[Beyond Borders]

For those of you who are blogging, especially about controversial topics, what are your thoughts on anonymity? Why do you bother, if you indeed do? To avoid witch-hunts, hackers, identity thieves, stalkers, trolls, career problems, judgements from family?

And how seriously do you take it? Do you just take basic measures to defeat the low-level trolls and average citizens or do you go the distance to make accessing your real info extremely hard? Change names but use real photos/videos and basic personal details, or always cover your face and stay on-guard?

Just interested to get the different takes out there. Also interested in those who "let it all hang out," so to speak.

[Hoodlum]

YouSoWould here - just "outed" myself in a recent post because I've now effectively retired, and no-one can hold anything against me.

In fairness, I was probably overly paranoid not to do so sooner - my girlfriend knows about my blog, and it was never big time enough to warrant a lot of attention, at most 500 or so views a day.

That said, I was working a lucrative contract at an investment bank, and didn't want to jeopardise it, especially given that many of my posts referenced how I was doing my own work on my employer's dime :-)

[Daddy]

I live in a radical feminist province where the right is almost non-existent. If you're at a dinner table and you speak against feminism, people will look at you as if you hate women. They will want to lynch you. There is an absolute lack of discourse anywhere in the media criticizing blue bill mentality. Bringing red pill ideas to the workplace will get you marginalized quickly, forget about it. So, if it is found that you're writing a blog with those ideas, your future can be jeopardized. It would be akin to be found in a neo-nazi group.

In fact, the most recent techniques for profiling future candidates for a job is to check their Internet presence, trying to dig hidden info on them. To protect yourself you need to make a complete separate identity, with new names, nicknames and emails. Don't break this rule, as trails left on the Internet can stay there forever. Your career depends on it.

But I'm hopeful for the future. I think things are changing fast, even faster than most of us expect them to.

[WestCoast]

Unless you are certain you want to be a public figure there is ZERO value in outing yourself.

If you can stand in the ring and accept all the good and bad that will come form being public, go for it, otherwise you're burning yourself. Just look at Pax Dickinson. He obviously did not have enough success to go public or else he wouldn't have apologized.

In terms of keeping anonymity you can be extremely intense.
1. Get a friends bank account
2. Have logmein accounts and multiple people with the passwords
3. Have fake personal social media accounts in real life as well, same with emails

You can certainly be less intense but at the end of day you have to ask "What am I willing to lose". If you are doing extremely well in the USA and your information is not PC you have got a ton to lose, so only give personal info to people you trust.

As an example I have met several people off this forum but no one has a clue as to who I work for since I won't answer it and won't give you enough info to dig it up (see fake social media accounts - linked in/gmail/Facebook etc.).

---

Some notes on blogging.

1. The real money is in blue pill info
2. If you can't solve a problem you don't have good information
3. There are a lot of weirdos out there giving opinions based on zero actual life experience who steer people wrong with their useless opinions. See anyone who talks about things they have never done "Well I have never done X before but here is what I would do...." lol at this logic
4. Lots of people will try to find out who you are, but if you have more people helping you and you take precautions on identity they will end up tracking down incorrect people. And you can laugh it up. (This is for red pill info)
5. Reiterate that blue pill info pays a ton more.

[Neo]

I had a blog for a few years, that I since have marked to private. I never posted any pictures, the content was red pill basically adventures gaming, bangs, etc.

Anonymity to me was very important. I didn't tell anyone I knew about the blog. I also gave the readers plenty of false leads, changed descriptive details, and never had any of my real email addresses associated with the blog. Created a bunch of fake email accounts.

Nothing is foolproof, I mean it's possible for someone to piece together every last detail and have a high probability of finding out someone's identity.

At the same time you'd be amazed how some people take zero precautions. They use the same username for every forum, online dating profile, facebook, etc.

[tylerdurden1993]

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

[Beyond Borders]

(01-11-2014 07:15 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

If you're even half serious about your blog, you should make a decision about it now.

[tylerdurden1993]

(01-11-2014 07:21 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:15 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

If you're even half serious about your blog, you should make a decision about it now.

Hypothetically speaking what do you suggest to do to try and protect anonymity?

