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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[–] davel@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

$ diceware -n2

UnfixableHappy

$

[–] nik282000@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year 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.

[–] NightOwl@lemmy.one 11 points 1 year 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.

[–] Lemmchen@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[–] DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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
[–] ExLisper@linux.community 9 points 1 year ago

I see a pattern here...

[–] MayonnaiseArch@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

Well I love your name 😍 one of the best characters

[–] sxan@midwest.social 4 points 11 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.

[–] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 2 points 11 months ago

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

[–] python@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

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

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[–] Hephoh2@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

$ pwgen 8 100

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] vaselined@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] guyrocket@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I also found the url above.

[–] pound_heap@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year 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

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago

I usually just use a fake name generator to create a name and use it as a username this takes care of my inability to think of random usernames, birth date and other stuff that most websites these days ask. And it also makes me look like another dumb idiot and not a l33t haxor.