I'm surprised people think a username is the only way to find out personal information.
FYI, it's not.
What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests. Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated.
I'm surprised people think a username is the only way to find out personal information.
FYI, it's not.
Well it's the easiest and most obvious way to start investigating, especially if the username is the full username. Which is why that's such a super bad idea!
From there it takes a bit more effort and really starts getting into creepy stalker land.
"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."
I'm surprised people think a username is the only way to find out personal information.
FYI, it's not.
Of course it's not. I've shared enough that people could probably find me if they wanted. Creative googling. Maybe my TKforums account links back up with a TK wedding page. I dunno. But I know my TK account only has my last initial.
I've seen pinkrevenge's and lolo's Facebook from kittygate.
But it's not as readily available as my username. My username is right beside everything I post, and in 90% ish of the times I've been quoted (if you factor in quote boxes screwing up). Your name should never be there. You'd have to go through my posting history to find other stuff.
As far as I know only two people have been given my name on here, outside of kittygate.
I Googled my maiden/work name. Two pics came up from my lab webpage, along with pictures of a bunch of celebrities that have the same first name. There was a LinkedIn picture of a woman that looked freakishly like me. She's from the UK and we share the same last name.
I Googled my maiden/work name. Two pics came up from my lab webpage, along with pictures of a bunch of celebrities that have the same first name. There was a LinkedIn picture of a woman that looked freakishly like me. She's from the UK and we share the same last name.
There are a decent number of results for googling my real name, considering I'm a journalist and so I have lots of stuff published under my name.
TK doesn't have my real name. They ask for your name and everything when you sign up, and that's fake. I also have always tried to be really careful putting personal information on here, even changing some details about my life to make myself as unidentifiable as possible.
I apparently missed a lot of crazy around here today I tried googling myself my real name pulls up a bunch of social media accounts that are all private. Oddly I have two papers from high school being sold. We had to turn them in to turnitin.com and apparently they are now for sale. Not sure what to do about that...
As far as my user name a gamer apparently has the same one because a bunch of random video game crap comes up.
Oh, I thought googling yourself was the same as diddling yourself. Oh dear, now that awkward situation at the office last week makes so much more sense. I winder if I can get my job back if I explain it was just a misunderstanding.
I'm surprised people think a username is the only way to find out personal information.
FYI, it's not.
This is a little bit like saying, "I'm surprised people think that no one can break into your house if you lock the door." Sure, it isn't foolproof. It's still really easy to flip the lock rather than leaving my door wide open and inviting people in to take my stuff.
My username comes back with wedding stuff and a few of my posts. My maiden name was another word for street, so I was un-googleable as a search result mostly came back with car accidents and arrests that happened on streets with my same name. Now I have a fairly unique first name and quite rare last name, so I need to watch it a bit more. It comes back with stuff that's actually me- my pixoto, my flickr, deviantart, youtube, wedding website. I'm pretty sure I'm actually the only person on earth with my name.
There's lots of ways to find someone. I should probably be more careful- I've linked pics from facebook because I'm lazy. If someone REALLY wants your info, they will find it- there's been cases of revenge porn being hacked into from people's hard drives, not even stuff they ever posted or sent to anyone. But having it for a username and rehashing its details on a first post on a forum is just plain dumb. That's all people were trying to point out- yes, because it's happened before.
The mods generally do a great job and I really like the light-handed modding on this forum, which is a breath of fresh air compared to many others. But people are going to be a bit sensitive to seemingly out-of-place warnings and ask about it. Now we know it was a mistake, cool. No one questioned when a few months back a reg got banned for doxxing (I forget who it was, I do have her avatar pictured in my head though) because that was definitely justified.
I didn't think my name was particularly common (common but unusually-spelled first name, somewhat uncommon last name), but when I google myself, 90% of what comes up isn't me.
DF's last name is suuuuuuuper common (like Smith or Jones level common). So there will be even less once I'm married.
If you google my first name and married last name, you get a motivational speaker and someone that works in the film industry. No mention of me anywhere.
My first name and maiden name are a very popular combination so I'm pretty much anonymous there as well.
Wow, FI and I are doing pretty good.. I got mostly obituaries and apparently a lot of people with his name are convicts, lots of mug shots... When I take his last name mine gets interesting.. there is a Russian spy in the early 1900's!
For my maiden name, about half the stuff that comes up is me. I first learned this in the required "Modern Technology" class in high school, where one of the assignments was to Google yourself.
The other half of the results are AWESOME. There is essentially one other girl with my name. She is a beekeeper, bard (yes, as in harp/lyre/medieval music storytelling) and textile artist. A couple years after I found out about her, she must have also searched herself, because she requested that we be Facebook friends. We still are.