[RawGod]

I run an online business where my real name is out there for all to see, connected to a personal site/blog also under my real name, as well as Facebook. However, I've made the decision that it's all squeaky clean, for business purposes - no controversial posts at all.

Why offend some male feminist potential customers, when I can take their money and use it to be a degenerate?

[Beyond Borders]

(01-11-2014 07:34 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:21 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:15 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

If you're even half serious about your blog, you should make a decision about it now.

Hypothetically speaking what do you suggest to do to try and protect anonymity?

Lest I give the wrong impression, I'm not prepared to make any decisions about how far people should take anonymity or whether they should do it - that's why I started this thread. I'm just saying that your own approach is a decision you should take seriously because you don't want to wait until you have an audience before making that call.

I could give suggestions on invisibility as it's something I've had a strong interest in over the years and I've done a lot of research, but what applies to you really depends on what level of invisibility you believe is necessary, if any at all.

Just calling for opinions on the subject here. My caution to you was simply that you should have one.

[tylerdurden1993]

(01-11-2014 07:42 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:34 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:21 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(01-11-2014 07:15 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

If you're even half serious about your blog, you should make a decision about it now.

Hypothetically speaking what do you suggest to do to try and protect anonymity?

Lest I give the wrong impression, I'm not prepared to make any decisions about how far people should take anonymity or whether they should do it - that's why I started this thread. I'm just saying that your own approach is a decision you should take seriously because you don't want to wait until you have an audience before making that call.

I could give suggestions on invisibility as it's something I've had a strong interest in over the years and I've done a lot of research, but what applies to you really depends on what level of invisibility you believe is necessary, if any at all.

Just calling for opinions on the subject here. My caution to you was simply that you should have one.

Well I obviously don't use my real name and only talk about my life experiences in an abstract way so people don't find out solid details about me. I don't do anything technical to try and cover up my identity because I wouldn't know how to do it and I don't think the situation merits it.

[Wahawahwah]

Ive had a few blogs over the years.

Anonymity is important primarily because it allows me to write unfettered by the thought of other people reading it. Anonymity helps me explore contrasting, controversial or uncharacteristic subjects without being burdened by the thought of being judged, or the pressure of committing to the blog continuously or the necessity to follow a certain strain of thought or theme throughout the posts.

I have my identity, and if I KNOW that people who know me read the posts, I WILL change my style of writing, to conform to my identity, and sanitize the posts. This is the biggest problem, since writing for me is a way to break down walls, its a way of meditation..and by becoming my own censor, I'm just creating additional walls thereby defeating the whole purpose.

Since I have no interest in making money off my blogs, maintaining anonymity is slightly easier.

I create a random gmail account. I create a new wordpress account. I select a theme in keeping with the subject I want to write about. I NEVER log in to that from my home/office computer or cell phone. Write about the for a few weeks, then discard the blog.

It is important to maintain anonymity, at least initially, because there are very real consequences to your online activity... and in a lot of cases, your actions remain visible for years to come.
By remaining anonymous, you still retain the option of going public any time it suits you in the future, or of continuing to blog anonymously.

By never logging on to the blogs from home, and never logging into personal mail/facebook/linkedin from wherever one blogs, it is possible to physically separate those two identities, and imho, is a full-proof way of continuing to maintain anonymity from everyone, with the exception of hardcore stalkers.

[WestCoast]

Agree, logmein is your best friend.

Just have a shitty computer set up and you're good to go.

Once you reach a point in your career where linked-in is basically a piece of shit for networking you can completely change your online life. Bullshit jobs, bullshit career, bullshit history etc.

Logmein and VMware are hands down the greatest inventions for privacy. Good luck tracking down someone who's logged into the same server from 7 different cities lol!

[Hades]

There are risks involved in outing yourself publicly, some of these risks may even pay off.

If you out yourself, you're held accountable to the general public. What if the guy running a blog about "the ease of quitting smoking" was a regular chainsmoker, or another dude running a weightloss blog was a big fat fucker? You have to commit to the blog posts and show some results, or people aren't going to consider you an authority on anything.

Blogging anonymously has it's upsides, it's great to have a private life, but among it's biggest downsides is that implies less commitment towards the goal and the speaker (more or less automatically) has less credibility.

[worldwidetraveler]

Unless you plan on marketing yourself as a brand, there is no reason to use your real identity.

