who are we all?

[Yamanx]

Jayne Toyne:

 

A lady rugby player

A photographer of waves

Editer of Superbike mag

A cycling coach

 

Which one are you then?

[gralyn]

My sudonim isdomin psudonim pseudonym is a 'nickname' that I was given by my apprentice mates, many years ago.

 

I have wondered how, many of the names used, were decided on.

 

Youa are not one of the dreaded AA or BE are you? .

[tidal]

Actually anonymity does work or at least in my case. Googling my user name is rarely productive in terms of my identity and it is the name I have used on virtually every board I have belonged to since a rather unfortunate incident many years ago

 

It came about for legal reasons would you believe. One message board i belonged to had all its members using real name and, as has happened time and time again on such fora, people fell out. In this xase REALLY badly and as a result becuse real nmes were used a defamation case reared its ugly head. As a result of legal pressure that useful message board closed and has never re-opened

 

I wasnot involved in this row (except as moderator) but since that time, as a courtesy to board owners and users i have retained a semi-anonymous username. Something that, with apologies, I do not plan to change.

[gralyn]

Search your real name using google, you might be surprised by the information you can find, you might not.

 

Ye Gods there is more than one of me!

[ChrisPy]

I know who I am. Does that answer the original question?

[Dr Bradley]

What! Not a real doctor?

 

Only for prescribing Dr Bradleys Lictus

[bottle]

Youa are not one of the dreaded AA or BE are you? .

 

Sorry Graham

 

Do not know what AA or BE are so that must mean, no.

[mayalld]

Part of what will (soon please) be my boat name. Used, I suppose because it's what most people do, not for security reasons.

 

Incidentally, if you google my name you'll find out absolutely nothing - when will I have my 15 minutes.

 

 

And just to satisfy anyone intersted, I'm Colin Priestley from Sowerby Bridge.

 

Not Colin H Priestley??

[Dr Bradley]

Not Colin H Priestley??

 

The very one - how did you know that?

[Neildudman]

I guess that people do not always wish to use their real names as this might seem boring.

 

As you can see I am REALLY boring and can not fink of nowt else.

 

You would have thought that with my surname, you'd be able to put forward a better name!.

 

Neil

[Barry]

Bazza is my nickname at work and when I joined the site I tried to have Bazza as my user name but somebody had already taken it so I simply became Bazza2

 

I did google my name once and found I have been quoted in the Indian press - which surprised me

 

My name, of course, is Barry

[Phil Speight]

I know who I am. Does that answer the original question?

One day then you must tell me how you reached such an enlightened state!

Cheers

Phil

[Chris-B]

Boringly and typically mine is the name of the boat ( full marks for originality!)

Now for the even more boring bit, The Name is Chris Bennet and for my sins I w**k for Marine Engine Services in Uxbridge (Lister-Petter and Isuzu Distributors) so if you need bits or just want to abuse me now you all know ! ( ok cheap free plug as well)

Chris

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes and my spoiling spilling sppellin spelling is c***p

Edited August 17, 2007 by Baldock

[gralyn]

Sorry Graham

 

Do not know what AA or BE are so that must mean, no.

Aircraft Apprentices and Boy Entrants in the RAF. I tend to forget that there were civilian apprentices too.

[ChrisPy]

One day then you must tell me how you reached such an enlightened state!CheersPhil

prolly the result of inhaling paint fumes

I w**k for Marine Engine Services

I don't think you should be doing that during working hours ...........................

[Chris-B]

lol:I don't think you should be doing that during working hours ...........................

Some of the to**ers we get here would challenge that view !!!

[bottle]

Aircraft Apprentices and Boy Entrants in the RAF. I tend to forget that there were civilian apprentices too.

 

That's me, definitely civilian, never could take orders.

 

Also had long hair and by the end of my apprenticeship had a beard, only shaved off once, to get a job, then found they already employed bearded men.

