The trouble is when you've been using your alternate persona, chatting with a stranger, and encounter someone who knows your real name that wants to say, "Hello." "Oh, uh, ... that's my middle name."
hot_gril is my real name, honest.
Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
51–60 of 329 posts
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would it be impossible online? You can pay anonnymously for Mullvad VPN, or use Tor, or open wifi. It's online that anonymity is even attainable.
As always with a security discussion, it's about threat model. Preventing a random internet person from tying a particular nym to you is easy. Fooling a bunch of people is harder, but doable. Being a top-tier youtuber would probably be effectively impossible. And if your concern is nation states, well... good luck with anything.
Worked for Satoshi Nakamoto :)
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, like I said, I have very healthy expectations of how to maintain anonymity. Fortunately GPT will largely fix the issue of statistical analysis of variations in writing style between one writer and another. Stylometry been around a long time, as with all security, you have to know you threat model, and adjust accordingly. To my knowledge stylometry never made me less anonymous.
Assuming your GPT prompts aren't logged
Plenty of open source GPT projects, though if you’re at point of a local machine being trusted, likely have larger issues.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#54Satoshi is the only very high profile person I’m aware of to remain completely (pseud)onymous. Many others have tried and failed (though they often broke the law, so that might be the main distinguishing factor)
Satoshi also dropped off the face of the internet almost as soon as he became famous.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#55Liked the write-up was a fun read. But I really don't get the point of being anonymous on social media.
Saying what you want without worrying about being canceled in 10 years.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#56Now this makes me wonder if Derek Sivers is a real person or not.
Derek Sivers is definitely a real person. You can trace his history, well, back when he was in America, using public records.
But, I think as even he has admitted, his online presence is a well-crafted persona.
And, aren't we all doing that?
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#57Hmm. Makes me wonder if Derek Sivers really is his given name. Maybe it's a pseudonym? I guess I could email him and ask. And before you ask, yes, Dingosity is not the name I was born with.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#58Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#59>Once people start wondering, they need to know.
You're projecting.
>That’s a problem if you really want to be anonymous.
Large emphasis on really.
Stop conflating secrecy with privacy. The former is another pair of shoes entirely.
Re: Want anonymity? Make a persona not a mystery
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everything I post online, controversial or not, is using a persona. I have several, each for certain areas. I've been doing this for decades.
The thing is that a lot of what I post online is either directly or indirectly related to my day job. So I've always figured if I was going to have a moderately high profile public presence anyway, it wasn't worth maintaining a separate identity.
That makes a lot of sense.
My case is different. When I've run my own companies, I'd post stuff online related to that. But even then, it's under a persona -- I feel it's even more important then, actually (I also use personas in real life in that circumstance. It's very useful to be able to identify as the secretary, the sales guy, whoever, in order to dodge time-wasters such as salesmen.)
But if I'm working for someone else, I'm not posting anything directly related to my work.