[WestCoast]

^yep.

The credibility thing actually isn't as bad as people make it out to be. If your information is true you gain a lot of traction. Only idiots think they can fake real life experience. There are a few people who "write very well" and gain traction. Unfortunately, the real smart people will realize their advice/info is fake in the future.

You simply can't fake real experience.

[Teedub]

(01-11-2014 07:15 PM)tylerdurden1993 Wrote:  

Ive only just started writing a simple free wordpress blog so at the moment so at the moment im not worried as no one/hardly anyone reads it

I read it. I commented on your first post with a note of encouragement! Ha, but seriously, I'm not sure if 'Whois' works when just a regular wordpress blog, but if you do decide to get your own domain name etc - make sure you pay that little bit extra for domain protection. Basically, the law says when you get a domain name you have to enter your personal details like your real name and address etc. All fine I suppose, the trouble is, is that people can find this out really easily by typing 'Whois returnofkings.com" or whatever. Domain protection means they can't do this, as if they type that it just says the address of the web hosting service (I think).

Sorry for the essay, just wouldn't want you to get any personal hate from your recent 'working with women' post

[w00t]

Really depends on your content brah.
I run legit stuff with my full name and adress on the website and in the emails (its teh lawz here to do it).

If I wanted to give out advice on how to build bombs I would go for offshore-hosting, pay with paysafecard and only login via VPN.

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-12-2014 12:33 PM)WestCoast Wrote:  

^yep.

The credibility thing actually isn't as bad as people make it out to be. If your information is true you gain a lot of traction. Only idiots think they can fake real life experience. There are a few people who "write very well" and gain traction. Unfortunately, the real smart people will realize their advice/info is fake in the future.

You simply can't fake real experience.

I have people buying programs that I sell for thousands of dollars and they have no clue who I am.

It still surprises me to this day but very common.

[Afarang]

real name gives confidence to the readers. I guess I would start giving my full name if my blog went full time and I would me making a living from it

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-12-2014 04:50 PM)Afarang Wrote:  

real name gives confidence to the readers. I guess I would start giving my full name if my blog went full time and I would me making a living from it

How do people know it is your real name?

[kinjutsu]

In 2012 i had a girl friend who was extremely nosy about my personal life and after about 2 months together she discovered my twitter and my game blog.
Then she proceeded to grill me obsessively about every post...

I had some very controversial topics. So much so that the loser YouSoWould made an entire post on his blog about my blog. I think he might've been trying to out me but i used a ton of fake information when i signed up for word press.

With every thing we know about the NSA surveillance i dont think running a blog under a fake name with fake information will be enough.

[Afarang]

(01-12-2014 06:25 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(01-12-2014 04:50 PM)Afarang Wrote:  

real name gives confidence to the readers. I guess I would start giving my full name if my blog went full time and I would me making a living from it

How do people know it is your real name?

blogers usually have a "about me" page. the benefits of your real name is that people build trust more than having a "pen name". Also if you are selling them something, which a lot of blogs do, they are more inclined to buy if you have your real name with a picture.

This is the generally the case.

Also you need to get whois protection on your domian, to be truly anonymous.

[Emancipator]

(01-13-2014 12:31 AM)kinjutsu Wrote:  

I had some very controversial topics. So much so that the loser YouSoWould made an entire post on his blog about my blog. I think he might've been trying to out me but i used a ton of fake information when i signed up for word press.

(01-11-2014 11:27 AM)Hoodlum Wrote:  

YouSoWould here

What if someone outs your online alias? Do you run with it ala Roosh, or ignore and deny?

[worldwidetraveler]

(01-13-2014 02:30 AM)Afarang Wrote:  

blogers usually have a "about me" page. the benefits of your real name is that people build trust more than having a "pen name". Also if you are selling them something, which a lot of blogs do, they are more inclined to buy if you have your real name with a picture.

This is the generally the case.

Also you need to get whois protection on your domian, to be truly anonymous.

I think you missed my point entirely.

The About Me page can have any name on it. People who read your About Me page won't really know if it is your pen name or real name.

I can get any picture of any man and put it up on the About Me page.

Someone coming to your page won't know who you are. They won't know your real name compared to a pen name and thus your credibility argument doesn't wash.