System Safety question.

Ashe (host) (someone else is here too, but I can't tell who)- Hey sorry if this is a weird question, but someone in my system wants to me to double check.

1) Should I refrain from using our littles names on the internet? Is it dangerous or just a precaution people do if the names of the littles are close to the legal name or a known childhood nickname?

2) We have an alter in our system who carries emotional trauma due to something that happened to us because of the internet. Is there anything I can do to ensure her safety and/or comfort her and our other alters who are protective of her? I've already informed her that she doesn't have to type anything, and I will keep specifics about her and her experiences to a minimum.

Any advice is welcome. I jumped headlong into this last time, and I think I may have stressed some of the others out but talking about and admitting things that certain alters were not ready to share.

What does your common sense tell you? That is often a really good guide. Don't just do what you see other people do. Check if you and all other parts are comfortable with.
Trust is earned. It is rarely good to enter a new community and throw around your personal info. Make sure you trust the people to handle that info well. It helps to stick to properly moderated places and not just random discord servers.

Just wanted to add about names : some people avoid sharing them because reading or hearing a specific name can push to the front the alter related to it. It can then lead to safety issues regarding manipulation by outside people.

Also, the more you share names on the internet, the more people will be able to identify you from one website to another. This means being an easier target for harassment. That's why, even for non-DID people, you're supposed to use a different username depending on the website you're on and not share personal information. Technically, it should applies to alters' name.

There are people I've recognized on other parts of the internet, even if they have changed their username, just because they use the same names for their alters. It's specially true if your alters' name are unusual : a simple Google search can find all the places you used them, if they aren't protected from the public view.

That's why I deleted the details in my signature, btw. I found out that if you googled the name of my main alters, all of my post on PF would emerge right in the first results because of it.

That's good advice from both Birdsong and Dwelt .We try to do everything in our power to protect the anonymity of our members but ultimately they are responsible for safeguarding their privacy .

Littles are always welcome to post in their dedicated thread and if there is a concern about their privacy , they are free to choose an internet name just for use in their forum . It needn't be a proper name - it could be something descriptive like ShyGirl or LoveMyPuppy or even just the first letter of their real name .

Thank you so much!

I'll have to talk with them and see if there are other names some of them will go by. I may have to edit some posts to double check. My common sense is off. Part of me is just happy to have other people to connect with, but the other half thinks its dangerous to be online at all. >.<

I will try to err on the side of caution because I can't always reach the rest of the system to ask.

Ashe42 wrote:I may have to edit some posts to double check.

Please be aware that as a member , you only have a short window of time in which to edit a post . If you feel the need to make any changes later , you can contact me ( or any Mod ) with a PM ( private message ) and we can do the edits you request . It's not something we can do on a regular basis so please try to be mindful of what information you and the others may be sharing here .

Littles get more leeway with edit requests . Just let us know if you feel they've posted something that should be ( gently ) edited for safety or privacy reasons . We monitor all the Little's posts and will automatically edit if they've unintentionally posted something we consider potentially identifying . If it happens often , we'll discuss the issue with the host and/or older member of the system . The last thing we want is for them to feel bad or like they've done something wrong and be afraid to post in their thread .

Hope that helps ease some concerns .

Thank you so much! The more around my family I am the harder it is to contact the others. I will have to double check with Chaos when I can catch him. I think after talking to one of my alters last night that it should be okay. Giggles is pretty careful and is closely watched by someone inside. Our other alter has said something about picking a nickname, but she doesn't know what yet.

Basically, I was told what is done is done, but I should be careful from now on. I'll let you know.