hey there. i agree with the sentiment that the greatest damage would be done to the site itself. my thought is that hacking into a site violates the site owner more than it violates the individuals who participate on the site.

i've gone by my screen name for a number of years, too. have something of an 'internet identity' built up around that. that being said i probably haven't been as careful about keeping that seperate from my 'real identity' as i should have been. i don't expect that someone would be particularly bothered to link them, but that being said i have a distinct preference for that not to be done.

i'm not sure what is in my future... but i like to keep my mental health stuff very seperate indeed from my working life.

i'd also be concerned about acquaintances reading my posts and condemning me for some of the self-disclosures i've made about my thoughts / feelings / emotions to do with my mental health stuff. i'm pretty %#@&#! up in a lot of respects and while people going through similar stuff are typically really understanding there are a lot of people in the world who probably wouldn't be very understanding.

it is hard to figure out the difference between steps that are appropriately cautious and steps that are bordering on paranoid.

that being said the moral i do take from this...

is to think carefully about what information i do disclose because if my internet posts were made available to my supervisors / parents / future employers / colleagues / acquaintances etc it would result in a lot of hurt and embarrassment (and almost definately have a negative impact on my career.

take care.