@bonifartius @p Sorry for the group tagging out of nowhere.
Before I recklessly keep posting stuff, I want to hear why do you people prefer to stay anonymous.
I can only see two reasons:
1- (Including righteous) illegal activity.
2- Going against not only the mainstream thought, but almost everyone's.
I see absolutely no illegal activity in your accounts, so that's dismissed.
I also see that none of you have over-the-top extreme takes or activity either. Sure, from what I know, none of you go with the mainstream narrative but I also see no extremism in controversial topics in your interactions either.
Not being anonymous has its benefits. People see another genuine person, so they feel a more familiar and friendly vibe from you, it strengthens others' interest. It also shows your confidence over your activity.
Disclaimer: I am not asking you to reveal your identities nor criticizing you for not doing so. This is purely for me to see, learn and understand a perspective that I believe I do not have.
Also note that this isn't about privacy. This is about not connecting your online presence to your identity.
@Pixificial
I'm anonymous because of my paranoia. I think I have an actual disorder. On Fedi, I'm actually trying to overcome this as I mention a lot of personal experiences and even post some photos — I feel really uncomfortable doing this even if it's my cats and I'm not in the photo (I'm way beyond this, only a few photos of me exist, my friends ask both before taking the photo and before posting it somewhere even if I'm not the topic of the photo and there is no indication that it's me).
@Pixificial
Yup, and considering where I live it's not too bad to be somewhat paranoid.
But I think I went a little overboard and it's time to let some of that go. I don't selfhost, but I use the instance of a privacy-oriented company, and I use VPN from another privacy-oriented company from a different country to access it, I don't have my real name or phone number specified — should be sufficient from privacy standpoint and true anonymity is not what I strive for here.
@Pixificial
Here I've already did a lot of what I usually don't do, so it can already be traced back to real me, so I'm as open as I can get ATM. I still make sure the nothing can be seen in reflections in the photos and there are no addresses/serial numbers in screenshots, but it's just a matter of habit. At least I didn't come up with some fake personality this time and didn't change the manner I write (punctuation, using upper/lower case, using certain words) — yes, it used to be this bad 😅