MetaChat - Important Safety Reminder:

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

24 April 2006

Important Safety Reminder: Dear friends, this is just a reminder to use a bit of caution when revealing personal details on the site. Even though metachat seems like a fairly closed community, it's just as open as the rest of the internet and here, as there, you need to be careful about sharing any information that allows people to easily locate you, spoof your ID, harrass you by publishing personal anecdotes elsewhere, or cause trouble with your family or employer. If you use a webwide handle on here, people who bear you a grudge on another site may be tracking your comments here; additionally, if you get too intimate in the details that you share here, you may attract unwanted attention based on that. So, please, for bunny's sake, have fun - but be safe, and have a care.

post by: The Metachat Bunny at: 08:47 | 39 comments

I CAN TAKE THEM!!! Just try an' stop me!

posted by Jimbob 24 April | 08:50

They know where my tattoos are!

posted by matildaben 24 April | 08:56

They'll know where the bodies are!

posted by jonmc 24 April | 08:58

They know everything about me, but really, you know, my social security number, address & bank account # aren't doing me any good whatsoever. God knows I can't get a credit card with them. My feeling is that someone else is bound to do better with my identity than I have.

posted by mygothlaundry 24 April | 08:58

They just want to look at boobs.

posted by matildaben 24 April | 09:01

I keep getting email from strangers all over the planet about my penis size, so I guess it's a lost cause already.

The same people keep sending me free credit cards in the mail, so if mygothlaundry wants them, that's OK with me.

posted by warbaby 24 April | 09:01

well ok, you all know what town i live near, but at least i don't use the name wens anywhere else. not lately, anyway.

posted by wens 24 April | 09:03

Well, look, my home address and phone number have been in my domain records for the last 5 years and I haven't had a single person come to kneecap me yet. YMMV.

posted by Jimbob 24 April | 09:03

I keep getting email from strangers all over the planet about my penis size, so I guess it's a lost cause already.

Dude, I get email offering me deals on Viagra & Vicodin. Always Viagra & Vicodin. Whatta combination. I'd be unconscious with a raging boner. Maybe I could let the neighborhood kids use me as a ring toss.

posted by jonmc 24 April | 09:05

Is there a story? Did someone fuck with a bunny? Because that would be bad. The Metachat Bunny has a posse. And certain members of that posse watch too many mob movies.

posted by jrossi4r 24 April | 09:26

Good advice. . .I am wondering if this stemmed from the other night, someone (I don't remember who) posted their cell #, trolling for texts. . .this does feel a bit safer than the Blue.

MGL. . .you have have my credit cards. . .just take the balances with them.

But anyone hassles us, we sick Dios and Quonsar on them . . .that'll keep em occupied while we steal our identities back.

posted by danf 24 April | 09:37

Miko? Miko who? I have no idea what you're talking about.

posted by Miko 24 April | 09:39

Important Safety Reminder:

For your own safety and the consideration of others, please use the [more inside] tag to break up long front page posts.

And anonymous advice is pretty hard to take. Who are you?

posted by Hugh Janus 24 April | 09:48

Holy crap! Sometimes I come off as the biggest asshole. Sorry.

posted by Hugh Janus 24 April | 09:54

The most they'd know about me is stuff about my exes and my sex preferences. Which I'm not shy about and talk about anyway during my Anime Love Chat panel at anime conventions, so...

posted by TrishaLynn 24 April | 09:55

um... sorry for outing your residence, wens. :/

posted by chewatadistance 24 April | 10:04

You aren't an arsehole, Hugh Janus? We have been lied too!

i can't remember that word

posted by flopsy 24 April | 10:05

Also, if you want to stalk me, shoot me an email and I'll send you directions and suggestions on best viewing hours, that kind of thing. I'll leave the ladder out.

posted by mygothlaundry 24 April | 10:09

Okay, to clarify a couple of things, chewy's post was not the reason for this one; and Hugh, The Metachat Bunny is a login for stuff that comes from both dodgy and me and is general to the site for some reason.

There have been some people who have reported problems, so a reminder is probably not a bad thing; it's not just that it could happen, it does happen.

posted by taz 24 April | 10:20

I do appreciate this reminder. And I can certainly imagine scenarios in which the untimely appearance of some of my meta-utterances would be less than salutary. And safety is always a very serious concern, it's true.

