Protecting your identity – post wisely

A disgruntled poster has deleted the content from their recent posts, saying this “crappy website” had exposed their identity.

Firstly, we had not done anything of the sort but they might have exposed themselves by revealing too much detail about their complaint.

I can’t check because they have deleted their original posts and, to be honest, I can’t be bothered dealing with such a rude person by checking my emails. Perhaps they assumed that they were the only person to ever have their problem – sadly, that is not the case.

But this does raise the issue of protecting your identity if you feel vulnerable.  When you log in and post for the first time, we ask you to remove anything that might identify you, or the people or body with whom you are in dispute. This includes the names of companies, people and buildings (and their locations).

Then we encourage you to use a “nickname” for your posts.  The software we use here automatically puts the Username with which you log in as your nickname next to your posts.  If you have used your real name or, even worse, your email address as your username, you need to change that on your posts (this is not what happened in the above case – their nickname was “piggy-piglet”). When I spot it, I change it, but it’s better to check yourselves.

If you have used an identifying Username, you can’t change it, but you can change the nickname by which your posts are identified.

Go to your displayed name at the top left of the post and click on it.  This will take you to the Profile interface and you will find “edit” at the foot of the list. Click on that. There are two windows there, one where you can type a nickname, the other where you can choose the name you want to use from a drop-down menu. Type in a nickname, select it from the drop-down list then click “save” and your identity will be concealed.  If the new nickname doesn’t “take” it probably means someone else has it and you need to try another one.

By the way, even if you want to identify yourself, I will probably change it because otherwise that just leads us into all sorts of murky water regarding the people or bodies that you are complaining about.

And apologies to the FlatChatters who responded to Piggy-piglet, offering advice.  It was easier just to erase them from the website so your comments have gone too.