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I was just thinking about this recently, and if you are posting on The Workplace:

You likely are talking about something you wouldn't ideally like your employers to see.

Then for those of us who have our accounts linked to other SE sites that we would like employers to see, are we not just naturally pushed towards the solution of creating a throwaway account just to ask a question?

Not that throwaway accounts break this site, but I was just thinking it seems like a fundamental conflict between The Workplace and SE.

Interested to hear your guys thoughts.

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  • The workplace is fairly unimportant in the big picture so everyone just does whatever they want.
    – Kilisi Mod
    Feb 26, 2020 at 3:56
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    Keep in mind that the vast majority of questions are already asked by one-time-use accounts, across the network. Most of the community activity is based on answering questions more than asking them.
    – Lilienthal Mod
    Feb 26, 2020 at 7:59
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    What would the issue be? Why is it a problem that a person would ask a question here under a different pseudonym than the one they use on another SE site?
    – Player One
    Feb 26, 2020 at 12:11
  • are we not just naturally pushed towards the solution of creating a throwaway account just to ask a question? can you clarify why you feel pushed to create a throwaway account for content that you want people to associate with your real account? I'm struggling to understand this, which makes it hard to address your question.
    – dwizum
    Feb 26, 2020 at 13:35
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    this is probably related: How can I ask questions on this site anonymously?
    – gnat
    Feb 26, 2020 at 15:07
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    Also related on the main Meta: How should sockpuppets be handled on Stack Exchange? I think this is probably the guiding factor in my opinion, from the accepted answer: "...if the second account allows you to do something on the site that your normal account would be prevented from doing, it is abuse." I.E. If you're not using it for voting fraud, ban evasion, or other sock puppet type activity like commenting/answering on your other account's posts, I don't see a problem with it.
    – Booga Roo
    Feb 26, 2020 at 17:07
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    I'd suggest that it detracts from the overall quality--I think posts made by throw-away accounts often don't receive the followup attention (ie, edits and answers to requests for clarifications) that they need. I have no data to back this up though, other than my own experience with throwaway accounts and what I've noticed here. Of course, not every account that only asks 1 question was meant to be a throwaway either, so it's hard to gauge
    – Mars
    Mar 3, 2020 at 4:04
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    See also this Meta.SO on sockpuppet rules
    – Machavity
    Mar 9, 2020 at 18:40

1 Answer 1

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Does The Workplace have a fundamental issue with throwaway accounts?

Yes. Trolls. Posting anonymously was disabled in mid 2020 due to spike in Troll accounts posting SPAM, all from unregistred accounts (see here).

You could consider having another account that does not have your real name or identifiable information (as suggested in this answer), with the pros and cons that implies (more privacy, less bragging your achievements and badges, etc.).

Keep in mind what is allowed and not regarding multiple accounts as per the SE Conditions (no upvoting your other posts, no abusing several accounts to DV someone, etc.).

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