Anonymity and Posting

[DarwinAG]

I would like to hear some people's thoughts on anonymity and posting in these forums. I have been advised to remain anonymous lest anything I may write or opinions I may express may reflect poorly on me (I obviously did not take this advice). I realize the merit and soundness of this advice, but I am a pretty straightforward fellow, and I would like to believe the way I conduct myself online is the same way I conduct myself in person. With that said, I am very open to sharing identifying information right away. I guess I'd like to know if anyone has experience such straightforwardness and sharing backfire in these forums? Has anyone had any bad experience in saying something in these forums that was traced back to them and had detrimental effects on their academic career? Why is the norm in these forums to remain anonymous?

 

On another note, Happy Holidays everyone.

[ohgoodness]

I dont know about the anonymity but I have had several professors laugh out loud re the idea of this forum. I doubt it would reflect poorly on anyones application but yeah - netiquette and all that remains important as always. Flaunting all your insecurities might not be the greatest idea etc

[DarwinAG]

Hmm. I actually did not consider professors actually going onto these forums. But I do agree it may reflect poorly if one is constantly commenting about their academic insecurities. I suppose in that sense it pays off to not have what you say be traced back to you.

[QxV]

I make it so that a REALLY determined person could probably find out who I am, but (1) that wouldn't matter to much, and (2) it'd probably be someone I couldn't care less about anyway.

Edited December 26, 2012 by QxV

[Seeking]

I am quite impressed by Darwin AG's absolutely transparent personality and also by his brilliant CV!

 

A brilliant academic record combined with a transparent personality reflects the great quality education he has had - at school and at home.

 

I do hope he stays this way forever. 

[TakeruK]

Someone who knows me in "real life" would probably be able to immediately identify me if they found my posts/profile on this forum. I'm not too worried about that because I believe that while there are differences between my personality here and in "real life", I'm counting on my "real life" attributes to override any incorrect conclusion about my character due to misunderstanding my posts.

 

If someone were to read enough of my posts, they can probably figure out exactly what program and school I'm currently at. With a little bit more checking, they can probably figure out my name from matching up the current students in my program with their undergrad schools. 

 

I suppose someone might "meet" me on this forum first and then one day, when I apply to their school or meet them in person, they might be able to match me up with whatever opinion they have from my posts and that might lead to a less-than-desirable first impression. However, I really don't think anyone has any reason to remember my posts here and attach an opinion to my character.

 

In addition, I realise that this is a public forum, so while some aspects of my character online is different than in-person (due to the medium, mostly, i.e. written text and time to compose one's thoughts), I don't use the anonymity to behave differently than in-person.

 

However, I'm not sure why some professors would think the idea of an online community of graduate student is amusing! I think it's pretty neat and it's nice to hear that others face similar issues as us. In some respects, grad school is similar everywhere and in all fields. But the differences between fields/locations are also really interesting to me!

[DarwinAG]

I am quite impressed by Darwin AG's absolutely transparent personality and also by his brilliant CV!

 

A brilliant academic record combined with a transparent personality reflects the great quality education he has had - at school and at home.

 

I do hope he stays this way forever. 

I still haven't decided if that was full blown sarcasm or at least a hint of sarcasm or a genuine compliment haha. haha I am leaning towards the sarcasm considering I don't think I have a brilliant academic record. I have a really low overall GPA that I really can't make up for.

At any rate, I think my candidness is just a result of being more of a cognitive miser than the average person. In real life or online interactions, I just find it exhausting to be indirect or be constantly vigilant in monitoring social dynamics (interestingly enough, I coordinate a study that examines the origins of indirect speech). I have been told I am a low self-monitor, and admittedly, it has gotten me in trouble a few times. I am making an effort to be more aware of social dynamics and adjust my presentation accordingly.

[lewin]

I stay anonymous but I've identified myself in a few PM's and it wouldn't be difficult for somebody who knows me in real life to figure out who I am. I'm less worried about the content of my posts but more about somebody thinking that spending a lot of time on an internet forum (any forum) is a misuse of time. Also, when people google my name (how presumptuous, eh?) I want them to hit my professional website and pubs, not a random forum.

[DarwinAG]

I stay anonymous but I've identified myself in a few PM's and it wouldn't be difficult for somebody who knows me in real life to figure out who I am. I'm less worried about the content of my posts but more about somebody thinking that spending a lot of time on an internet forum (any forum) is a misuse of time. Also, when people google my name (how presumptuous, eh?) I want them to hit my professional website and pubs, not a random forum.

Haha I had not considered that before (misuse of time). That makes sense. I actually deactivated my facebook to focus on gradschool apps, but it seems That time has been spent here. Although I think I can make a case I have learned quite a bit in frequenting these forums regarding the grad app process and grad school in general. Not to mention Ive met interesting and very helpful people. I suppose these forums becomes more of a waste of time once you are already in grad school.

Thats very true regarding people googling your name. I got lucky with not using my real name as my username. I also had not considered the consequences of using your real name as a username in terms of leaving that digital foot print.

[Seeking]

That was a compliment. GPA is not everything. Other aspects of your CV quite make up for it. 

