What is the impact of disclosing information about yourself in your profile?

A lot of people demand their privacy and I understand this. I have nothing to hide and therefore my avatar and information is “what you see is what you get”

Some people write false names and information, just to keep their identity private. I never do this. My whole profile is on Facebook, as again, I have nothing to hide.

Keeping your privacy private is okay.

I don’t think I’ve provided enough information for anyone to steal my identity so that’s a big load off my mind, first and foremost. Secondly, I think I’ve put together adequate information in my biography so that a person can get a general idea of my personality. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s necessary for me to divulge any additional details because that won’t serve any further, useful purpose, in my opinion.

I think mine is pretty short and sweet and a good representation of who I am, my interests and avocations in the condensed version. Yep, nothing to hide here either, but I also don’t feel the need to write an entire novel all about me. That feels narcissistic. The short and sweet version is concise enough and hey, that’s saying a lot about me, the queen of verbosity. lol

@Coloma and yet I, Mr. Verbosity King, feel a need to say nothing in my bio. Surely you wouldn’t say I make you look narcissistic. But you might make me look,,, or I don’t know. Surely something, in comparison. Parsimonious? Shy? Got something to hide? Is it wrong to have something to hide?

The main intention behind mine is so that if I write one answer on here referring to my [dead] father, and another answer where I mention my Dad, anyone thinking I was just making stuff up could see the back story there. Having written that much, I decided to add in specialisms etc as people missed that aspect when the profiles changed.

@wundayatta Well..a quickie little blurb or 3 giving a modest insight into what lies beneath ones crust, while not spilling all the berries in your pie is nice. I like to read about other members and nobody has to disclose anything they aren’t comfy with.
Whatever one wants to do, it;s all good. ;-)

I give enough so that people have a small idea of who I am and what I’m like, but nowhere near enough for anyone to track me down or anything.

Anyone that knows me could pretty easily figure out who I am mostly by my name and avatar, but my story would really give me away and I don’t really care that much. I wrote what I think people should know to get a taste of who I am.

I’m both too lazy and too private to put anything in my profile. I figure, if someone really wants to know the intimate details of my life that I share with Fluther, they should have to be willing to read through the threads to find it all out. Or, PM me…

Given the breadth of my knowledge base (albeit shallow), I felt the need to provide sufficient information in my bio so as to be taken seriously. From my answers here on Fluther, hopefully most know that I take the questions I respond to seriously. I realize that not everyone here feels as strongly as I do about wanting to help others whenever I can. Some are here for amusement. I’m not, but that’s my problem.

@Bill1939 Some would argue that you can say anything in your bio, but that doesn’t mean a thing. It is in your answers that a person can tell your true worth.

That’s what I figure, anyway. My bio is not something people would accept. The only proof I have of what I say is my answers. Nothing else is meaningful around here.

And I can’t argue against that. I wrote my bio before responding to questions on Fluther. Hopefully my subsequent answers reflect my introduction, and vice versa.

Bah! Is the whole world doomed to suspicious thinking? Call me Pollyanna but shit..I DO believe until proven otherwise. I think for every imposter there are 10 truly genuine types, and I’m one of them.

I find it really difficult to write a few lines that I want to be ‘represented’ by. I don’t want people to assume things or base their thoughts on me from reading some selected pieces of information about my life or personality.

I don’t like to box myself in, if that makes sense. So I end up not typing anything at all. I do appreciate reading others profiles though.

I miss being able to add “interests” boxes.
That tells something about you without telling something about you.
Now all I can do is delete them.

I’m not sure what the impact is for others reading my profile. I really didn’t expect many to read it any ways – it’s there just in case.

I have a longer profile because I wanted to let others know about me. Knowing about me requires a bit of background information (I think so any ways). There’s way more to me than what’s in my profile, of course. Many times I have thought about deleting most of it because I don’t want to come across as too out there (like I’m self promoting). I have a hard time describing myself without making it long – it’s hard to put myself into one paragraph.

I also wanted to explain some of why I am how I appear on Fluther. No one I know, in real life, frequents this site. If that happens, so be it. I have nothing to hide. Heck, it may even help them understand me a bit more.

I see nothing wrong with either choice – sharing personal information vs not doing so.

“My story” goes on, and on, and on…. :D

For me, no impact at all. I’ve barely read half a dozen since I joined here.

I used to have a lot of information on my profile, even my photo for a short time, and then I deleted it when I wanted to keep myself more anonymous here. If people read my answers they could probably figure out who I am if they know me well already, but I did not want first glanve to make it simple.

I do really like when people have some information about themselves on their profile. But, what can I say? I still feel better not having info there.

I put just enough in my profile to lure in the nosy. Then I drop the hammer and BOOM- it’s lights out, loosers! ;-p

I feel a bit guilty because I haven’t put anything in mine. I really dislike filling in those sort of things, but not because of privacy concerns, more to do with not being able to decide what I want to say.

I put one or two sentences that gives a fairly good, but yet vague description of who I am. It’s one that if someone I know came across it, they may or may not realize that they know me. I am hoping that nobody I know is on Fluther, because from reading my posts, they may figure out who I am.

I don’t hide much. I mean, I’m not giving out my home address willy-nilly (though I do enjoy writing and receiving letters, and I’m an awesome pen pal) but I figure anyone I met in person is going to get at least my name and what I look like, and my internet identity is just an extension of my real life identity. I’m not a different person off-line, it’s just that this bar has no cover charge, so I come here more often. Fluther, where everyone knows my name

Lol @Brian1946…“loosers” ...hmm :P

I think you can get a better picture of who I am through my answers than anything I could have written.

There’s an inevitable bias to writing about yourself, even when you mean to be truthful.

”There’s an inevitable bias to writing about yourself, even when you mean to be truthful.”

Yes, that’s a good way of putting it.

Well..if someone wishes to travel to the Northern Ca. based on my info. and seek out the town of Coloma which has an invisible overlap with the town of Lotus, manage to figure out my actual address is really listed in the zip code of yet another town, and then, wish to scout around for a woman they think MIGHT be me, based on my self descriptions, and THEN…wish to drive around aimlessly for hours and hours covering thousands of acres of rural mountain properties to find me…well…go for it.

Clue: Look for a tiny, private, dead end road and when you see the colorful beach umbrellas around the horse corral with geese….well…zing! Come on up and knock and I’ll give you a happy brownie for your trouble. haha
The Coloma triangle is a mysterious zone. lol

Ooo happy brownies! I’m in. Seriously though, @Coloma, your place always sounds delightful – if I’m ever wandering around there, I’ll be sure to check in.

@Plucky I’d be a twee bit careful about getting in a hot tub with a goose.

Just saying.

Depending on what you write there, you might get people PM’ing about stuff other than what you share in the threads.

Like you, I like it better to get a feel for users based on their interaction.

@Coloma: If I’m ever in Coloma, I’m popping in to say hi!