An EASY way to give out personal information :(

[oakley16]

yeah, i sor of agree.... the oakley preffers to my dog named oakley and the 16 reffers to my 2nd favorite number. my favortie number is 15 but someone already took oakley15.....

[meganmonkee]

Yes, I've also seen many people with threads like "When do you think you're old enough to give up webkinz?" And in the thread they say (this is an example) I'm about to go into the 7th grade, and I am not sure if I am too old for webkinz..... or I am about to enter middle school. It is pretty easy to do the math, 7th grade means 12 or 13 years old. You see what I mean? I want to flag posts I see like that, but I am not sure I should.... On one of my accounts, my username is meganmonkee0223, but 0223 is my birthday, February 23......

[Smiley Rockr]

Good point! Although I usually take that as random numbers, it can be true at times.

[mcgymnast9]

Originally Posted by stormtuckergirl

Hi everyone. I see lots of people easily giving out personal information without even knowing it. How, you ask? Well, by usernames! So many people will put the year they were born after their username! For example, if my cat were to join WI and do this () it might be like this: MycatStorm05 It's a completely simple way to give out personal information! Though it is not possible to change your username once you join, it's a great reminder.

~Thanks everyone! Comments and/or constructive critizism (sp?) is appriciated.

Yes, I've always agreed with this rule. I never put my birth year as the number to any usernames I have - it's just to risky! Thank you for the safety tip; I just wish users could see this BEFORE they join. Rep!

[crystal00000]

My friends WW username is "01/2/1998" So THAT wouldn't be the best, BUT a baby is born JUST IN AMERICA every 5 secons. so MILLIONS of peepzulz share her BDAY

[stormtuckergirl]

Originally Posted by crystal00000

My friends WW username is "01/2/1998" So THAT wouldn't be the best, BUT a baby is born JUST IN AMERICA every 5 secons. so MILLIONS of peepzulz share her BDAY

I agree, but on WI you aren't allowed to say the year you were born, which is my point. If someone (like your friend that you mentioned) joined WI with their username with their birth year in it, everyone could know how old they are.

[catsinparadise]

We do have to be careful of things like that. Thanks for pointing that out.

[meowsrus]

Odd thing though- many people get in the habit of doing it because of other forums. I remember when I was making a Yahoo! account and the username I wanted was taken so it gave me suggestions for one. All of the suggestions had the ID I had picked, OR my last name, + the year I put in (or even my age as the numbers!) when I entered my b-day. I understand AOL (at least used to) does this to people because they go through so many IDs.

Many people then just use those IDs most places they go. Why not- here were these major online services suggesting you do it!

But we did not want to have any numbers in our IDs, so we brainstormed for a short while and came up with what I have now. I have had this ID everywhere for years. So if you know a head of time you can take your ID and tweak it so that you do not have to contain numbers. Doesn't help you with an ID you can't change, but it helps for ones you may make later!

[Luvcocoaxo3]

Yes this is true! I've noticed it too. I don't think it's as bad if it's say like 91 or something, because then you don't know for sure if it's their birth year or just a number, but I've seen people with usernames such as HeyI'mBob1997. That's almost completely obvious. Good point; thanks!

[Beaudog6253]

Well, I can tell you one thing...the 6253 in my username does NOT mean I'm from the future!!!! It's just my favorite number!!! Thanks for the reminder though!!!