[Lyra Belacqua]

The year I was applying and going on visits, I heard from other students in my field (not psychology) that a professor at one school had mentioned the forum to an admitted student when he visited: "so, I understand from your posts on GradCafe that you're deciding between here and (other school)…etc." (This was how I learned that the forum existed, in fact.) Bit of an uncomfortable situation, I should imagine.

 

Someone in my program could probably figure out who I am if they read every single one of my posts, but I'm not that active here anyway, and I haven't said anything particularly sensitive…yet.   Given that sensitive stuff does get talked about here ("what's the politest way to deal with situation X with my advisor?"), I wouldn't want to leave behind a permanent record of such things that could be connected to my RL identity by absolutely anyone who reads it. But I'm also the sort of person who's reluctant to post potentially identifying things even on a more "harmless" forum (like a forum for a certain hobby or something), even if it's a community where such things are the norm. (I also picked my username here with anonymity in mind: I was never really a fan of His Dark Materials, so nobody I know will associate it with me.)

 

The professors who think this forum is ridiculous must not have read the Chronicle forums: it's exactly the same there, complete with people devising elaborate pseudonyms for their institutions and departments. (Or if they don't, they teach "Basket Weaving" and their research language is "Etruscan".   )

[ohgoodness]

The professors who think this forum is ridiculous must not have read the Chronicle forums: it's exactly the same there, complete with people devising elaborate pseudonyms for their institutions and departments. (Or if they don't, they teach "Basket Weaving" and their research language is "Etruscan".   )

I think most professors more than understand 99% of all the posts in this forum. It's a rough process and it's nice to talk people who understand it. After all - most professors go through the same thing every other year when they apply for funding and act exactly the same way

[psychdork]

I do my best to remain anonymous on here, but given that my situation is somewhat unusual, it is possible that someone from my current institution could figure it out.  I know a few people who check GC and so I'm careful to remain vague about specifics.  I've been a member of the forums for several years now and as far as I know, only two people actually know who I am (and that's because I chose to reveal my identity). As some posters can attest, I'm more personal in PM's but even then I'm still cautious.  

 

One of my profs found out through another student that I check the results board on here.  At first he kind of scoffed at the idea, but then later in the semester started warming up to the idea, to the point of asking me if my remaining schools had been mentioned yet.

[Eigen]

I know that anyone could pretty easily find out who I am from my posts on the forum, and I've told other posters who I am as well. And since I share pseudonyms here and on the CHE forums, you could use either source to figure out who I am. It's easy to find out what school I go to, and what department I'm in, and my research interests are out there as well. 

 

The best advice I've seen is from the CHE forums, where it's mostly faculty complaining about administration, students, other faculty, job searches, etc. The same issue applies there as here- nothing you post is truly anonymous, it's pseudonymous. 

 

The rule I use is to not post things that I wouldn't want people who know me to read. I don't act in a way that I wouldn't want permanently associated with my name and career. 

 

I think those are generally good rules to have for online interactions on the whole- you never know who, exactly, is reading what you post, so make it things you don't mind the world seeing, so to speak. 

 

I wouldn't worry about posting things about insecurities, worries, problems, etc- I'd worry about posting scathing rants about admission committees, though. I'd also worry about posting that you were dishonest in an application, cheated on an exam, etc (although you shouldn't be doing those things to begin with either way!). 

[PhDreams]

Ehhh... I'm pretty transparent on social media, I'm even FB friends with a few POI's. But it's really nice to have a space to have a random freakout with random people and then go about my daily business.

[Armadilla]

PhdDreams, was it hard to become friends with your POI's on facebook?Does it help to keep in touch with them and conversation going?Maybe I should do that to

[PhDreams]

It was very easy in my case. A few of my POI's are very accessible and very involved in the community and activist network. That's why it was very easy for me to connect to them on FB. We all know the same people. But my field is quite small so the profs that are on FB always seem really cool about friending their students, etc. Some profs are even on Twitter. Ive made connections that way too. It's always cool to see that some awesome prof is following you on Twitter lol I don't think that this same philosopy holds true with all fields. Mine just happen to be very available on social media. I can imagine that some professors dont use it beyond school webpages. It's a toss up.

 

PS- I decided to friend when I realized we has so many mutual friends in common. I figured if they saw that then they wouldn't think it's weird. And no one has.

[lypiphera]

I keep my posts/profile anonymous, but I believe that people (aka POIs) could figure it out based on dates of phone interviews, or recognizing details of a conversation.  What I do is make sure that I wouldn't be devastated if any POI read the post, knowing it was me.  That isn't to say that I would be happy about them knowing that I posted details of a conversation online (even if I didn't mention the professor's name or even the university), but I don't feel like I have said anything negative or damaging.  Again, it wouldn't be ideal if a professor saw me mention in interest in other schools, but I feel like that is expected and understandable.  I think about each one of my posts and make sure there is nothing that would put me in a terribly bad light for posting.  Still, I'm not going to make it especially easy for people to figure out who I am by posting my name.

[lewin]

Unrelated anecdote, I saw somebody (not in social psych, but cognitive) refer to my university as their "safety school" and then a few weeks later that they had accepted here. I've always wondered who he/she is. If it had been someone in my area I definitely would have figured it out.