What is the etiquette on "outing" people here?

[Anonymous]

I posted something that included some very personal information about my child. I was careful to try to make the post anonymous, not including a lot of information, but I guess I used a turn of phrase, and a piece of information, that I also used in another post that was more identifying, because it didn't include information I needed to keep private.

Someone asked "I assume you are the same poster who . . . ?" and added the more personal information to the other thread.

Why would someone do that? It seemed so cruel and hateful, to the point that I wondered if it's someone who knows me and my child.

[jsteele]

There are a few posters who seem to think it is suspicious to post more than one post (note all the "is this the poster who posted..." threads in this forum). If you use the "report" button to let me know which posts to which you are referring, I'll be happy to delete them.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t this kinda the risk you run when posting on the internet?

[Anonymous]

Start by not posting very personal information about your child on the internet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Start by not posting very personal information about your child on the internet.

Sometimes people need advice about difficult situations. Be grateful if you can't understand that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start by not posting very personal information about your child on the internet.

Sometimes people need advice about difficult situations. Be grateful if you can't understand that.

Which is fine. But then you can’t complain if people play armchair detective on this site and piece it all together.

[Anonymous]

You are misreading the situation, OP.

When posters try to connect a new thread with an old one, it's to better understand your situation and why you are posting. There are some trolls who repeat post - so if the added evidence makes people think you're just getting your jollies by posting sob stories, they're going to point that out so others don't waste their time responding. Or perhaps you're genuine, but there is more information in the previous thread, and replies are going to be more useful with the added information, even if it's something you decided was too identifying (or you wanted replies from a different perspective).

In short, if you post something and want it deleted, ask Jeff by reporting your own post. Then create another one.

Finally, here we give tough love. This site can be extremely useful to gain insight and perspective, but only if you have a thick skin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start by not posting very personal information about your child on the internet.

Sometimes people need advice about difficult situations. Be grateful if you can't understand that.

Well DCUM is the absolute last place I’d come for serious advice. People here are mean and spiteful. It’s entertaining but not the place for advice.

I would never post anything remotely personal here. Some posters are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Take care, op, and sorry about your problems. This site has a lot of good but sometimes it can bite you.

[Anonymous]

Solution: Do not post personal info on the internet. Anonymous boards actually...aren't.

[Anonymous]

About six months ago, a poster communicated extremely detailed information about how she was essentially scamming her current employer. I recognized her and sent the screenshot to bring it to her attention.

[Anonymous]

OP, just wanted to let you know that I had an issue with someone trying to "unmask" me a couple years ago and I asked Jeff to delete certain posts that I had put up that were causing the issue, and also a number of harassing posts clearly intended to try and identify me, and he took them all down no questions asked.

I'm much more careful about how I post now. The mistake I made was in initially not caring about my anonymity that much. I thought "eh, if someone figures out this is me, who cares." But the poster or posters trying to unmask me were pretty vicious in their comments and I realized that people can be scary on here and there is a lot of safety in staying anonymous. Since then there are some things I do not post at all, and I mask anything personal a lot. You have to protect yourself.

[Anonymous]

Jeff will delete pretty much anything if you have a legitimate reason. The response in question he'd delete just on the grounds of being off-topic and unhelpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Start by not posting very personal information about your child on the internet.

Sometimes people need advice about difficult situations. Be grateful if you can't understand that.

Which is fine. But then you can’t complain if people play armchair detective on this site and piece it all together.

The worst kind of people. If you need some parenting advice it's helpful to come here but a few would much rather hurt than help

[Anonymous]

Just deny deny deny!
"Oh I'm sure I'm not the only poster here asking about licorice swan Batmobiles. It's pretty common. There are dozens of us. Dozens."