# So, my kids found out my Straightdope identity **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 1, 2024, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681 "2024-04-01T14:49:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/101 "2024-04-04T14:52:35Z")
They do have a perfectly open “Guest” title, that could be their custom one! ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/102 "2024-04-04T15:12:46Z")
For years I read the end of any Mean Mister Mustard post as a contented “m-m-m-m.” I still do ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/103 "2024-04-04T17:07:15Z")
My _hot polo_ take is this is _bad bad bad_. 😊 But man that was my favorite laugh today, so far. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/104 "2024-04-04T17:12:36Z")
I don’t see how anonymous one would remain if the mods are privy to your sock request. That could go terribly sideways ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/105 "2024-04-04T17:19:07Z")
Puts a tough burden on the Mod also. Someone guesses and gives away who the poster is as posting style is often a give away and they might instead blame the Mods. I see far more downside than not. I would not volunteer for it, that’s for sure. But I speak only for myself. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/106 "2024-04-04T17:35:27Z")
Y’all investigate if it’s obvious, right? I mean their IP addy or something? ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/107 "2024-04-04T17:41:38Z")
Generally the Mods don’t talk about their methods, to better prevent the trolls from circumventing them! Everyone is going to have different levels of comfort about sharing (or oversharing in my case sometimes), but IMHO… if we care enough about it, AND we’re looking for help _here_, it’s because we trust the posters here (okay, probably trust _most_ of the posters here, there’s outliers) to give us helpful and useful advice. Otherwise, if the value was more on no-one knowing, we could ask anywhere else in the wide internets. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/108 "2024-04-04T17:46:29Z")
You mean for trolls? We go through a series of simple and more complex checks when something seems suspicious. But some posters have returned and behaved for years and only got caught after they did something dumb. Then there are spammers, we delete 6-12 spammers every day I would guess. They’re very obvious and we don’t track them. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/109 "2024-04-04T17:48:32Z")
Ahh. Okay. Sounds like you got it covered. Thumbs up 🕶 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/110 "2024-04-04T17:51:52Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Then there are spammers, we delete 6-12 spammers every day I would guess. They’re very obvious and we don’t track them. Unless it’s the following: > Waitress: …or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam. What? It’s MPSIMS + a Monty Python Crack! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/111 "2024-04-04T18:46:13Z")
> [@chela](#): > > I don’t see how anonymous one would remain if the mods are privy to your sock request. That could go terribly sideways I trust our mods not to blab. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Someone guesses and gives away who the poster is as posting style is often a give away and they might instead blame the Mods. Just another layer of indignity for innocent moderators! I doubt it would happen - certainly not regularly, though some jerk could cause trouble once in a great while, I imagine. Anyhow, I know this is not going to happen and I am not trying to plead with mods to make it a reality. Having been a mod myself (not on this board) I know very well that the view can look quite different from the moderator side of things. I’m not trying to create extra work for the mod team, this is just idle “what if …” musing on my part. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/112 "2024-04-04T18:51:18Z")
I mean, you could apply to a single mod to request a thread-specific sock with a standardized naming convention, and a mods-only ATMB thread where they’d say something like “Sock18 is approved to post in the “Let’s talk about psychiatric meds” thread”, or somesuch. Pretty well contained, but yes, more work. There are threads where I’ve really wanted to comment/get advice, and one I wanted to start, but several people here know me in real life, and so I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/113 "2024-04-04T19:37:41Z")
Same. So there’s a bunch of stuff I’ve never posted. Maybe that’s just as well. I’ve been recognized by my time of voice before. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/114 "2024-04-04T19:44:05Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Same. So there’s a bunch of stuff I’ve never posted. Maybe that’s just as well. I’ve been recognized by my time of voice before Oh, same here on a different board. But I was thinking I would just anonymize it by restating it through chatgpt. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/115 "2024-04-04T21:13:00Z")
Yep. If its 3.45 p.m. we know… ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/116 "2024-04-06T21:57:34Z")
I was first doxxed in 1991 in some Atlanta-based Prodigy board, and since then, really, I never gave a whit about having an anonymous internet profile. Makes my life easier. And as to whether people around me know, of course they do - I don’t keep the SDMB private and commonly would send my profile information (and a link) to women I dated. “Here, read all this and if you still like me, you know how to reach me”. Inna has a login, some other people I know have logins, maybe even my sister(s). And my kid? Yeah. Not only does she know, I created a thread which compiled 18-odd years of threads and posts about her and being her father, and sent her the link, saying “read this!” Did she read it? Who knows! > [@An Open Letter to my daughter, Sophia](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-open-letter-to-my-daughter-sophia/918949): > > Dear Sophia, Yeah… this is weird. I’m writing to you on some message board rather than sending you an email (though I can do that too!), where a bunch of people you don’t know can read it, but it will… I hope… all make sense in the end. I’ve been a member of this online community since before you were born, before it became a web presence, way back in the 1990s. The Straight Dope itself is a weekly newspaper column series written for an underground newspaper in Chicago starting in 1972. 20 yea… ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/117 "2024-04-14T00:33:05Z")
My wife and kids don’t know and wouldn’t care. I’ve tried to confess my secret life here (I usually refer to “a discussion on that _Messageboard of Boffins_ I spend too much time on”), but my wife’s never asked about it. Here, I’ll say something that I’d be embarrassed to have her see: _So many nights that “we” are watching one of her favorite TV shows, I’m just posting here and paying absolutely no attention._ I do have to be ready to pay attention to, say, _Grey’s Anatomy,_ while she runs to the bathroom, in case she asks “What happened?” "Well, that tall doctor, the one that used to be on a time travel drama that wasn’t Life On Mars… maybe it just wasn’t the British version… OH, wait! It was _Journeyman!_ Anyhow, he and the actress who was Chris Pratt’s girlfriend on _Everwood…"_ “Never. Mind.” . eta: “doesn’t know and wouldn’t care” is _much_ preferable to “wants to see everything I post online”… ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/118 "2024-04-14T00:47:53Z")
I’ve misread your username all along. I thought it was “soloist”. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/119 "2024-04-14T00:51:16Z")
Join the club! (Other “members” found earlier in this thread.) ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2024, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681/120 "2024-04-14T00:55:21Z")
Wow! It is indeed a big club. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-kids-found-out-my-straightdope-identity/999681.md?page=7)