I noticed the other day that the majority of the content on [email protected] are made by accounts that are deleted after making some posts. Most often no comments are made by these burner accounts, but sometimes they will create a new separate account to respond to comments.

Is there any real privacy benefits for this over something like having a single separate account you post only images and no text posts?

Is there a tool that facilities creating short-term accounts like this?

  • hendrikEnglish
    8•4 days ago

    I highly doubt this kind of behaviour makes Lemmy a better place. We have other places for these kinds of things linke anonymous imageboards.

    • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
      2•4 days ago

      I agree, but I wanted to get other people’s opinions. This user is now following me and downvoting my posts. Even in this very thread.

      • hendrikEnglish
        4•4 days ago

        I see. What an asshole. It’d be best if you brought that up with the sh.itjust.works admins. Maybe they would like to ban them for stalking people, ban-evasion or whatever. And/or [email protected] if you want more attention and drama.

        I’d say this is unacceptable behaviour.

        • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
          0•4 days ago

          Yeah, for sure. This is a new development, but their pattern shows that they will be using all Lemmy instances they can for this. This started on Lemmy.world, for example.

          Still, separately from the breaking of ToS, I just wanted to get a better understanding of why someone would even spend that much time creating burner accounts. It seems far more effort than it’s worth for any possible privacy benefits, unless I’m missing something. That’s why I’m asking here.

          • hendrikEnglish
            2•3 days ago

            Idk. The last accounts I suspect to be that person are:

            I don’t see the point. We could go some more through the comicstrips community and the modlog and puzzle the pieces back together… But I really don’t see what kind of privacy this offers. I mean this strange behaviour kind if draws more attention, not less… Maybe they’d like to chime in to tell us.

            Could also be a person with behavioural pecularities, or they’re high on drugs.

            • hendrikEnglish
              0•3 days ago

              Seems the Admin took some action over at the community and banned them for: sockpuppet account, disposable email, vote manipulation, ban evasion

              If anything, this leads to more control, more tracking to enforce bans and less privacy for everyone. And adds toxicity. So my final verdict is: No. This takes away privacy.

    • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
      -1•4 days ago

      Yeah, I actually had that originally but I changed it for reasons.

        • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
          -1•4 days ago

          I’m not sure how to best link communities. Voyager and the site in browser seem to work different. So, I’m kinda playing around with it.

          But yeah, that thread explains why I’m asking. I wouldn’t have really paid that much attention if they didn’t start responding with rude comments to anyone who simply brings up that they use burner accounts to make posts.

  • @[email protected]English
    0•4 days ago

    Kinda, but not really. And only if you are creating and logging into these accounts via a method that conceals your personal IP address. Without that, at best, you are simply obscuring your identity.

    And even if you are properly concealing your ip address, If you interact with the rest of us enough, a profile could still be built up using writing or art styles as the identifier, eventually becoming detailed enough to identify the user.

    Jk Rowling and Steven King both had alts that were linked to them that way. And it wasn’t a government that did so, but their fans.

    • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
      -1•4 days ago

      Sure, but that’s based on text posts. If all you do is post images, would there really be anything to track?

      • @[email protected]English
        0•4 days ago

        If it’s actual art (digital or no), yes. Each person is distinct even if they are faking someone else. With enough data, a profile can be built. It’s how the real artist behind fake original paintings can be Identified.

        People are just really bad at random, and are not precise enough to physically copy someone else.

        Digital copies are another matter, but might still be traceable with a large enough dataset.

        • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
          0•4 days ago

          I’m just talking about sharing memes, for example

    • go $fsck yourselfOPEnglish
      1•4 days ago

      There you are. You’re clearly following me. You’ve posted this link before, but it’s not an explanation on how it applies to this specific behavior on Lemmy.