[grunders]

'Grunders' is a school nickname originating from my last name 'Grundy'. I don't think my username on anything is my actual name.

[Gary Peacock]

I suppose because both me, Phil and Gibbo to some extent are probably the only ones actually "paid" to play with the forum being anonymous wouldn't be advantageous.

 

Marketing comes in many forms!

[grahoom]

my name is graham, and quite often on forums graham has already been taken, so quite a long time ago i adopted the online name of grahoom - as it's quite close to my real name.

[CanalWalker]

On other sites my username used to be redstarline, after one of the trade names of the White Star Line shipping company. Red Star also reflects my politics. So I changed it to redstarafloat on this site, but I spend most of my canal-time on the towpath so I should change my username to towpathtrekker or something really...

as for my real name I have had people find that out and then find me and take photos of me to publish online along with my name, address and family details. not much fun.

[mayalld]

The very one - how did you know that?

 

I didn't "know" it.

 

Part of my work centres on information security, and my party trick in this field is using "social engineering" to extract information from the audience of sceptical senior managers, who are all certain that their personal information is a closely guarded secret.

 

The coup-de-grace of handing them an envelope containing their mother's maiden name (thereby proving it to be a really bad security question for banking) is a sight to behold.

 

Quite appart from the wodge of information you just gave, a quick review of your previous posts gave me a few snippets of information about you;

1) You are in your 50s

2) You are of Yorkshire/Scots descent

3) Your partner of 15 years passed away last year

 

So, I worked on probabilities.

 

Based on your age, the length of the relationship, and the lack of a marriage suggests that you had been married previously, so I looked for a Colin Priestley marrying somewhere close to Sowerby, and I found just one likely candidate, (Colin H Priestley, Halifax, January 1987).

 

I then asked my question. The social engineering comes from the fact that it was pretty much a dead cert that if I got your middle initial right, you would react as you did, thereby providing me with more information!

 

Armed with this much information, it then becomes a trivial (if slightly tedious) exercise to find a record of your birth, and your mother's maiden name.

 

If I wanted to go further, and steal your identity, I'd need your exact date of birth, which I would have to pay to discover (less than a tenner). Fortunately, I'm not about to steal your identity, just use you as an example of how easy it would be to do, no matter how you try to remain anonymous!

[CanalWalker]

If I wanted to go further, and steal your identity, I'd need your exact date of birth, which I would have to pay to discover (less than a tenner). Fortunately, I'm not about to steal your identity, just use you as an example of how easy it would be to do, no matter how you try to remain anonymous!

 

You could just hope that someone posts "its my birthday today" on the forum.

[mayalld]

You could just hope that someone posts "its my birthday today" on the forum.

 

Oh, indeed.

 

I could equally "engineer" the information.

 

It is amazing what people will let slip without even realising it.

[magpie patrick]

If I wanted to go further, and steal your identity, I'd need your exact date of birth, which I would have to pay to discover (less than a tenner). Fortunately, I'm not about to steal your identity, just use you as an example of how easy it would be to do, no matter how you try to remain anonymous!

 

Ouch! I know a bit about security, but that's an eye opener!

 

I use Magpie Patrick as a derivative from another website: on magpiesinspace.com (the unofficial website of Chorley Football Club) I post as Magpie in Exile, because I now live 200 miles from Chorley but still support them as best I can. When a similar round of "who are you" occurred there I explained that the pseudonym told people more about me than my name would. I breifly considered renaming Ripple "Magpie" buit decided against.

 

Mayalld will probably now tell you that my mother's maiden name is Young: he'd be right but for the reasons he's just stated I never use it as a security question: nor do I use Chorley FC or Ripple, nor any variants like Magpie (or even Val, as most of you will have spotted THAT connection I'm sure!)

 

If any of you are involved in canal restoration you may know of me as I've written several reports on various canals when I worked for Atkins, and still subcontract to them (and others). I also handle the Lottery Funding for the Cotswold and Droitwich Canals.