Do you ever worry that your stories might reveal your identity?

[AchtungNight]

I would 100% believe that Cypher and Kitty Pryde traded slashfiction.

Sadly I lack Cypher’s language skills despite sharing his first and last name as my first and middle names. I also don’t know anyone like Kitty, though I would love to. Especially if they’re like the polyamorous version of Kitty in my X-Men story,

 

[genzsub]

I think women might be a little more cautious on this, I know I am. I wrote a pretty autobiographical story and went to a lot of work to change names and never mentioned any specific locations. I even redacted the names of colleges. So, yeah, maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but a small minority of people are just scary.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Not from my stories, some of them involve real events or as Hollywood would say, "inspired by real events" but there isn't enough there to triangulate me.
The forum posts...there are probably three people who know enough that if they read all my forum posts they would be pretty sure they know me but the most probable result would be an enquiring text message.

 

[vibes]

Not from my stories, some of them involve real events or as Hollywood would say, "inspired by real events" but there isn't enough there to triangulate me.
The forum posts...there are probably three people who know enough that if they read all my forum posts they would be pretty sure they know me but the most probable result would be an enquiring text message.

So you do in fact know these 3 people in r/l

 

[Kelliezgirl]

So you do in fact know these 3 people in r/l

To clarify, there are 3 people I know in RL who, if they happened along to these forums and read certain forum posts would probably be pretty sure it was me.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Well. I don’t write about my life, so that wouldn’t give me away. Then again, I live in a very, very small country, so I’m probably way more recognizable than most of you guys. Then again… so far I’ve told two people that I write here. The other read one story, the other didn’t read even that. So I guess I could only hope that anyone was so interested in me that they’d try to find out who I am.

I don't mean to pry, but I was under the impression that you were from Finland? It is not a very, very small country. Unless it's not Finland, of course

 

[Devinter]

I think women might be a little more cautious on this, I know I am. I wrote a pretty autobiographical story and went to a lot of work to change names and never mentioned any specific locations. I even redacted the names of colleges. So, yeah, maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but a small minority of people are just scary.

I completely agree. It's wise to be cautious - dramatically more so for women. Men have a much larger tendency to be creepy and to cross boundaries that they really shouldn't, from my experience. And statistical data backs this up.

That being said, men should still be careful, of course. In my mid 20's, I actually had a real-life, full-blown stalker. I'm talking "standing outside my window in the middle of the night" stalker. Even though she was a petite girl, and I knew that I could overpower here if she were to try something, the fact that she was quite unhinged creeped me the fuck out. Sorry for cursing. I kept looking over my shoulder everywhere I went. Honestly, I got quite paranoid, having nightmares about my food having some sort of sleeping pills in it and such, and that she'd tie me up when I was unconscious. And likely because she was female, it took me way to long to get the restraining order approved.

I tried to write a story about this event, but it brought back such awful memories I couldn't finish it. One day, perhaps.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

My stories wouldn't reveal anything about my actual location or identity. All this forum activity on the other hand...

 

[KeithD]

They did. I was identified, but not outted, here some years ago by a regular poster on the basis of my stories, which allowed triangulation back to me on the basis of the combined plotlines/settings/timeframe being too close to my reality.

 

[StillStunned]

I don't mean to pry, but I was under the impression that you were from Finland? It is not a very, very small country. Unless it's not Finland, of course

Small population, though.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Small population, though.

Small country for Europe, for sure, but not very very small. They way she said it one would think she is actually writing from Iceland

 

[Ssbbw4u1974]

Yes, I often think that my pics, ( no face ones, but still) and what I wrote in the forums of my IRL memories piece on lit, might out me.

But when I was 10, about to walk in Kmart with my mother, I got anxiety and asked her,
"What if my friends see me here?",
What she said stuck with me..

" If they see you, then they are here too! "

 

[Deleted member 6666935]

For those of you (the majority?) who like to remain anonymous, is this ever an issue that leads you to "obfuscate" your story to keep people from learning too much about you?

