Foo - Would you ever post your home address online? How about for a klondike bar?

I'm building a website that is somewhat of a social experiment. One of the projects on the site would require that anonymous people send me things. It would be a project similar to the one at www.postsecret.com. That site has become a wildly successful blog and project that sparked NY Times best selling books and events.

If you haven't heard of it before I shall summarize. This one guy posted his home address on a website to have people send him postcards with their anonymous secrets on them. Some of them are downright hilarious and some touch on the darkest secrets humans can hold. It's a truly amazing story.

Anyways, I have a similar idea to this site, but with a very different topic. The only hurdle I have right now is convincing myself that it's ok to post my home address online for anyone to view and send me things. On one hand I know it's probably not the brightest idea in the world to post my address online. On the other hand, the guy at postsecrets.com seems to have done just that with no problems at all.

What do you all think?

Get a PO box.

What he (up there) said.

Yea that's the obvious solution, but the question still remains.

No, I would not. Sorry for the suggestion. It was what I THOUGHT (since you asked).

I agree it was a loaded question. Didn't mean any offense in my reply. I always appreciate constructive suggestions.

Sure. I'm in the telephone book too. Who cares?

have them sent to offshore floating shipping containers.

i'll mail you a bag of poo.

Senor Jsharr, Esq.
1060 West Addison Street
Chicago, IL 60613

^Go trim your ivy señor
http://rlv.zcache.com/senor_poopy_pants_tshirt-p23538744709951725433qt_400.jpg


there's the poo, where the secs?

have them sent to offshore floating shipping containers.

You beat me to it! :thumb:

2 Km norte del cementerio
Cabanga de Guatuso
Alajuela, Costa Rica

We live near the company, easy to find us.

I am big and ugly. I rather doubt anyone is coming to bother me.

The only hurdle I have right now is convincing myself that it's ok to post my home address online for anyone to view and send me things. On one hand I know it's probably not the brightest idea in the world to post my address online. On the other hand, the guy at postsecrets.com seems to have done just that with no problems at all.
People worry WAY, WAY too much. There are these things called "directories" that allow you in most cases to easily just look this stuff up online. Even if you are unlisted, it's easy enough to get the information through other channels. As a rule, being paranoid will only deter people the people you want to hear from and the particularly uninitiated kooks. My personal phone number and clear text email goes out in almost every email I send, it's posted on literally thousands of places on the Web, and it really doesn't cause problems (though I naturally receive plenty of spam). I've been doing it for years, and the biggest hassle was being called repeatedly by a couple mentally ill people. But that's nothing compared to the idiocy I'm bombarded with on a daily basis.

Here's the schtick -- people are too damn lazy to do anything. If you really have to make it that easy for them to find you, they sure as heck aren't anyone you need to worry about. If Jan Reno could have a publicly listed address when she served as Attorney General for the state of Florida just a few years back, I'm sure I can too.

EDIT: My wife gets annoyed when I do provocative things, so I eliminated my real identity from this post. However, you can all find my real info easily enough simply by following my profile info and googling my name or handle. I'm sure I could find out quite a bit about most people here, including those who think they are anonymous. In addition to free databases, there are fee based ones that let you track down people pretty easily. Plus, social engineering has always been a great way to get info.

I've already got my address posted online in a few places. They're "secure" areas of public forums, but I'm sure that a little bit of creative search engine finesse could dredge up the information. It's not like I make any effort to hide who I am.

High-five for whomever PMs me with my correct address first. Seriously.

And the high five goes to bannerjek, who says he spent less than 2 minutes to find it!

No....but I'll post yours.

BTW, handy tip to aspiring identity thieves -- it's insanely inefficient to troll the web for info and then try to resolve inaccuracies in the data you get back. If you're going to just randomly target people, at least skip the identity resolution step and start with a directory.

You'll get far more accurate and complete info much faster by getting a peon level job in a business that provides medical or financial services. Heck, even your typical sales clerk has access to plenty of great info. If you're too damn lazy to get a job, plunk down a few bucks and get access to a database that synthesizes information. It will save you so much time.

Excellent points thus far except for a select few. No surprises there.

EDIT: My wife gets annoyed when I do provocative things, so I eliminated my real identity from this post. However, you can all find my real info easily enough simply by following my profile info and googling my name or handle. I'm sure I could find out quite a bit about most people here, including those who think they are anonymous. In addition to free databases, there are fee based ones that let you track down people pretty easily. Plus, social engineering has always been a great way to get info.

Truth. I was curious once about the hill that Pcad talks about all the time, so I looked it up in Google Earth. It took me about 30 seconds to figure out his home address, which is less time than it took to find the hill he was talking about.

Michael Shoup
570 Downing St #3
Denver, CO 80218

It would be very easy to find that through any sort of searching. The whois on my domain name is one easy place.

have them sent to offshore floating shipping containers.



You know, this is a really good idea. Who would find you in the middle of the ocean (?), plus free stuff in the mail. Genius!

ok, ok.

You can mail me at:

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

You know, this is a really good idea. Who would find you in the middle of the ocean (?), plus free stuff in the mail. Genius!

if only it was my idea.

Truth. I was curious once about the hill that Pcad talks about all the time, so I looked it up in Google Earth. It took me about 30 seconds to figure out his home address, which is less time than it took to find the hill he was talking about.

Pcad is an especially public person because that's just his style and it also doesn't make sense to make yourself invisible if you're trying to run your own business. But most people are fairly easy to track down.

It's impossible to function effectively in any kind of society without some sort of identity. Unless you are a hermit and don't interact with people, businesses, etc, it's impossible not to leave traces of yourself.

Pcad is an especially public person because that's just his style and it also doesn't make sense to make yourself invisible if you're trying to run your own business. But most people are fairly easy to track down.

It's impossible to function effectively in any kind of society without some sort of identity. Unless you are a hermit and don't interact with people, businesses, etc, it's impossible not to leave traces of yourself.


They are coming to get you anyway, so why the paranoia?

I'm a bit of a transient, and an intensely private and secure person, so unless you possess a B-2 bomber and are willing to blow up entire sections of the Google Earth map to do me harm, then I don't care if you possess my mailing address or not.

Several people here do, as a matter of fact. Thanks again for all the fish!

There is so much out there if you own your house and pay property tax, it's fairly easy for somebody to find, harder if your name is very common.

I'm a bit of a transient, and an intensely private and secure person, so unless you possess a B-2 bomber and are willing to blow up entire sections of the Google Earth map to do me harm, then I don't care if you possess my mailing address or not.

Several people here do, as a matter of fact. Thanks again for all the fish!

I want my bass back. Address is posted above. kthxbai

A Klondike bar, eh? Hmmm....tempting.

I think it will be ok as long as you change your mission to recipes for cookies. If you have crazy people sending you things they are bound to show up eventually.

You are probably going to get a lot of gross stuff if the subject is random items.