this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2023
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Privacy

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More often than not, the best way to hide is to simply blend in with the crowds -- this also encompasses one's choice for a username. It is relatively simple to make a single throwaway account -- just come up with a username, and off you go -- however, if one makes throwaway accounts often, the task of thinking of a unique, and non-identifiable username can become a challenge. I would argue that poeple would often resort to using a pattern employing small changes for all subsequent usernames. Such patterns can be identified to a specific user if all users have their own unique patterns.

How can one reliably generate many unique-but-normal, and non-pattern-identifiable usernames?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

$ diceware -n2

UnfixableHappy

$

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Use a password generator in a password manager for the username AND password. Bitwarden is free.

Use a temporary email for email signups. getnada.com works fine, but so do many others.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Random nicknames are not recommended, they are unique identifiers, it is better to use nicknames of famous people or movies, video games, etc., because it makes it difficult to find them on the web, especially if different ones are used on each site.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

this is a really good idea

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

Go to reddit, pick a username from the front page, use that. Any searching into your use of it will lead to that front page post and its reposts on click mills.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

There's user name generators. Even fantasy name generators too so it's not a weird jumble of letters and numbers like a password.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I let Bitwarden generate my usernames for throwaway accounts. I don't care if my username can be identified as Bitwarden-generated.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Good usernames are Google, Yahoo or Barrelroll, this is fun when someone searches for you by nickname

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Pick a random book from your shelf.

  • Open at a random page. Take the first word on the left page.
  • Open at another random page. Take the first word on the left page

Repeat for as many words you like. Discard words you don’t like. Slam the words you like together.

Examples:

  • thickestneedhelped
  • ritestayoutdoors
  • passedthejust
[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago

I see a pattern here...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't create anon accounts nearly as much as you say you do, but when I do I a correct-horse generator, and just pick the first two words and mash them together. It has never produced a conflict yet.

keepass2android's password generator can generate these on mobile, and there are several for the command line.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

I, too, was immediately going to recommend correct horse. It is random and it works.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

English word + four numbers

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

That's what you think, Michael

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Try random real words until you hit one that's free! Those are the most satisfying usernames anyway imo haha

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

They do. You can use passphrase generator of any pw manager. Bitwarden has a nice one

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Interesting. I also found the url above.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

$ pwgen 8 100

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I use SimpleLogin for email alias, and username usually has to be associated with email address. So I just use whatever SimpleLogin generates for me

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