In light of the whole Kaitlin/Number six outing episode, subsequent followup episodes, and the “Who are you–really?” fad, I was wondering about the general practice of searching a Doper’s posting history in order to compile a biography of that Doper, and to check it for veracity.
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Is this inherently a bad, or jerkish, thing to do?
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If a Doper’s posting history reveals inconsistency of facts, trivial or not, is it legitimate to ask for some sort of reconciliation?
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Should this sort of tracing be merely what Dopers should expect, given the registration agreement’s warnings against too much self-revelation?
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Even if no factual inconsistencies are found, would many posters’ accumulated histories reveal too much truth about him/her?
By number 4, I mean that facts, harmless in themselves, could reveal potentially damaging information about posters that they’re unaware they’re revealing. For example, yesterday I revealed that I live in a high-rise building. In another post, two years ago, let’s say I revealed the general neighborhood in which I live, and let’s say last year I showed an indepth knowledge of one small part of that neighborhood, and then six months ago I revealed that I live almost exactly equidistant between two subway lines. None of these facts are potentially identifying in themselves, but put them together, and voila–you know exactly which building I live in. It’s easy to use further clues to identify who I am more precisely.
Now, probably (IMO) tracing someone’s posting history for its own sake, and then revealing what you know on the boards, could be mildly jerkish (Look how smart I am, or Look how dumb you are), or it could be between online buddies a kind of amusing game (“Say, aren’t you the guy who said he was trying to gain some weight last year? From what you’re saying now about your current diet, it sounds like you’ve accomplished your goal, so good for you!”), or it could be (in the Pit) an accusation of chicanery and possibly even trolling.
OTOH, it could be seen as a legitimate way to question a poster’s bona-fides (“You say you’ve got extensive experience in the oil business, but here you say your father bankrolled your business, and here you talk about having gone belly-up in three separate businesses, and here you blame yourself for losing a fortune because of your own poor judgment, so why should you be regarded as an authority on business?”)
Before this whole fad gets off the ground, can we explore the philosophical wisdom of such research?