Wikipedia:How to not get outed on Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an essay; it contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.

For some editors of Wikipedia, having their "real life" identity discovered can be a major problem, threatening their well-being, careers, or even personal safety. There are a variety of steps you can take to help protect yourself from this happening.

[edit] The 12 Ways To Not Get Outed

  1. Don't use your real name.
  2. Don't use a name that alludes to your real name in any way, shape, or form.
  3. Don't use a username you've ever used anywhere before.
  4. If all your usernames previously used are variants on something like "SeismicGuy", name yourself "Fluffy Nose" here[1], if you've never gone by Fluffy Nose before--it should be totally unrelated to you, and new.
  5. Use a unique Gmail for your WP activities like Fluffynose-at-gmail.com. Never mail anyone from this Gmail except via the web-based interface, to conceal your IP address (Gmail does not forward a sender's IP address in the email headers). Never open any attachments mailed to you to avoid possibly exposing your IP address. Disable all inline image loading on whatever means you use to check email.
  6. Don't even enable mail if you're extra nervous--you can live without it.
  7. Don't edit any articles related to your job, home, known activities, or known relationships, or anything directly related to you; but if you must, don't do it with any tone of an "insider". Act like it's unrelated to you. Hide your possible interest in the topic.
  8. Give out nothing about yourself on a personal level; keep the job "on-wiki". If you are [[User:Fluffy Nose]] here, that is the extent of the existence you present to the world. You live only within these pages of Wikipedia.
  9. Never meet anyone from Wikipedia in real life, over Skype/voice chat/telephone, over any form of instant messaging or IRC communications, or anything else that gives them more than what they see "on-wiki".
  10. Exclusively edit using proxy-based Internet access, or only edit from public locations/connections, to conceal your IP presence.
  11. Don't out other people, yourself.
  12. Do not edit wikipedia from the same computer you tend to use to send e-mails. All internet traffic is being logged, and if edits are made to wikipedia at the same time that e-mails are being sent, it's easy to correlate the two by their IP address.

The more of these eleven ideas you apply, the less likely it is to happen.

  1. ^ Unless you actually have a fluffy nose.