Anonymous users ever outed themselves on purpose?

December 29, 2006 10:05 AM

Has an anonymous asker ever outed themselves on purpose? Some questions (like, say this one, or any one of a hundred questions about looking for a new job) seem like after some future event, a non-anonymous followup would not be out of place. Has it ever happened? Even once? Anyone want to do it now?
posted by Plutor to MetaFilter-Related at 10:05 AM (27 comments total)

Fine. I was the woman in an adulterous relationship with an older male authority figure. It was Zeus. He gave me the thunderclap.
posted by cortex at 10:08 AM on December 29, 2006 [3 favorites]

Damn you, cortex, and your punny sarcasm.
posted by Plutor at 10:10 AM on December 29, 2006

Here's one who outed himself, but, I think, accidentally.
posted by beagle at 10:17 AM on December 29, 2006

Yes, it's happened.
posted by obloquy at 10:18 AM on December 29, 2006

obloquy: "Yes, it's happened."

Wow. It's a good thing we at Metafilter never shut the fuck up; we might notice interesting things like that then.
posted by koeselitz at 10:35 AM on December 29, 2006

I did - I asked a question at one point about dealing with latent racist thoughts and asked it anonymously because admitting that I sometimes think racist things wasn't something I wanted to do. When I was later robbed by a couple of black guys in my house, I pointed to the original anonymous thread as something that really worried me about the whole situation - I thought it was important enough to not worry about the anonymity thing. Though, the fact that people in the 'racist thoughts' thread were really nice and helpful played into that, too.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:55 PM on December 29, 2006

I went to court and the case was dismissed.
posted by one_bean at 2:20 PM on December 29, 2006

My husband just died.
posted by Alison at 2:31 PM on December 29, 2006

Not my question, but the only self-outing I could remember over the last year.
posted by Alison at 2:32 PM on December 29, 2006

one_bean, I didn't see anybody stepping in there to say they went to court. Are you saying you were the anonymous party?
posted by cgc373 at 4:14 PM on December 29, 2006

I KNOW I've seen a handful of after-the-fact self-outings. There was a post here on MetaTalk from someone thanking the community for their help in a string of anonymous questions, all of which were linked. And I remember one in an AskMe thread itself - it might have been an OMG MY GIRLFRIEND IZ FAT question. I'll peruse the archives once I'm done eating my chicken masala.
posted by granted at 5:51 PM on December 29, 2006

Hurry it up, there, granted. Inquiring minds wait for few birds, yo.
posted by cgc373 at 6:02 PM on December 29, 2006

FINE. It was lukewarm anyway.

Here's the first one I was talking about. The last four links are to questions asked anonymously.

Please hold for Part 2.
posted by granted at 6:19 PM on December 29, 2006

Eh, I can't find it. But it happened, I tell you!
posted by granted at 6:29 PM on December 29, 2006

That's okay, granted. You're a trouper for digging up that first link. It's a doozy. Thanks.
posted by cgc373 at 6:30 PM on December 29, 2006

You got it. I went to court and it was dismissed.
posted by one_bean at 9:41 PM on December 29, 2006

I have the strangest urge to say, "Cool beans," so now I have.

Cool beans, one_bean. Thanks.
posted by cgc373 at 10:03 PM on December 29, 2006

I outed myself (deliberately, because I suddenly realized I had nothing to hide) in an anonymous thread I posted about a mysterious restraining order a police officer in Connecticut "reminded" me about, but one I now know for a fact never existed in any of the locales where it could have been filed.

I also outed myself by using a sockpuppet account instead of an anonymous post, and then linking to an earlier related question I had posted using this account.

Mefi detectives, go!

Also, all the my-penis-is-too-big-for-my-girlfriend questions were mine.
posted by emelenjr at 8:41 AM on December 30, 2006

First one is easy.
posted by beagle at 1:05 PM on December 31, 2006

In the spirit of a new year and all that: I'm still single.
posted by loiseau at 2:23 PM on December 31, 2006

Hey, loiseau, you wanna get a drink sometime?

This is funny because 1) I am not awesome and 2) I don't drink.
posted by cgc373 at 12:37 AM on January 1, 2007

Okay. Fine. I get it. It's not funny.
I'll go now.
posted by cgc373 at 3:45 AM on January 1, 2007

tee hee
posted by loiseau at 12:32 PM on January 2, 2007

Wait, does that mean it was funny?
posted by cgc373 at 4:36 PM on January 2, 2007

I don't know I'M SO AWKWARD
posted by loiseau at 11:58 PM on January 2, 2007

[It's MetaTalk, so the derail is de rigueur, but I can't tell whether I ought to continue this "joke" or not. Anyone with any opinions on this matter is welcome to chime in. You're also welcome to critique my "mocking" "quotation" "marks" because they don't make sense to me either. In any case, thanks for playing along, loiseau. You're awesome.]
posted by cgc373 at 9:45 AM on January 3, 2007

woocha.
posted by loiseau at 2:44 PM on January 3, 2007