DH's last name is relatively common, though, so I'm now harder to find.
This thread prompted me to Google myself, something I haven't done in awhile. My maiden name is not common, so for the longest time my FB profile was First Name Middle Name. I enjoy commenting on news sites (not trolling), and.... damnit. I changed my FB name to my married name (also not a common name) and now really old posts on news sites (when they used your FB profile only for commenting) came up! Augh! Delete, delete, delete. But damn that cache; it all still shows up in results.
I'm jealous of the Joneses and Smiths who can be anonymous. The only thing I want to show up when Googling me is my LinkedIn profile and race results.
There is a woman with my maiden name who published a lot of papers in Scotland. I think she is a professor, so she comes up a lot. My maiden name is also not that common.
Being named Sarah obviously isn't unique in the least. H has a fairly common last name, Not Smith or Jones common, but far more common than my maiden name.
My username comes back with wedding stuff and a few of my posts. My maiden name was another word for street, so I was un-googleable as a search result mostly came back with car accidents and arrests that happened on streets with my same name. Now I have a fairly unique first name and quite rare last name, so I need to watch it a bit more. It comes back with stuff that's actually me- my pixoto, my flickr, deviantart, youtube, wedding website. I'm pretty sure I'm actually the only person on earth with my name.
There's lots of ways to find someone. I should probably be more careful- I've linked pics from facebook because I'm lazy. If someone REALLY wants your info, they will find it- there's been cases of revenge porn being hacked into from people's hard drives, not even stuff they ever posted or sent to anyone. But having it for a username and rehashing its details on a first post on a forum is just plain dumb. That's all people were trying to point out- yes, because it's happened before.
The mods generally do a great job and I really like the light-handed modding on this forum, which is a breath of fresh air compared to many others. But people are going to be a bit sensitive to seemingly out-of-place warnings and ask about it. Now we know it was a mistake, cool. No one questioned when a few months back a reg got banned for doxxing (I forget who it was, I do have her avatar pictured in my head though) because that was definitely justified.
Thank you, we try our best to be fair and let the community be organic. Despite the title of this tread - we are fun
That said, the warnings were not a mistake and were not out-of-place. Being put in "jail" was a mistake - it's a new feature of the software, the wrong button was clicked and it was fixed.
Users posted personal information found on the internet in this thread, which is against TOS. It is never OK to google someone and post information or images you find on TK. We are all adults, the fact that this needs to be pointed out disappoints me. That is why I made my offer to find and post people's info - I was making a point.
If someone doesn't practice smart internet safety that does not mean others are allowed to repost their personal info on The Knot, it is against the rules of this community and just plain shitty.
You don't have to like everyone on here, but you do have to follow the rules - and not posting someone else's intellectual property should be a no brainer.
I was actually surprised at how common my name is...in the States. Being Canadian it was funny to me. If I were taking FI's last name, my name would be very unique.
Fun Fact: FI shows up on IMDB if you Google him. He googled himself a while back and found that out. He was more impressed that it was for productions he was actually happy to have worked on I have another GF who shows up on IMDB for more "interesting" artistic endeavours that she gets mocked (gently) for. Ah, the joys of living and working with Theatre Folk
Re: you knotties are nofun
From there it takes a bit more effort and really starts getting into creepy stalker land.
"Love is the one thing we're capable of perceiving that transcends time and space."
I've seen pinkrevenge's and lolo's Facebook from kittygate.
But it's not as readily available as my username. My username is right beside everything I post, and in 90% ish of the times I've been quoted (if you factor in quote boxes screwing up). Your name should never be there. You'd have to go through my posting history to find other stuff.
As far as I know only two people have been given my name on here, outside of kittygate.
If you google my first name and married last name, you get a motivational speaker and someone that works in the film industry. No mention of me anywhere.
My first name and maiden name are a very popular combination so I'm pretty much anonymous there as well.
For my maiden name, about half the stuff that comes up is me. I first learned this in the required "Modern Technology" class in high school, where one of the assignments was to Google yourself.
The other half of the results are AWESOME. There is essentially one other girl with my name. She is a beekeeper, bard (yes, as in harp/lyre/medieval music storytelling) and textile artist. A couple years after I found out about her, she must have also searched herself, because she requested that we be Facebook friends. We still are.
DH's last name is relatively common, though, so I'm now harder to find.
Being named Sarah obviously isn't unique in the least. H has a fairly common last name, Not Smith or Jones common, but far more common than my maiden name.