Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hi all,

I'm am only out to a couple of friends no siblings no extd family. I have a legal name fb acct with friends and family. I am wondering how one fairs with creating a 2nd fb acct for their real selves particularly with the real name policy of fb. Has anyone been sockpuppeted?

Thank & Regards, Pip

A few years ago, before I was out to my family, I created a secondary account with my new name (and a made up last name). About a year and a half ago, when I transitioned and came out to family and everybody else not from the inner circle, I befriended that account from my main account, changed the name on my main account (despite not having yet a legal name change) and suggested friendship to myself with those people I only had on the secondary account.

Nobody asked me for any ID at any time.

I don't know if they're more strict now, someone said they were being asked for an ID to change the name on their existing account. But when it comes to creating a new account, some of my contacts have clearly not actual names on their accounts, and a few of them have created those accounts in the last couple of months.

Just don't go around adding random people. One of these friends of mine has a new account because someone reported her previous account for not having a real name. As long as nobody reports you, you'll be fine.

I tried creating an account not using my real name, and it was way to difficult. I gave up.

I assume its not actually too difficult considering the number of fake accounts there, but I don't know how to do it.

No way I trust Facebook with me being trans.

I have an account for my legal name and one for Kathy.  I set up the accounts using different email accounts, and I access them from different computers. 

Although Kathy has visited <legal name>'s page, <legal name> has never visited Kathy's page.  Nevertheless, <legal name> keeps getting suggestions to befriend Kathy, based presumably on those occasional visits. 

I keep the two accounts totally separate, with no mutual friends.  It would be difficult for the Facebook police to make any connection between the two.

I never bothered with a dual account. I waited until I was about to go full time, told a lot of people directly and for those I couldn't I just changed my name and gender at the same time I made a general announcement. I suppose it depends on how long it is until you intend to go full time and come out to everyone. If it's a while off and having an account in your identified gender is something you need right now then go for it. Just be careful that the Facebook algorithm doesn't start suggesting to you people you know as People You May Know, or vice versa...it is quite creepy that way.

I've avoided having an active Facebook account so far, because I don't really trust someone who has proclaimed in the past that he doesn't believe in privacy to maintain any privacy for me.   I do have a 'placeholder' account there that I keep locked down, just for professional reasons.

For social media, my identifiable accounts generally just use my first name initial.  When I finally go public (about a day after the wife kicks me out...  😉 ) my plan is to just update the avatar and gender on these.  Yes, this will give the LinkedIn folks something to talk about.

I had no trouble having two accounts. I'm pretty sure as long as you name doesn't raise any flags and appears to be a "normal" name, (whatever that means), you will probably have no trouble. You will need another email account to associate it with and hopefully that is attached to your preferred name as well. Hope I helped. :)

Dierdre

I changed the name on my account before I had legally changed my name and had no issues. Similarly, I have a friend who did the same thing, and was reported. His profile reverted back to the female name for several months after he had come out and was in a bunch of different trans-related groups. It was very uncomfortable for him.

Like Promethea mentioned, this will only happen if someone reports you for not using the right name. So if you have anyone in your friends list that you think would be an issue, it may be best to block them from the new account so that they can't even see it.

And like KathyLauren mentioned, the danger in having two accounts is if they mingle. If they have mutual friends in common, your new profile would be suggested to the friends on your old profile. If someone even visits your page, FB suggests that they friend request you. It may even go so far as to start suggesting to mutuals from there, but I haven't tested it. Very, very difficult to keep it hidden unless you block the entirety of your friends list on the other account.

I set up an account under a plausible name that I use for reading trans groups and people.  Neither has visited the other.  Yes two separate e mail accounts and never the same browser.  Chrome for one account and Firefox for the other.
My intention is too switch my ma male account to female when I change names. 

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

I got a new phone for my womanself and created a new fb account for her from the phone. I used a fake but plausibly looking name and it was accepted. In order not to have both accounts mixed, one has to be very careful. So far, I never visited her profile while logged in as male or vice versa, I never visited her profile using his browser or vice versa, and I never visited her profile from his IP address or vice versa. Also, too many common friends may spark fb's association frenzy and I'm still not sure how I'm going to tackle that.

