Fair warning to my fellow goats - Account anonymity in anon subs is a fallacy and what you write can and will get used against you. (whatever)

submitted ago by NeedleStack

This post is an advisory to users that your username is connected to whatever you write in anon subs.

What you write can be seen by one or more devs who’ve been given that special access. But what you may not know is that they can and do use it against you as they’ve done with me in the past and as recently as yesterday. And one or more of those users who have this ability are part of SBBH.

Some history: One of the SBBH members had a hissy fit with me over a year ago and is probably the same user who would “miraculously” happen to know it was me when I would write certain things in anon subs in the past. I’d write something and they’d make a snarky remark revealing that they knew were talking to my account. It wasn’t a huge deal but it made me aware that my username could be seen by one or more users with this special access.

Back to present day: I’d never bothered to get caught up in SBBH drama until about a week ago when I started needling them in anon subs with a comment here or there regarding their questionable activities on voat.

It didn’t take long for one of them to take the bait and clearly refer to me when making this remark about my recent comments:

http://archive.is/eBPYZ

My account is exactly 2.7 years old. Whoever wrote that comment was a fool; for so obviously ‘giving away’ that they could see it was me writing those comments (showing their hand), and to give such a sensitive shit over what I wrote (notice it took anti-SBBH comments for them to get fresh and reveal themselves).

Let this story be a warning to any of you that this ‘special access’ to see which user is writing “anon” comments creates an unfair advantage and in the wrong hands can be used against you. At the same time, these privileged few are able to enjoy the ability to hide in anon subs themselves.

@PuttItOut, users will never be free to “have their say” in anon subs until everyone but you is stripped of the ability to see who’s posting what in so-called anon subs.

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Edit: Hey, cool! My post got a "Speculation" flair. Perhaps the first in voat's history in v/Whatever.

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totes_magotes ago

Duh?

I mean, not to be smart or anything but did you honestly think that users with access to the site code wouldn't abuse it in some way?

NeedleStack ago

Yes, of course. And you are right to word it like that. My point is to give the heads-up to users who may not be aware that such abuse can and does happen.

totes_magotes ago

Fair enough.

There's a certain user I know that is still around just hiding and lurking and was at the center of manufactured drama in the past that almost ripped voat apart. That user happens to have dev access (still, even). Just keep that in your mind as you go through your voat-day. It happens to be an account with a coincidental age.

Voopin__Voopin ago

talkin' bout shegate by any chance?

totes_magotes ago

No.

Voopin__Voopin ago

Thankya. That was the biggest drama I could recall.

Womb_Raider ago

The guy you're responding to is the same man who spammed homosexual erotica and scat porn on voat chat, eventually causing the service to be terminated.

heygeorge ago

I thought you blamed chat spamming on @lordbeatlejuicethe1! I didn't realise that now it has shifted to @totes_magotes

lordbeatlejuicethe1 ago

they hate us cause they aint us