I have been recognized by several people. There are some school discussions that easily identify me and I don’t care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But none of you have actual
Confirmation? You just assume, and you could be 100 perfect wrong.

And odds are extremely high they are 100% wrong.

+1

I've seen a few posts in this thread where people did receive confirmation by asking the suspected poster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, several members of ACPS PTA and PTAC post here and on FB forums related to ACPS. They forget to tweak their language and they post the same drivel in both spots so it's easy to ID them.

It’s funny. “Drivelers” seem completely unable to tweak ANYTHING about their language and just repeat the same things over and over. You’ll even find that on DCUM in a meta sense: people who keep starting the same thread on the exact same topic and are easily recognized because they’re so fixated on certain details.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But none of you have actual
Confirmation? You just assume, and you could be 100 perfect wrong.

And odds are extremely high they are 100% wrong.

+1

There have been numerous posts that mirrored situations in my own life that I had shared with friends. Either someone was posting about my situation or, more likely, there are others facing similar situations.

Anonymous wrote:I think I have recognized someone from real life on here. A few years ago, I wrote about a situation in my life and one person responded repeatedly using the same very specific phrases that the person I know likes to use.

Also, the real life person took actions that other posters had suggested within two to three weeks of the posts. Most likely just a coincidence, but it’s kind of fun to think that someone would read things on here and take actions based on posts from total strangers.

This is quite vague, so it could be anyone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will admit to posting several times and hoping that the person I was complaining about actually read it and recognized herself.

I think you are probably not the only one who does this.

This PP and although mean- spirited, it’s cathartic!

Yes, was chatting with a guy on a dating site who said he had been separated and was finalizing divorce. Had very specific details about his situation. He posted in the relationship forum the same details but was asking advice on his marriage and found out he was not separated. I asked him about it and he denied it at first then admitted it.

Anonymous wrote:It's familiarity bias. Or in other words, thinking that your world is the whole world. In actuality, we are not as unique as we think we are and there are many, many more people exactly like us (or our friends) than we realize.

There are 5.4 million people in the DMV. A fraction of them are on this site. Statistically, the odds of you accurately recognizing THREE people are almost impossible.

When I post here, I change details to anonymize myself. So anyone who thinks recognize me is actually just projecting someone they know onto the persona I made up.

It’s not necessarily just familiarity bias or “impossible” The 2 times I’ve recognized people on here, I was close enough with them to ask them. And they confirmed it was their post.

Yes. The parent of my kid’s friend has posted enough details that I know who it’s about. Nothing embarrassing but I now know additional details (like about their finances and kid’s test scores) that I imagine they would prefer to keep private.

I am a teacher and several years ago, a parent in my class posted about a situation in the classroom and her child was involved. She asked DCUM for advice on how to handle it. I admit, I should have handled the incident better and I realized that almost immediately. I don't want to get into details, but my supervisor, co-worker and I worked together to ensure we didn't have a repeat. I did not engage in the thread at all. I still feel awful about what happened and threads like this just remind me of it.

I'm "Facebook friends" with another parent (her child was no longer in my class.) Her youngest child had a major medical issue and she posted it about on Facebook and then posted it here on DCUM asking for advice. I'm pretty sure it was the same person since it happened at the same time and was a very rare medical issue.

I think I have recognized someone from real life on here. A few years ago, I wrote about a situation in my life and one person responded repeatedly using the same very specific phrases that the person I know likes to use.

Also, the real life person took actions that other posters had suggested within two to three weeks of the posts. Most likely just a coincidence, but it’s kind of fun to think that someone would read things on here and take actions based on posts from total strangers.

I don’t live in the area but I had to fly into DC a few months ago and was thrilled to be in the area and imagine all of the people rushing to work as dcum posters