Face to face friend: "Hey I just found you on Pavlina's Forum." Gulp

[Piercetheveil]

Heh, I do love the internets. It sure does test your congruency. Nice to be checked in on every now and then. Also a bit disconcerting.

[Cochonette]

lmao. I have worried before that someone will find me on forums.

[ssandra]

I've thought about it, but never really worried.

I am who I am, and if people cannot accept that, that is their loss, not mine

[tarajc]

Originally Posted by ssandra

I've thought about it, but never really worried.

I am who I am, and if people cannot accept that, that is their loss, not mine

Well said.

[Piercetheveil]

Steve has a slant about anonymity that seems to be in line with where tech is going: Transparency. Robert Scoble said the same a while back about opening all his stuff up. Connecting the dots as it were.

I started an experiment a while back slowly and quietly linking all my past online trails to a central spot. A spot that is googleable. I think I posted on here about something like that.

For me personally, the idea of transparency has been INCREDIBLY freeing. It has been my experience that most of my hidden secrets that involve interaction eventual come out anyway. I prefer to be the one that outs them. In fact, it is a large source of power.

It also has uncovered fears, insecurities, and mirror time with my personal reality. It has been a 10 year journey starting with thinking about it then with taking heavy action in the last 3 years (I believe that is right).

This, seems to me, to be not the same as privacy which I find people crossing wires on.

[MidasGirl]

Some of my F2F friends would probably be mortified if they saw my sex threads. Maybe I should just post an avatar pic just to torture them and get them out of my life, finally.

[James81]

I worry more about the things I've shared and whether if the people I've mentioned in my own journey reading what I've written out of context or without understanding what I was doing...how they might feel. (Like my parents)

As far as the rest, I don't worry about the anonymity factor too much. I'm pretty secure with my beliefs as of late and what I've been posting.

[Savage]

Privacy is delusional.

[secrets0stolen]

That's where I got my user Fear that someone would find me here

[noitcefrep]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Privacy is delusional.

I suppose in this day and age, a stroll on any given street will likely results in security cameras following you. Even a passerby's snapshot has you captured in the bokeh, or the Google Maps truck could be looming 'round the corner.

IP addresses are tracked and stored, phone conversations are tapped and traced. Even the damn neighbor has one eye carefully positioned between two blinds to watch your life.

I would like to think that my online presence is anonymous (specifically my account here) but I know there is a trail that could lead here. The trail must start with people I know in real life though, or I suppose any moderator that I've emailed could out me.

I wonder how people I know would react to my posts here. I think they'd look at me differently. Judge me more harshly, trust me less often.

Hm.

[Piercetheveil]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Privacy is delusional.

Only if you want to create a pot stirring point .

[themaster]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Privacy is delusional.

It's more than this actually.. according to the "new age" information..

Privacy is not a just a delusion.. from above the veil everything is seen your top 10 most embarrassing moments run on a blooper real through the "akash" for all to enjoy..

So it's why I find irony in that we "hide" behind our clothes.. and "hide" behind our doors.. and make pretend the privacy we know deep in our hearts isn't really real..

Every dirty secret is known about.. everything that we label embarrassing there is a wide open book for.. we may not see it here in physical.. but we might just one day.. and we certainly see you from non-physical

[ssandra]

Originally Posted by Piercetheveil

Heh, I do love the internets. It sure does test your congruency. Nice to be checked in on every now and then. Also a bit disconcerting.

And.... did they say they found anything they didn't know about you?

[Liz Caitlin]

Originally Posted by Piercetheveil

Heh, I do love the internets. It sure does test your congruency. Nice to be checked in on every now and then. Also a bit disconcerting.

My boyfriend found out I had cheated on my ex & once wanted an open relationship by reading my posts on this forum. It DOES test your congruency...in my case it was a wonderful occurrence, though, since we became even more honest with & close to each other.

Your friend see anything interesting?

[Angela]

Happens to me ALL the time. I had a job offer from someone who had done a google on me before the interview and found me on here. He asked me about my thoughts on money -- like, "do you REALLY believe good-feeling thoughts attract money?" very skeptical-like. I had a quick moment of: Gulp! Didn't expect THAT! It was great, though, because it gave me a chance to talk about that stuff openly, and how I would use it on the job, and he just loved it.

[Piercetheveil]

Liz!!! Heya!

A few things. Some things never came up in convo so my sexual/romantic interests and views were a topic for them.

• They got uncomfortable with this "if it feels good do it vibe" that 'you people' seem to embrace. "But tell me more about this perspective." (HA!)
  
• They were perplexed that I get away with saying half the stuff I say online like I do off as their thought was that people behind screens would be more more apt to chew me up and spit me out.
  
• Were not aware of my interest in art (that was a shocker for me).

And the big kicker?

"Why is it that you flirt so openly with everyone but me?"

My response a few years ago? "Um well maybe you just do not pick up on my subtleness."

My response now? "I am not into you in a flirty kinda way."

Neat to hear your response about your situation Liz.

[roxyruby]

I have a youtube channel and website and stuff for social anxiety and someone saw "roxyruby" as an account name for this referral thing on my site so he googled roxyruby and found me here, in the "venting" thread screaming and whining about not having as much money as I'd like!!

Lol! and he donated a big donation to me through my website because of it! lol