Wow a few options to consider.

What I want to do is read/like a private Facebook page (transgender based) and eventually friend people (who I'm out to) and not be outed by Facebook to my family/friends. I know I may be paranoid and may be its just better to bite the bullet and out my self to family.

Thanks and Regards, Pip

Quote from: PipTheCat on May 23, 2016, 05:42:13 AM
Hi all,

I'm am only out to a couple of friends no siblings no extd family. I have a legal name fb acct with friends and family. I am wondering how one fairs with creating a 2nd fb acct for their real selves particularly with the real name policy of fb. Has anyone been sockpuppeted?

Thank & Regards, Pip

They flagged me. Asked me to provide my real name and information with proof of ID. I told them their policy was a joke and they eventually locked me out. I didn't want any half measures on this but in the end I probably should have played ball instead of losing that account.

I created a second account in the beginning, but it got to be a real pain because my trans name one had about 5 people on it and my other one had around 150. Eventually I got to the point where I was doing the transition anyway, so I came out to everybody, then moved them from the old account to the new one by friend requesting them all.

I luckily never got flagged on the name difference, but all the people on my account were immediate friends and family, so there really wasn't anybody that could end up with a grudge enough to report me. I also made sure I provided basic information including home city/current city, birthday, and high school (all made up). I only had the second account for about 9 months before I got the legal name change and didn't have to worry anymore.

I'm not out out so I have 2 FB accounts, one for each persona in kind of sort of both my names. Changes made to protect the innocent guberment prime contractor employees living in rural areas where such things are very likely frowned upon by the locals with their pitch-forks and torches

Hmm, the more and more I think about it says I'll be piped even though of the successes of some listed, cause I usually access fb from home (which would log the same IP address) and my chosen name is similar to my legal name (I think this would be the clincher unless I put fake profile data and what happens when it do transition) and my friend list would be a subset to my legal name account. I'll need to ponder more.

Thanks for the replies.

I suspect if you do a lot of cross posting, use the same emails, many of the same friends, you'll be found out, maybe. If you act like two different people, two towns, two emails, two sets of "Friends" etc... no way w/o insider info

BTW - I do this from the same home, same IP, same MAC

Thanks JoanneB, I'll try to think up a suitable back story for my new fb profile.

I elected to use one account where after GRS I changed to my new female name which was done several weeks prior to surgery. At the time I changed my FB account I posted a note indicating what was going on. The reason for doing things this way was to be upfront as humanly possible with friends but can see how others could benefit from using two accounts. Overall my coming out on FB was small in comparison to informing friends in person or by telephone which actually assisted in coming out on FB as they were the biggest supporters.

Oh one more thing. Don't use a profile picture of yourself on the girl one. If you have friends in common between the profiles, friends on your guy profile may get suggestions to connect with your girl profile. The facial recognition may even suggest they tag you! I blocked anybody that I didn't want finding out on my girl profile like my father, grandparents, cousins, siblings. Once I told everybody and removed the guy profile entirely, I unblocked everybody to move them over. And for those family members that cut me off, I make sure to like every single post that they're tagged in to shove it in their face that I'm still here 🙂

I took a picture in girl mode and sent it to a cartoon from picture site.  Then posted a comic looking picture.  No pictures is a possible flag for dummy account.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk

Only used FB as Jerrica pretty much as a personal log to put all my events into.

Enough to mean something to me but not enough to lead anyone to me that doesn't already know.

Quoting myself:

Quote from: Fresas con Nata on May 23, 2016, 02:24:46 PM
In order not to have both accounts mixed, one has to be very careful. So far, I [did this and that].

I'm now in Belgium, using the wifi from the hostel, and have already used fb from my girlmode phone. I need to be careful not to login to my male account from the laptop, because then they will see that the IP is not only the same, but it's also an unusual one. So they will infer that either both accounts are managed by the same person, or by two people that travel together, and that will surely associate both accounts. Oops...

