I'm glad that none of the things I did are tied to me since I used different a persona and name for almost everything. My typing style is also dramatically different from back then, so I've got nothing to worry about.

I have information of mine scattered everywhere but it doesn't really bug me. The only thing which I'm worried about is some freak online harassing my family someday because I've made a few crappy posts on a forum. Look, I'll make this post with my "real name!" (It's probably the most common name in my country, so I suppose I'm offered some level of anonymity...)

Anyway, if you make a new identity (signing up for a new forum or whatever), just don't put anything that can link you to your older identities. Don't tell people on site X that you visit site Y, don't talk about your "real life" or "online life," and just take it easy. Maybe enter a fake age and fake location. Do that, and you won't need to worry about stalkers or the past.

If that makes you feel better, most people are in a similar situation, especially after the rise of social networks. Also, don't forget that tracking down your old data takes time and effort, and unless you have some stalker, probably no one will spend that. Furthermore, multiple people share the same name/nickname, and if you didn't give out too much other personal data suitable for your identification (like data of birth, area of residence), no one will connect them to you. And finally, those who can't forgive your mistakes and flaws are simply unworthy of your attention.

This used to be something I'd worry about a lot. I lie all the time and switch to a new online nick every couple years. If people only knew who I was...

You should always use fake information and lie to people about every little thing you tell them, then there is no connecting your online identity to real life.

I really wish the same thing too. I keep toying with the idea of deleting social networking profiles, but all the photos and information will remain on both my friends profiles and facebooks databases forever. Let alone all the other sources you mentioned.

Lately I've been trying to keep as anonymous as possible, signing up with things with a different email each time, a different username etc. I really don't want to be followed or for people I meet on X place to ever know I was on Y place.

This is one of the reasons I don't have a fucking shitbookaccount (the other one is that I have no friends.) But I do have professional colleagues, I guess you'd say, and I don't want them finding out stuff about what I was like five or ten years ago. I would be mortified.

the only things I use the same name on are my steam account, a youtube account, and a tumblr. The youtube and tumblr are basically just extensions of my steam account though since video game things are almost all I ever post, and if I really had to I could just delete them and change my steam name.

If you search for me (my online nick name I have everywhere.) you will find some stuff, not much though. My few active accounts on youtube, last.fm, and formspring plus a photobucket with a little on it. There's also a Twitter but I never use it and there is next to nothing on it, just made it to satisfy someone. As for inactive old junk you'll find some accounts to couple old gaming sites and forums that aren't worth shit. Nothing extremely embarrassing though besides some posts on those ancient game forums. If you searched my real name, you won't get anything at all related to me besides very little about my family but nothing of me in particular. A long while back I also discovered my old AOL email address from when I had dial up connection in what seems like the dark ages now is still online and usable. I use it to get free ingame currency like NX for the game Combat Arms I still play.

If you look up my real name (plus city) the only results relating to me are the various obituaries of dead family members I am mentioned in, and even those are buried in results for other people with my name.

It's always both weird and somewhat amusing to get automated birthday messages in my inbox from old BBSes and forums that I use to post on way back when I was about 14-17.

People change, OP. And ever since we're Anonymous, I don't think our past "identities" really matter to anyone at all (or, in any case, we have no obligation to answer for them anymore). So don't worry about it; just don't google yorself that much and you should be fine.

I can relate perfectly with you, OP. And I'm not even on any social networking websites.
I've almost gotten into trouble for using the same nickname on several forums and even contributed to communities I wish to stick to with an e-mail that contained that nickname.

Erasing anything is simply impossible at times. Be it a bbs, pastebin website or mailing list.
I've only been lucky once. Someone was inconsiderate enough to make me a moderator on their website when I was about 14-15 (you can't begin to imagine the expressions I used and the quality of my posts). Luckily, a few months later that board was taken down overnight.

Keep in mind though that a nickname is not bound to a name in real life since it can be used by anyone. Just because you are registered as "xyz" somewhere, it doesn't mean that there can't be another person using "xyz" somewhere else.

One of my main usernames I've been an extreme ass on and at one point I managed to have two stalkers at the same time. My only defense is that theres nowhere on the internet which links that username to my real identity, so I can ditch it at any time. Theres only one account which is linked to the real me, which I use for professional type things, and which I strictly remove any leads to my other internet identities.

Its so easy to stalk some people, especially if they're not careful. You just need to do a lot of cross-referencing, follow every lead, and exercise a bit of creativity in searching through sources which people usually overlook. Its so easy which is why I'm so strict about these things.

I've been using the net since the mid-90's too and I still remember that back then it was not acceptable to reveal your private information online (if you were just a regular internet user, not some Ph.d researcher online). I just find it interesting how with FB people's attitudes changed. Now if you don't have a FB people think you're weird or strange.
I can't count how many times I would talk to people and they would ask me if I have a FB, and then ask surprised when I say I don't have it.

Call me paranoid but I've always been suspicious of FB and all these 'social media' websites. This is kind of a dangerous trend too, everyone is TOO connected and identifiable nowadays. I don't like it.
The internet was supposed to be an anonymous tool for the free exchange and distribution of information, not a tracking tool for governments and corporations to track its users.

>>11337
Totally. I've only been using the internet for the past decade or so and the 180 from "Don't tell anyone anything" to "What the fuck, you DON'T tell everyone everything???" in just the last few years is astounding

>>11338
Despite the fact that people have had their Haruhidamn houses robbed because they posted from Cancun or whatever tourist trap fuckhole that "HI WERE ON VACATION", they still use shitbook all the time. Also, yeah, government/corporate tracking etc.

I'd love to say I don't have an account because of my moral stance against it, but it's simply because I don't have friends.

If it makes you feel any better OP I'm most likely in a situation that's worse than yours, I've been using the same 'unique' (meaning if you'd google it all results would be me) for years and you could find my real name somewhere out there if you'd look hard enough (used to play lots of TCGs and post tournament standings use players' real names obviously).

But I don't worry about it too much. Pretty much everybody posted some stupid shit somewhere when they were kids. It's not just me and not just you. On top of that who is supposed to care about that, really? Some people ITT mentioned someone could stalk you but honestly, I'd feel humbled if there was someone out there who would bother to dig through all sorta of fora/BBSs to find some info about a person as boring as me.

>>11337

>Now if you don't have a FB people think you're weird or strange.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2184658/Is-joining-Facebook-sign-youre-psychopath-Some-employers-psychologists-say-suspicious.html

>>11344
>The German magazine Der Taggspiegel went so far as to point out that accused theater shooter James Holmes and Norwegian mass murder Anders Behring Breivik have common ground in their lack of shitbookprofiles.

i wish i was dead