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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2816 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 9, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Meta-level comment - not a question but I can't find a better place to put this--

I have figured out over time that I am extremely skewed towards being privacy-conscious compared to the general population. Some might call me paranoid. Quite possibly. If so, functionally paranoid.

I have no fixed identity on the internet, beyond the quasi-obligatory 'official' email address that so many things demand these days. No fixed nom de plume. I keep myself well aware of how many bits of entropy I burn on a single account, and when that gets anywhere near potential deanonymization I move on. Extends to varying my writing style & time of day between accounts.

This used to be straightforward; I find the (non-doxing-by-design part of the) internet lately has been getting smaller and smaller.

(Why I bother to write at all as opposed to readonly consumption is a different - although potentially interesting - discussion.)

I also by-and-large attempt to follow community rules even when breaking them would be essentially consequence-free (but am nowhere near naive enough to assume everyone does).

When I run into what appears to be unintended consequences of a rule, my general reaction is to follow it - but to make sure that the people of said rule are well aware of said fallout. I am fine when it is acceptable collateral damage - but I try to ensure that said people are not under the false assumption that there is no collateral damage occurring [insert classic image of damage in returning bombers here].

One of the rules of this site is "Keep to a single account.". I believe I see the intended upsides of it, and will follow it regardless.

As a result I will be leaving this site at some point, and will not be returning.

While I have retired from modding and dont know how their thoughts on this developed, I dont think using one account after the other is a problem if youre not getting warnings left and right. Thats not what "alt-account" means. I remember a few people who did this on reddit, and we just made a note of it when we found out.

That would be encouraging; this doesn't match the typical definition of 'alt account' any more. May be worth clarifying if so.

(Do you know Wikipedia redirects 'alt account' to 'sockpuppet account'?)

Since they havent responded here, you could ask them. In the user menu, right above "log out", theres a button to message the mods.

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