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. 

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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.

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