My wife and kids know about here because I will sometime talk about threads, but she doesn’t have any interest in it.
I swear my parents have to be sick of me saying something by starting with “On the dope”. I must mention this place each time I see them.
My kids understand what it’s about but neither are into message boards.
I just say, “something I read on the internet”.
I also keep it a secret. This place is my little private space, and I don’t need my real-life friends getting too snoopy 'bout me.
So when somebody asks"which message board?" , I answer with a little white lie:
I say “on reddit.”
Reddit is a huge site*, so it’s easy to be vague about it and nobody asks nosy questions.
- (and some of its subforums are as good as the Dope–but they’re just too big to be as friendly and personal.)
My wife knows about it. She also knows what a message board and pretty much any other “internet thing” is.
As a matter of fact, this handle is one my wife frequently uses, I kind of stole it from her. I use several handles all over the 'net. Even places that require real names are usually pseudonyms. I suppose if someone who knew me read my posting history they might be able to divine who I am, but I try to keep my usage here on the DL. I’m more likely to get political or whatever here then other places, and I don’t like people to know my politics and other private things IRL.