Ask HN: Have you created a 'fake' (pseudo anonymous) social account; if so, why?

18 points · nomilk · 7 days ago

The Australian PM was asked how young minorities might find social groups without social media [1]. His reply was floundering but amounted to "in a face to face way".

When I think of anonymous or 'fake' (/burner) accounts, bad things (illegal or ~immoral) come to mind. But thinking more deeply, I ask myself "have I ever created a fake account?", and the answer is - "yeah, several times!" - for example:

- Burner reddit accounts, to comment or share info when (e.g. when doing so from my primary account would have been awkward for one reason or another)

- Ditto for HN

- Gmail accounts, usually for (software) testing purposes

- Before facebook had a feature to view your own profile, created a dummy account to see how it appeared to other users

- Probably more I've forgotten about

In these cases a 'dummy' account was/is very useful - it let me access and share information I or others needed. Curious to learn what others use (pseudo-anonymous | burner | 'fake' | 'dummy') social media accounts for?

The example given in a question to the Australian PM is a hypothetical about a young lgbtq person who may not be able to find anyone to speak to face to face (esp if their parents are not supportive), so social media is absolutely essential to finding like communities and learning about that aspect of themselves.

That's just one tiny (yet compelling) example.

What are your experiences; have you ever needed to create a 'fake' social media account, and if so, what for, what value did you get from it, and what were the alternatives (if any)?

[1] https://x.com/TalaatSYehia/status/1862389652126069231