Being anonymous vs. being identified, reasons?

SRH7

Number of reasons...

1. I've had issues with a stalker in the past and try to stay off the 'radar' as she's been known to resurface every couple of years (she's even phoned places where I've worked before to find out where I have moved to next, called to ask for my email and phone number, started the bombardment up again etc - she used to be a friend!)

2. I'm fairly senior at work and quite well known in my field. I don't feel I can be really honest and 'me' on MFP if I think people from work might read it.

3. MFP is 'my' space! My other half and family don't understand the need I have to log what I eat and how much I exercise (they are all slim and fit and have never had to have a good hard look at their habits to sort themselves out!).

Oh, and my friends on MFP can see a photo of me in my profile - I just choose to keep my main avatar anonymous.

FitSid

I have my photos but I don't have my name up anywhere. My photos aren't searchable, but my name is. I'm quite easy to track down on the internet as my real world self has a fairly significant google footprint. I have, on one occasion, had someone from t'interweb show up at my office door at work. I don't really want that to happen to me again... :-)


By and large, though, I think people's worries about online privacy and traceability are OTT.

HOLY ****! WHAT DID YOU DO? hahaha

Pandorian

The pic I have up here isn't used on any other site, nor is my profile name, I make a unique one for all the sites I frequent. From username alone no one can backtrack and associate all these disparate things of me into a "picture" that makes up me or my habits. I don't sign up for everything under the sun, each site is about a separate interest of mine and that's "what" gets talked about.
I know too many friends that got stalked early in their internet life because of the data they put out freely to do so myself. Heck I've got family that didn't put 2 and 2 together that I'm a few timezones away from where they thought I was. I won't "sign in" if i go to events its just a matter of time before someone's house is vandalized while there is no one there through the info that they voluntarily put out there for the world to see etc.

Angelabec

I'm not anonymous as such, but I don't link to my FB account, as for the most part I don't think those friends are particularly interested in my weight loss. The people I am friends with on here have the same sort of goals as me so are more interested in what I am saying about my weight loss. I have mentioned MFP to some friends wanting to lose, and would have them as friends on here if they wanted, and I also post things on here that aren't directly linked to my weight loss, and value the input and support of the people I have met on here. I, as a person, am not separate from my goal to lose weight, so I can't disassociate myself from everything in the way that some people can, but at the same time I do understand why people choose to keep this separate from their 'real' lives and want to stay anonymous.

HeidiMightyRawr

I'm not anonymous. I keep here and FB separate though.

Here my profile is public. I post pictures but nothing really personal. My reasoning is that whatever I post, I'm quite happy for others to see (those who I may or may not know in RL)

On FB my profile is completely private apart from to friends as I have more personal info on there and more pictures etc. I have <10 people as "friends" on there that I've never met, but have spoken to regularly. The rest (~180) are all people I've met in RL. I won't add random people I don't know mainly because I don't see the point, but I also don't want just anyone seeing all my pictures and stuff.

ErrataCorrige

I a not anonymous, because when I signed up for this it was at the urging of a friend, and I wanted a user name so she could find me. Honestly, because I thought I would never keep doing this.

Now I would change my name to something more anonymous, if I could think of anything clever enough. But I can't, so I haven't.