Quote from: Fresas con Nata on May 26, 2016, 02:49:01 PM
Quoting myself:

I'm now in Belgium, using the wifi from the hostel, and have already used fb from my girlmode phone. I need to be careful not to login to my male account from the laptop, because then they will see that the IP is not only the same, but it's also an unusual one. So they will infer that either both accounts are managed by the same person, or by two people that travel together, and that will surely associate both accounts. Oops...

I use the same laptop from my home for both accounts like every day. Not a problem after almost 8 years

Iv'e created a friend Fb account and eventually that account turned into my male name even though my family could find me threw my best friend and my fb account name is close to my birth name just male nobody's caught on yet and even if they have  they haven't spoken up about it.

I have used two FB accounts. One under my legal name and one under my family name. I've deactivated one since I don't have time to keep up with them. I have blocked all my family and cis friends from viewing my posts. I have always kept my friends list private and join no games nor participate in any of those survey things. I got in trouble a few months ago for a sarcastic meme that I 'liked.' It got recommended to my sister and she showed my mother. It wasn't really a big deal but I hadn't realized that everything I did was being shared with my family. No wonder they don't want much to do with me with all the equal rights things I like and comment on. I had practically no posts on my wall concerning those things.

If you want to keep things sorted on FB, join some groups. Posts you like and share from within a closed group doesn't show up on your friends page.

If you do keep a separate FB account, make sure to block your other account from seeing it. Keep your friends list private and stay away from the polls, games, and how smart you are memes.

Quote from: JoanneB on May 26, 2016, 08:22:59 PM
I use the same laptop from my home for both accounts like every day. Not a problem after almost 8 years

Thanks for this. I tend to err on the paranoid side but it's good to know that I'm, indeed, overly paranoid :).

Quote from: Cindi Jones on May 27, 2016, 11:54:24 AM
I have blocked all my family and cis friends from viewing my posts.

The problem I see with this approach is that sooner or later yet another fb privacy scandal will pop up and you might be outed. When it comes to fb I use the approach "Everything is public—if you don't want to make something public, don't post it to fb".

Quote from: Fresas con Nata on May 27, 2016, 02:52:09 PM
Thanks for this. I tend to err on the paranoid side but it's good to know that I'm, indeed, overly paranoid :)

It's NOT paranoia when you know they are out to get you  😮

Quote from: Fresas con Nata on May 27, 2016, 02:52:09 PM
The problem I see with this approach is that sooner or later yet another fb privacy scandal will pop up and you might be outed. When it comes to fb I use the approach "Everything is public—if you don't want to make something public, don't post it to fb".

Oh, if I were living in stealth, I would NOT use FB except in private groups. I wouldn't post on this site either except in the private areas. I've been out to my family and some friends forever. But in my community I've been stealth for 29 years. Last year I came out publicly with a FB announcement. I was blackmailed by my ex husband and I don't abide by that sort of thing. I refuse to be blackmailed. NO ONE may have that power over me. So I got out in front of it and told the world that I'm trans. My actions in blocking my family and cis friends this year were an attempt to keep from reminding them after the fact by "beating them over the head" with political action things where I hit the like button.

If you ever work from home, careful with that too. I can't tell you how many times I've logged into this site while being on vpn and then had a sudden heart attack when I realized this site was now in my company logs. Nobody ever said anything though.

I use my chosen name and am open about my gender ID on FB. If you're looking to create a 2nd account and don't want people irl to know about it (like work colleagues and such), just make sure to block everyone that's on the first account and act like the 1st one doesn't exist. Set it to private.

Reporting facebook names is something anyone can do at any time, regardless of whether or not the name used is real (and regardless of whether or not the name has been previously verified, supposedly). Sometimes people just do it to harass you. One of the many lovely realities of social media.

Quote from: JoanneB on May 24, 2016, 10:16:13 PM
I suspect if you do a lot of cross posting, use the same emails, many of the same friends, you'll be found out, maybe. If you act like two different people, two towns, two emails, two sets of "Friends" etc... no way w/o insider info

BTW - I do this from the same home, same IP, same MAC

YES THAT... The program they use cross references duplicated data points to make a suggestion that the accounts may be duplicated.  the only things that i have against me would be account recovery information, IP addresses, and similarly sounding names, but those are lower in the probability formula than posting the same stuff in both accounts. The whole idea on it was to get people to make a public page like a business or celebrity instead of a separate account. but of course having a separate account is loads more secure than a public page.

