# How well known is Anonymous in general? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238 "2021-10-10T00:56:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/1 "2021-10-10T00:56:23Z")
I saw a computer security billboard using a picture of one of the Guy Fawkes masks they allegedly use as a symbol. Are they commonly known enough for this to make sense? Or is it more a case of “if you know who this is the ad is directed at you”? ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/2 "2021-10-10T10:26:04Z")
The masks are recognizable enough without the connection with Anonymous. I think most people who keep up with the news know who Anonymous are but you have to be quite intense to fully understand or know precisely what it is they have done. I don’t think most people care enough to be honest. This group and splinter groups like it tend to go silent for long periods of time and what they produce in returning gets an awful lot of hype that doesn’t ultimately live up to it. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/3 "2021-10-10T10:34:45Z")
I’ve often seen Fawkes masks to represent clever mysterious disrupters, and have seen the capitalized word “Anonymous” as a substitute for an identifying name. I suppose numerous people wear Fawkes masks and sign themselves “Anonymous”. But the idea that there’s one particular person going by this name, who is famous for what they have done, is news to me – and I keep up with a lot of news. What is the story you’re referring to? ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/4 "2021-10-10T10:48:00Z")
No story in particular. I’ve just also seen the two associated often enough in pictures and such. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/5 "2021-10-10T10:48:24Z")
This American knows that Guy Fawkes is well-known to Brits, but I don’t remember what he is famous (or infamous?) _for_. If I was in a situation where I wanted to know anything at all about him, I’d have to look it up. And I am confident that my fellow Americans tend to know even less about him than I do. I certainly never saw a mask or a symbol and recognized it as being a Guy Fawkes mask. Gonna go google “guy fawkes mask” now. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/6 "2021-10-10T10:50:54Z")
Well, _that_ was easy! Yeah, sure, I’ve seen that mask a lot. My reaction to it is, “Oooh, the villian of the movie is now on screen! Cue the very melodramatic music!” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/7 "2021-10-10T11:14:30Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > My reaction to it is, “Oooh, the villian of the movie is now on screen! Cue the very melodramatic music!” Hero of the movie, actually. And morally ambiguous antihero in the original graphic novel. > **[V (character)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_(character))** > > V is the title character of the comic book series V for Vendetta, created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. He is a mysterious anarchist, vigilante, and freedom fighter who is easily recognizable by his Guy Fawkes mask, long hair and dark clothing. He strives to topple a totalitarian regime of a dystopian United Kingdom through acts of heroism. According to Moore, he was designed to be morally ambiguous, so that readers could decide for themselves whether he was a hero fighting for a cause or simp... ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/8 "2021-10-10T11:19:36Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > But the idea that there’s one particular person going by this name, who is famous for what they have done, is news to me – and I keep up with a lot of news. What is the story you’re referring to? They’re not referring to a single person, but a very loose organization of internet trolls turned activists. They used to be a big deal, but they’ve not gotten as much press in more recent years. When appearing in public, they would be wearing Guy Fawkes masks. > **[Anonymous (hacker group)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(hacker_group))** > > Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology. > Anonymous originated in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan representing the concept of many online and offline community users simultaneously existing as an "anarchic", digitized "global brain" or "hivemind". Anonymous members (known as anons)... ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2021, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-well-known-is-anonymous-in-general/952238/9 "2021-10-10T21:16:19Z")
I know that “Anonymous” has written a large number of poems, witty sayings, etc.