Well, that’s an interesting question. The main character in my stories is sort of a slightly better version of me who is much more successful with women than I am. While I do include some real-life elements into the stories, I take care to not include specifics that might allow someone to figure out much about me at all. Considering the anonymity allowed here, someone would have to do a LOT of work to try and “out” me based on my stories and posts, but I can’t imagine why anyone would bother at all.

 

[AG31]

I'll be much more worried if I find out that my 70-year-old mother writes here, and her preferred categories are BDSM and Anal.

Matt! Is that you????? Nah, I guess not. I'm 79.

 

[AchtungNight]

Never been stalked here. If I was, I’d hope the person and I could work things out. But then a welcome stalker is not a bad thing, so it’s different.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I was taught, "Don't do anything today that you'll not want to sleep with tonight."

In other words, if it will embarrass you at some point, it's best not to do it in the first place.

Nothing I write embarrasses me or I wouldn't do it. There is frequently personal content in my stories, often using names of real-life friends who consider it an honor. I don't hide behind a pseudonym, it's merely an identifier unique to this site.

 

[Omenainen]

I don't mean to pry, but I was under the impression that you were from Finland? It is not a very, very small country. Unless it's not Finland, of course

Yeah, Finland, and yes there are even smaller countries. I’ve written stories featuring Iceland and Norway, so you never know, maybe I’m just trying to muddle my tracks

 

[Devinter]

Yeah, Finland, and yes there are even smaller countries. I’ve written stories featuring Iceland and Norway, so you never know, maybe I’m just trying to muddle my tracks

... Difficult to hide your tracks in all that snow, unfortunately. -22 degrees Celsius here in Sweden today. (Google tells me that's about -7,5 Fahrenheit.) I suspect Finland is at least equally cold. Us northerners are lucky we have all these hot, erotic stories to keep us warm!

 

[AchtungNight]

I was taught, "Don't do anything today that you'll not want to sleep with tonight."

In other words, if it will embarrass you at some point, it's best not to do it in the first place.

Nothing I write embarrasses me or I wouldn't do it. There is frequently personal content in my stories, often using names of real-life friends who consider it an honor. I don't hide behind a pseudonym, it's merely an identifier unique to this site.

I use the same identifier on GameFAQs, Something Awful, AO3, and other places. It’s a cool name and I don’t want to think up different ones. And yeah, the shame doesn’t apply either. I trust people not to go nuts if they find out my sketchy hobbies and prioritize family and friendships over assuming I’m an asshole. Which I’m not. The Camp Half Blood kids grew up with satyrs too. They’re perfectly fine.

 

[AchtungNight]

If a random beautiful woman found me through my internet activity and liked me for a while, I would greatly appreciate it. I just hope she’ll stay married to me longer the second time around.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

... Difficult to hide your tracks in all that snow, unfortunately. -22 degrees Celsius here in Sweden today. (Google tells me that's about -7,5 Fahrenheit.) I suspect Finland is at least equally cold. Us northerners are lucky we have all these hot, erotic stories to keep us warm!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

There's a few people who would recognise me in my stories from having recognised themselves. More who might suspect they or friends were the basis of certain characters, though I try to base all characters on multiple real people plus a dose of fiction.

I routinely amend or omit various details when posting on forums like this, because I've spotted neighbours and friends on social media multiple times, and had posts of mine from over a decade earlier dug up and posted as part of a harassment campaign of a friend. At least on the story side, I can claim everything is fiction.

 

[Zootonius]

Of course if anybody you know can identify you from a story, it brings up the question, "What were they doing here in the first place?"

(Uh, research)

 

[AG31]

I routinely amend or omit various details when posting on forums like this, because I've spotted neighbours and friends on social media multiple times,

Are you sure? When the pool of people is in the millions?

 

[lovecraft68]

Other than most of my stories taking place in RI where I'm from I don't think I've given anything away about myself.
By some chance if I did, it wouldn't matter. I'm the type that regardless of what came out about me the consensus would be that no one would be surprised.

Writes porn? Cult leader? Bodies in the basement? Dungeon in the basement? Yeah...I always knew he was like that.