Google doesn’t know me by my real name or “c_carol”, but when I search “c_carol straight dope”, it tells me I’m an admin and moderator. I only just now realized that it might have me confused with CairoCarol.
Not exactly - I have never been an admin or moderator at SDMB; I’ve been a mod elsewhere but never an admin. Curious.
There have been other posters with similar names (CarolStream comes to mind) but AFAIK none of them have been moderators either.
The real question is, are you, like so many of us, famous for writing about coworker Joan, the boombox-thieving hosebeast? 
Interestingly enough, Gemini doesn’t know enough about me to determine anything about my political beliefs. I even asked if that was because of a safety block on its programming, and it said no.
I asked it to limit its search to the SDMB, and it weighted my contributions to fluff pieces in Thread Games and Cafe Society, and didn’t mention my presence in Politics and Elections and The Pit, in which I’ve made my feelings pretty well known.
I find that very interesting, and reassuring.
Copilot " *Tell me about poster Melbourne on the Straight Dope Message Board:"
" No publicly indexed information specifically identifies a Straight Dope Message Board poster named “Melbourne.” The available search results describe the forum itself and its Australian‑focused sister board, but none mention a user by that handle."
ChatGPT “Tell me about user Melbourne on the Straight Dope”
user “Melbourne” on the Straight Dope Message Board refers to a long‑time forum member known for participating in discussions related to Australia, local culture, and general community threads.
The first time I tried this, probably using ChatGPT, it instead told me that I was known and respected for legal topics. It was a bit over the top. I like flattery, but it needs to be a bit more subtle than that was. I don’t know why it’s apparently changed it’s opinion about what I post.
Here’s what Google AI said about @Melbourne -
On the
Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB), Melbourne is a longtime Australian poster known for providing detailed, often authoritative perspectives on Australian culture, legal systems, and history.
User Profile Highlights
Location: As the username suggests, they are based in Melbourne, Australia.
Expertise: They frequently contribute to threads involving Australian law, social policy, and the intricacies of Commonwealth governance.
Posting Style: Melbourne is generally regarded as a measured and informativeposter. They tend to stick to factual discussions in forums like **“General Questions”**and “Great Debates,” often “fighting ignorance” by clearing up misconceptions about life in the Southern Hemisphere for the board’s largely American user base.
Tenure: They have been an active member for many years, becoming a recognizable fixture in the “Teeming Millions” community.
You can find their recent activity and contributions directly on the Straight Dope Message Board.
For my real name (which is uncommon, though there is now one more person with my exact first/last name due to my father’s first cousin remarrying) :
“is a prominent academic librarian currently serving as the (my work title) at the (my workplace). She has been a fixture at workplace since 2010, where she leads teams of A to do B. “
I’m not sure I’d say “prominent”…
For the other:
“There is also a Dr. Name associated with Different University, where she is an Assistant Professor of X in the School of Y “
to continue:
“The librarian MyName is known for being an avid road-tripper, having driven solo across the U.S. twice. She is also famously anti-pineapple on pizza.”
I mean…”avid” would be a hard sell on my feelings toward road tripping, but I have made that drive twice. And I’ve mellowed a bit on pineapple as I’ve aged. I still don’t choose it, but I don’t recoil in horror.
I checked today and it’s accurate except for one publication it says is mine and forthcoming, but is someone else’s from the same page.
I was intrigued and a bit alarmed to see how much it knew about me. It described me as an “educator, author, and community leader” (not sure about that last part but it sounds good) and then went on to list, among other things:
*the K-12 schools and colleges where I have taught, and my main subjects, going back to the 1980s
*the titles of some of the books and educational materials I have written (none of which you have ever heard of)
*my position in church leadership and at which institution
*the colleges where I got my B.A. and later my M.A.
*the birth and death years (and college B.A.) of my late wife
*a soubriquet by which I have often been known in my K-12 teaching
Some of it easy enough to find, others…not so much.
Then I asked it to tell me about the straight dope poster Ulf the Unwashed and got an…interesting…response. First it noted that I am a “prolific poster” (I don’t think I am) and “part of the community’s old guard” (likewise). It went on to say that I participate in threads “ranging from history and linguistics to daily trivia” (which I think describes most of us).
And then, the bombshell–I apparently died in 2007. There was evidently a memorial thread, which I unfortunately never got to see.
So there are still a few bugs in the system, unless I am seriously deluding myself about still being among the living.
Fun question. Thanks to @CairoCarol for starting the thread.
For reasons I won’t go into, only because I don’t want Google AI to know, I spent years avoiding any kind of identifiable internet presence. I’ve been recently forced to give my email address and identifying details to a number of banks and government and sporting authorities, which disgusts me for reasons I won’t go into only because… But at present my real ID does not exist