I have had two accounts since 2007 and have never had any problems about this specific concern. the first one i had was for me being out, then i made another one shortly thereafter for people i wasn't out to, since being involved in airshows still isn't the most friendly or understanding place to be out at.

I don't think you really have to use a legal name for facebook.
i'd say less that %20 of my friends use their legal names on facebook.

interesting thread

I'm actually kind of coming out on FB, discretely, not sure if all my friends figured who I was since I changed both my first (to gender neutral... my female name, which is also on my birth cert.) then family name (to similar... shortened). Well I don't know most of my FB friends very much or at all in RL except my family who is not very familiar with FB or my nieces I only met when they were babies and who live out west or abroad... FB is weird, I don't really know these people  :laugh: many mostly with a political link. Anyways, then I changed my avatar to the one I'm using here, and by then I guess everyone had figured what was happening  ;D I don't know actually and I find it funny. I started posting more stuff on defense of women's right, LGBT rights and celebrations, then once in a while one on trans rights (I'm not in US, don't have the bathroom issue)... I came out to those who really matter (my 2 children), as for the others, I guess I leave them to discover the new me like they can. Guess I will make an announcement of some sort at some point. FB didn't react to my changes. didn't yet try to change gender

I wanted to add one bit of advice to this posting. If you are using a name other than your legal one, I would advise against using that account to comment upon or register with any content outside of your friends. Anyone can flag you for any reason and looking back I believe I was initially flagged by a bigot who was brought low by my smart defense of a transgender teen on an article someone linked to on my wall. I'm 99% sure that started the whole inquiry into me, never mind that the content of my posts did nothing flag worthy.

Jennifer Lopezgomez is my legal name on my female gender United States Passport and on my Facebook account. I have several times travelled internationally on multiple continents as Jennifer with zero problems with airport security and zero problems with immigrations or customs in any country.

Very early in my transition I simply closed the fb account in my deadname and invalid gender and started my Jennifer Facebook account even before Jennifer was my legal name.

I have currently having outstanding successes like 95% of the time in my day to day real life as full time 24 7 Jennifer as a WOMAN most of the people likely don't even know I am trans.

But I have found that sharing too many positive details publicly about where, when, with whom, doing what causes many bullies to use that info against me to severely emotionally harm me, do major damage to me and my reputation by calling me a "man" and much worse.

I've been banned from some trans groups for openly sharing my thoughts about my own suicide and some very positive details about my life. So I just don't give a bleep anymore. I don't really care if I get banned from more trans groups. My real life as WOMAN 24 /7 among cis (non-trans) people is going spectacularly well that I have little or no need to post in trans groups much anymore. It isn't worth the emotional damage and harm it does to me. And most of the cis people don't even know I am trans they just think I am a woman which is fantastic.

I have suffered severe harm and damage to my emotions and reputation by sharing way too publicly too many details of my real life on the internet which was my former habit.

I strongly recommend against becoming a victim of this by too much internet public sharing about your life. Many trans women are among the worst bullies. Stick with real life and a closer circle of online trans friends after you go full time and you will protect yourself better is my advice. I speak from considerable experience. xx

The way to keep your accounts from co-mingling is to use a feature on Chrome called People. In the settings page you can add people aka profiles to Chrome. Each profile opens up a separate Chrome browser with individual settings, background, email accounts, social accounts, favorites, etc. I have currently my account as a male with family, friends, and coworkers on it and a separate account for my female self with my preferred first name and a different last name that opens up in a different page and is on some groups but has no friends. I log in from the same PC and am able to keep everything separate. In fact, I've been doing this for over a year without having either account ask to be added to the other's friends. This method keeps everything separate and hidden from each other. It's actually a nice feature if you have multiple members of your family using the same PC but wanting to keep their own stuff separate from each other.