What is "Outing"?

[Wolfgang]

I will best illustrate with an example. (Bear with me)

Poster "Alpha"'s real name is "Alan Armswing"
Poster "Beta"'s real name is "Betty Bump"
Poster "Gamma"'s real name is "Gary Gruntwell"
Poster "Gamma" is also Poster "Delta"

Which of the following is "outing":
a. Poster Alpha posts: "Beta is Betty Bump."
b. Poster Beta posts: "Gamma is Delta."
c. Gamma posts: "My name is Gary Gruntwell."
d. Poster Delta posts: "Alpha is John Smith."
e. Poster Alpha posts: "Beta is Gamma."


Answers below:
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Correct answer(s): a, d
"a" is the correct answer because a poster announced the real name of another poster.
"d" is also correct because, as a matter of policy, posting the real name of another poster should not be allowed even if the real name is incorrect. This type of behavior should not be allowed because the admin would have the extra burden of determining whether the ousted poster's real name was used or not. Regardless of whether the post was true or false, no post associating a poster name with a real name should be allowed, as a matter of policy.

Incorrect answers: b, c, e
When your post associates one poster's username with another username, that is NOT outing. Ruffda=Fstrump, for example. Some people have said Wolfgang=chancelucky=Jewel=BIK. Those posts are harmless. They are NOT outing.
Answer "c" is tricky. My personal feeling is that you can't "out" yourself. Many on this forum have identifed their real names. That's allowed. Otherwise, you'd have to reprimand the likes of Jon Stevenson, Charlie Jackson, Cheryl Butler, and others.

[Odin]

"b" is outing when Delta has been identified previously. Which is why identities should not be even guessed at.

[Wolfgang]

I don't think so, for three reasons:

1. Who will remember?
2. The poster who did the outing could be wrong. It's just a theory and everyone knows it's just a theory.
3. This puts a tremendous burden on the admin to keep track of all usernames that have been outed and usernames that have not been outed but is associated with the outed person. For example, the admin would have to keep track of Fstrump = Ruffda ESPECIALLY if Ruffda has been previously outed to make sure no one now outs Fstrump. A slippery slope.

Another example: let's say IdahoBoob was identified in a prior thread as "Ken Pooder". Then, sometime later, Ruffda posts: "JaymeLeeFan is IdahoBoob." He may be wrong. No one knows for sure. Ruffda was only playing with poster usernames, not real identities. And JaymeLeeFan could easily come to the forum and post: "What? I'm not IdahoBoob! Are you insane?"

When people are playing with usernames and associating one username with another, they're all just theories. Maaan, I could count a thousand different times posters were wrong about me and my alleged aliases.