How to publicize a useful experience anonymously?

March 11, 2005 12:19 AM

Let's say you've had an experience and written about it. And let's say it's something others on the internet might want to know about. And let's say you have it saved as a simple html doc and would like to get it out there, accessible via Google, etc. And let's say you'd like perfect anonymity. What can you do to get it out there and indexed but not traceable? Free? Anonymous? Publish and forget? Obviously, this is about battling spammers at some point. Advice?
posted by scarabic to computers & internet (16 comments total)

blogger
And an anonymous email account.
posted by seanyboy at 12:27 AM on March 11, 2005

Freenet sounds like something you may want to consider, though I admittedly don't know much more about it. I tried once a long time ago, and couldn't really get into it.

Another easier method would be to have someone else publish your material for you, on the condition that they not reveal who you are. