all over Facebook either.

I think to us non-celebrities being anonymous or not makes little difference other than upsetting work or inviting people to steal our bikes 🙂

Have you ever resisted posting if it gave too much away about your identity

TBH my first names Bruce and I’ve a bit of a rubber fetish and enjoy dark nights out swinging around doing my bit for the neighbourhood watch.

I'm anonymous (ish). My current gig requires it. My real world name is uncommon, too, so there's that.

Have never tried particularly hard to be anonymous, apart from this not being my real name*

I'm not all over the internet/socials but I assume I'm not that hard to find

*

my user name is my name and I must know a dozen or so posters on here IRL, so not very.

I wish I was, not that it would change the way I am on here.  I was just very naive when it came to registering and perhaps didn't wxpect myself to become a semi-regular poster on here.  I would still like to change my username but also cant be bothered with the faff especially as I'm a full subscriber.  Not gonna go back to the nightmare of pop ups, etc just for a different username.

Its difficult to imagine how I could make myself any less anonymous

My user name may as well be my actual name as thats what everyone has called me since I was at school

I've been on here since more or less issue 1, always under the same name and there's probably enough info in terms of me mentioning local trails, basic backstory stuff (you could probably find my degree pretty easily in a trawl through my posts for example) and it wouldn't be that difficult to put 2 & 2 together.

I've also met quite a number of STWers in real life and there's a reasonable number of folk locally.

Twitter, Strava, Facebook and Instagram all use my real name - still wish I had a marginally more anonymous name on Twitter.

My take on Internet anonymity is thus:

If you don't want to risk data accidentally bleeding into the public domain, don't post it in the first place. Friends-locked posting is no security at all.

I have an Internet footprint the size of Belgium. If anyone really cared sufficiently to try I'm not hard to find. I've tried to keep my surname off the forum for the simple reason that there may be those who wish me ill will. When I agreed to be a moderator I was, and I quote, "very strongly advised" by Mark to remain anonymous. I refused because I couldn't make the role what I wanted it to be whilst being invisible. This bit me in the arse once when a former, ahem, 'banned' user started stalking me across social media, but I nipped that nonsense in the bud sharpish.

If you don’t want to risk data accidentally bleeding into the public domain, don’t post it in the first place.

Nothing new under the Sun shocker...

Having said that I'm not very anonymous, I share my name with a quite famous Aussie Rules footballer and an quite well actor shares my surname, so a casual google doesn't turn up much before quite a few pages in.

I don't even ride a Whyte any more....

I'd love to post some stuff but given my line of work I don't want any potential conflict of interest. However if I told you my line of work, I'd have to kill you....

I don't even know who am I half the time.

However if I told you my line of work, I’d have to kill you….

Are you a vicar?

Not very.

This bit me in the arse once when a former, ahem, ‘banned’ user started stalking me across social media, but I nipped that nonsense in the bud sharpish.

By marrying her?

This bit me in the arse once when a former, ahem, ‘banned’ user started stalking me across social media, but I nipped that nonsense in the bud sharpish.

Now, I wonder who that could be… 🤔

While I’ve never to my knowledge used my real name here, someone from here asked me if I was count zero from STW when I was at a gig once, which was a bit of a surprise.

Once in the middle of Hawes a complete stranger wandered up and asked was I bunnyhop. Still to this day I have no idea who he was.

It's hard to be anonymous when you've gone mtbiking with many, many mtbers from STW. I'm also married to a well known STWer.

By marrying her?

Oddly enough, I did genuinely marry a Louise. Albeit briefly.

dovebikerFull Member
If you could be bothered to trawl through my old posts, it would take about 10 minutes to track me down as I live in a small village known to many and work in the oldest, well-known shop here.

The hardware shop?

Then there is a solid chance I was unwittingly chatting to you last month when I was up buying some bits an bobs!

I've made myself a bit too obvious to identify in the past and rolled back a bit in the last few years. Mainly because having my social media posts identifiable at work, especially when political would not be ideal with some of my 'client group' at work. A couple of times users have put two and two together and worked out who I am but have been good enough to not put enough extra keywords in a post to make the thread appear if you Google the real me.

I'd say if (geez, it better be when) I change career I'd care less. Having said that I won't post on a Facebook group with totally open settings simply because I really don't want real life friends and relatives reading me bickering about packrafts and the merits of different fat bike routes in their feed. I do like a bit life life separation it seems.

I am quite a inconspicuous looking bloke.  So I find it quite easy to be anonymous.

A couple of times users have put two and two together

You are George Osbourne and I claim my £5!

If you've put two and two together and got five, you're probably George Osbourne.

My first foray(1990s) into an online 'community' was on a site called Active Worlds,a bit like an early Minecraft.
You got an avatar shape that you could use to visit different sections and 'chat' (in text) to other avatars that you would meet.
Most of the other people were Americans as a lot of them seemed to get free Internet access (dial up).
At the time I was working at a University,so the connection/rendering speed was good,and it was all a bit of fun at lunchtimes.
Being a bit new to all this I left my ICQ messenger contact details linked to my Avatar profile.
Some of the random nasty stuff send from crazy Americans was off the scale,from those early days, I knew there was no way I wanted any of my real life details ever getting into the hands of people like that. Tried to stay (mostly) anonymous ever since,especially on any public forums.

Ah, ICQ. That would've been 1998.

I am probably not too anonymous, more so now my employer have asked for staff’s social media details. I hold back from some commenting because I don’t want to be on a disciplinary, I suspect there’s a few on here in a similar position

I'm not anonymous at all. I've never met another Ambrose (my real name) and have had an online presence for many years. I'll be easy to find. Knowing this I try hard not to post anything at all inflammatory. I deliberately stay clear of the political debates.

my employer have asked for staff’s social media details.

Wait, what?

I hope you answered in the style of Malcolm Tucker. The **** business of theirs is your personal life?

Yeh, that response would definitely have you ****ed up and on a charge of some sort.

My name is Kelvin. I’m open about the work I do, and where I live, when contributing to this forum (and in the distant past the magazine).

I’m anonymous enough. Only been recognised in public twice. And Tbf, it was the bike that was recognised, not me.

To all the other MTBers called Tom Howard (there’s a few, if various FB marketplace is to believed), I’m sorry.

I keep my professional life and social life pretty far appart, but in the bikey world of niche tat and singlespeeds a lot of folks know me and my mug shot has been in mtb magazines around the globe, so if anyone is arsed to track down a beardy heavily tattooed ****, its pretty easy 🤣

I'm very amorous, you feeling lucky?

Everything I post is generated by AI.

I used to be djaustin till the great bike theft. Then I switched to TiRed. I’m not bothered about anonymity, but then I think about what I want to post. If you’re interested, I’m here… I also follow my company policy on social media, here is no different. I treat you all as I would in person. And have met some of you face to face.

Yeh, that response would definitely have you **** up and on a charge of some sort.

What sort of charge?

Unless there are atypical security / safeguarding issues, if your employer wants to read your public Facebook feed they can go find it. Did you share your STW profile details also?

Madness.

If you’re interested, I’m here…

OBE? Christ.

I've followed you, anyway. For no real reason.

I post on LinkedIn occasionally. Geeky science stuff. I don’t post on social media, other than here, but have accounts on Twitter and Facebook (Insta for the nephews and nieces). Henry the dog has an Instagram page though.

I read the title as 'How enormous are you?'.

How anonymous am I?

You tell me?

Don't think I've made enough impact for anyone to gas!

I knew TiRed was/had an OBE and had been considerably more than "quite clever" about Covid stuff. That's an impressive set of skills. I suspect he's going to get an interesting cross section of profile views this week!

I've never really thought this place suffered badly from being behind pseudonyms. There's a few on here who I know in real life and I think we mostly know the others' forum personas by accident not design but we don't interact much/at all on here - save it for the pub. Pretty sure where I've posted a photo it'll identity me via Flickr or some such.

Love this place quite a few superstars. Couple of years ago one of our cycling buddies had a incident and it turned out the the quiet lady in our group was a retired heart surgeon of some note.

<hr />

I've posted enough here for folk to get within a mile of my place. But there are a LOT of houses there.

Previous life and real name scattered around here too.

Best of luck trying to find images of me. Lots in print but all  pre social media and the rise of the Internet.

I don't think my user name is that anonymous.
I'd rather not know the real identities of STW users as I have my own humourous mental images of people.

There's a boat near me called Cougar. I see MCTD as Scrooge McDuck, you get the idea.

I think the hospital has my medical records tagged under both my real and forum name.

I’m not that bothered. I realised in the 90s that I have an almost unique name and I would always be easy to find in the digital world. My personal social media rules are ‘would I say it in person?’ and apart from on here I use my real name (Beate Kubitz). I just didn’t think of doing that when I signed up so I borrowed my dog’s name. She was way nicer than me anyway.

Much like everyone else, I imagine I would be easy to track down. And also vice versa (real name to online name). When I started joining forums having a username was the done thing, before facebook etc popularised real names. My username should now be whitespoke.

Not in the slightest. Photos of myself, Flickr links and just shared a screenshot of a Strava ride with my full name showing.

I'm sure there'll be some on here who know me in real life other than the (currently) one that I know of, but they haven't shown themselves yet 🤣

[i]I’m sure there’ll be some on here who know me in real life [/i]

I know who you are.
I know where you live.
I really wish you would tidy your wardrobe.

Best of luck trying to find images of me. Lots in print but all pre social media and the rise of the Internet.

I distinctly remember you posting an image of yourself, after starting a thread following some sort of injury, there were several comments claiming that you looked like I can't remember who.

Based on that I could definitely pick you out in an identity parade!

A little OT but I saw someone posted on FB anonymously they other day with some ad or other and "please DM me for details"

the use of usermames is a bit of a thowback really - the forum is older than 'social media' / Web 2.0 and predates the notion of most people having some sort of public profile online for either work or social purposes. (plenty of nerds would but your mum wouldn't)

On forums like this your identity doesnt really matter.- we're a bunch of voices contributing to a common topic and it's pretty much irrelevant who any of us actually are. Its sort of the opposite of a something like Facebook - here we're a bunch of mostly strangers who have one thing in common, Facebook is mostly a bunch of people you know...other than that, have nothing in common. The convention of forums of this vintage has always been to contribute under a nickname probably for no real reason other than real names are in relatively short supply - people would generally already have had to create some sort of avatar for their hotmail or AOL account because it turned out there were already hundreds or people with the same name as them already registered so using a nickname of some sort so  was the common convention when setting up any kind of internet account.

I can post frequently and freely and candidly on here because theres a fair chance people reading anything will be broadly interested. I rarely post anything  of substance on Facebook becuase theres not really anything that I want to address to an audience that includes work colleagues past and present, friends, neighbours and aunties and cousins.

But I think a big difference between here and a lot of other public platforms though is in many other cases your history is deletable - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and so on - you can edit and  delete any and all of your history if you ever wanted to - the opportunity exists to make a fresh start. Forums like this just couldn't function that way so you contributions to them will be around indefinitely.

OBE? Christ.

Impressive CV - who knew we had the actual son of God posting here. How's your dad?