Is it just me that was scared to sign up here at first incase someone you knew saw you post on here and find out? :eusa_doh: It seems silly looking back now haha I am just weird :lol:
The thought keeps passing my mind that.. what if I see someone HERE that I know? Lol! That would be awkward. But, good for them!
Its not only you and I'm sure a few people are in the same situation. To be fair I am only worried a gay friend of mine who knows nothing about me (he is an friend as in acquaintance) will find out, as he is one of the "i'll keep your secret and tell everyone when I get a chance" guys. I'm not bothered about people knowing about my sexuality because I am 90% straight ,but scared this guy will make me 100% gay haha. (Which is not bad,its just not what I am )
Yeah like I thought I'd see someone on here that I knew, but I just decided to sign up because there wasn't a big probability that I'd run into someone I know.
Way back when I first joined I was a little afraid of that. Then I realized that the chances of someone I know signing up were miniscule and even if someone did they would be on an LGBT website and probably open to LGBT issues in general and I would have nothing to worry about.
I wasn't afraid when I joined, but since then I have been worried that someone at my school would find out I was on this site.
I'm still a little nervous, so I made up a new username and only view EC on private browsing. This is partially because I use my computer at work, and I have posted some fairly unique things about myself that I assume someone else could connect the dots to me. However, like Ethan mentioned, I'm less afraid because anyone who would take the time to read this site and figure out my real identity is likely to be LGBT themselves or at least not homophobic. Actually, my only concern is that someone I have a crush on has read this and is basically observing me from a distance, knowing much more about me than I about them. I hope I haven't offended anyone.
I was scared way back when I signed up. I would delete my history after I got off of my mom's computer (this was way back before I came out as anything). I also just called this "the forum" and I actually still refer to it that way sometimes. The difference being now everybody knows what I mean by "the forum". I'm also pretty sure that at some point I told my mom that this was a forum about cute animals..
It wasn't so much I was afraid of someone I knew being on here but more..how people would think of me on here. I don't usually do forums..so yeah.
I would rather people know I have an account on this forum than have them know who I am on this forum. That said, it's my general rule for internet use. I use incognito, both because it's much faster and because it saves no history or cookies.
Yes, I was a bit nervous somebody would figure me out, but since I was already out when I joined nothing catastrophic could come of it. Then I read up and found that the privacy policy is very strong and is good at protecting members. The mods do a great job of protecting identity and if you follow the rules you stay pretty safe.
Worried my family would find out, for sure. But I've been a member since April and, no, so far so good. If my family knows (and I know if my mother did, she's practically flay me alive), no one's let on. Actually, I used to wonder if any of the LGBT people/groups I was involved with knew about the site. Again, if anyone did, no one let on. Had a friend I tried to get join but they didn't stick around.
I was also a little apprehensive at first but I just assumed that if someone found out about me through EC, it would have to be another member who I knew in real life but wasn't out to. As they say, it takes one to know one. Plus, ever since a little incident when I was around 13, I've always had my history automatically deleted every time I close my browser.
took a few days to join up I wasn't scared really as am out to the important people in my life a few friends know about this place they were a little disappointed EC is not a place for hook ups:icon_bigg