Being anonymous vs. being identified, reasons?

i am not anonymous, ive lost over 50lbs, if i can help inspire someone then i will.

I'm anonymous on every forum I'm on. I don't post pictures of my face on forums or on Facebook, and un-tag myself when people post my face.

I just don't feel like I want a bagillion hits to come up when I'm searched for.

JM

I'm not anonymous, but I do tend to keep my Facebook and MFP separate. I do on occasion mention my weight loss on FB, but I know people on there don't care as much or give as much support as people on here.

I am on here anonymously as I would be on any site open to the www. I am careful about what personal information I share. I can't see any reason anyone would need to know personal identifying information about me on this site, especially since there is no way to verify it. I don't post pics of myself or my weight loss because I promised my husband I wouldn't when I joined.

On Facebook I personally know all my friends so yeah, I post pics. But even on there I don't have my email, address or even the city in which I live available. If they aren't close enough friends to already know that, then obviously they don't need to know.

I'm anonymous (yes I have pictures of myself on here but no one apart from my hubby knows me).

I don't post to Facebook, all sites I use are private and I never tell people my usernames. Mainly because most people I know are nasty people (don't know them through choice) and will do what they can to ensure you fail so I don't tell anyone what I'm doing. Thankfully though, I am slowly weeding out the negativity.

I'm not really anonymous here--I'm pseudonymous, because I have a consistent name that I've invested in, so I have a reputation that follows me. I can be held accountable for what I say, and because I don't ever sockpuppet or change accounts on sites, I still feel social pressure. But I don't connect this pseudonym to my legal name because anything connected to *that* needs to be a press release--something I'm willing to say to everyone and stand by. I just don't want to take a stand on how many bananas you should eat every day. I want to be free to ask stupid questions and give stupid answers--and be told that I'm wrong--without it following me forever. Every conversation I have IRL is not date and time stamped, saved forever, and indexed by search engines. Instead, my verbal stupid comments are remembered by just a few people, usually people who will forgive me (which is probably why I chose to say that in front of them). Being pseudonymous makes this site *more* like real life for me--I'm free to be wrong, and to learn, among people who want to talk about health.

Anonymous. I'm not on FB for that reason. And I never use my real name on internet forums. I have no wish to be tracked down by certain family members. I'm as 'off the grid' as I can manage.
I have couple of 'names' I use on forums, one of which, not my name here, has become as much my name as my real one, I've used it that long and people I've met thru one forum usually call me by it.

I've never been anonymous on any Internet forum. But I do keep most of them separate now. I quit posting on FB as they keep changing policies and the way it works. I'll post on Google +, Runkeeper.com, Stocktwits.com, Twitter, and a sports board under either my name, a derivative of my name, or some version of baldeagle. I use each site for different purposes.

I don't link to facebook, but I post pictures of me here

I'm not on facebook. I have pictures of me on here, but I'm not going to throw my personal info out for the world to see. The reasoning would be because I'm not stupid?

It's nobody's business IRL what my weight loss goals are unless I want to include them in my journey.. I think people on this board are a lot more health-oriented than my FB friends and family, and a lot more understanding... Some people might judge "OMG, you're obsessing by tracking everything you eat" or "You should do this or that instead!"

I like to keep the two separate. I have a lot of coworkers on my FB, I don't want them all up in my business. You guys are a different social circle, and a very helpful one at that. That's just the way I think...

^This^.

Once in awhile I do post something about exercising on FB but it's separate from what I post here. And just once in awhile. Not everybody needs to know all my business.

i don't like to fb, but i will put pics up here, so not really anonymous. i like to be myself here, and not worry about what any of my "real" friends think. i had some IRL friends on my list originally, but booted them after a month or so. i am loving it here, and actually feel like you guys know me better than some in my real life. which is maybe a little sad... oh well, it works for me.

Not anonymous on FB but here, yes. I've searched and been able to find several IRL friends, but I don't want any of them to see my diary or know what I'm posting or doing. I haven't added them and saw how easy it was to find people on here. I created a "junk" email that I use on here that no one else knows so they can't search for me. I haven't posted any pictures yet on here. This journey I'm doing for ME not for THEM so THEY don't need to know until I'm DONE! :bigsmile:

I have my photos but I don't have my name up anywhere. My photos aren't searchable on google, 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.