However, I've also been making conscious choices here, for the most part. MetaChat happened to come along at a time when my values were leading me toward a more integrated life, anyway - by which I mean that I am working hard at being more honest, and accountable for all my views and opinions, though sometimes that may be uncomfortable. For a long time in life I hid what I thought and felt, and guarded various separate identities jealously, but I came to feel that was irresponsible. Now feel like I can own my opinions, as well as my mistakes.

Still, a word to the wise.

posted by Miko 24 April | 10:27

Yeah, fa sho, Miko, that attempt at opening up and being myself is how I came to be here (and why I will never return to meffy), and I think I'm a better man today for it.

Except for my occasional inexplicable snarkiness. Sorry, taz.

posted by Hugh Janus 24 April | 10:35

But I wear a condom when I post..

posted by peacay 24 April | 11:14

[wipes sweat from brow, still feels somewhat bozo-ish]

Thanks for the reminder. And thanks for looking after the herd.

posted by chewatadistance 24 April | 11:25

Yeah, NOW you tell me.

Actually the only way to fix things on my end is for every single Internet post I made in 2002 to disappear into the ether.

On some sites I have been called everything but a child of God and it is just because people Google old history and extrapolate from that. It sucks, but that's what happens when you post while bipolar.

posted by bunnyfire 24 April | 11:33

You know way too much about me already.

posted by tr33hggr 24 April | 11:52

I'm pretty easy to find as well. No stalkers yet, tho'. What does a girl have to do to get a creepy phone call or two?!

Kidding, kidding. No creepy phone calls please. I'd curl up in a ball and cry.

posted by deborah 24 April | 11:58

I do hope people give this proper consideration. Occassionally I'm pretty alarmed at the amount of info people put on this site about themselves.

If you don't mind people being able to dig up all this info about you then that's fine, I'd just be happier if I knew that everyone here had given this issue the attention it needs and that everyone is aware of the implications of what they're doing.

To some of you that may seem patronising but I hope you can appreciate where we're coming from.

posted by dodgygeezer 24 April | 12:18

I know, dodgy. You're absolutely right, and I think many of us do appreciate it. We're just being silly because that's what we do.

posted by matildaben 24 April | 12:24

I sometimes live in fear of the ultimate George Costanza moment, in which my boss sits me down and reads to me posts from here and there and logs from various chats.

posted by danf 24 April | 12:35

I would love that, danf. Then I'd be able to look my boss in the eye and say, "And I meant every word of it."

Then I'd have the pleasure of learning a new trade, which is always good. Maybe ironworking or subway maintenance, or corrections.

posted by Hugh Janus 24 April | 13:25

Obscene Phonecall!
(contains Rockwell)

posted by pieisexactlythree 24 April | 13:30

Eponysterical! That's the word!

posted by flopsy 24 April | 14:37

I have a real fear of becoming inadvertently famous and all my internet shenanigans coming to light.

I ain't kidding.

posted by bunnyfire 24 April | 15:02

Yeah, some people on these types of boards can be real jerks. What can you do but shrug it off?

posted by AlexReynolds 24 April | 15:12

The first time someone calls me PinkStainlessTail in real life, I will probably reflexively shit my pants and scream "I DIDN'T REALLY MEAN IT!"

posted by PinkStainlessTail 24 April | 15:20

I have a real fear of becoming inadvertently famous

The day you become the face people look for at a crowded bar to know who the Mefites are is kinda scary.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 24 April | 15:33

I have a real fear of becoming inadvertently famous and all my internet shenanigans coming to light.

I've pretty much ceded all aspirations to run for office.

posted by Miko 24 April | 15:49

Well, look, my home address and phone number have been in my domain records for the last 5 years and I haven't had a single person come to kneecap me yet. YMMV.
Yeah, me too. This is a good warning, though - it is easy to get lulled into a sense of some security here because of the (sometimes very) friendly nature of the participants. We should remember, though, that we are in some ways in a fishbowl and only dodgygeezer and tax know how many people are peering in, tapping on the glass and generally amusing themselves at our expense.

I wonder who else would be interested to know how many people are peering in at us.

posted by dg 25 April | 05:48

Yeah that was me with the cell number, and I wondered too if I prompted this thread. Needless to say, I set it up so that I could get rid of it if I needed to.

posted by seanyboy 25 April | 11:35

← Bah, Linux is not ready for the desktop || This thread didn't know, until this day, that it was Barzini all along. →

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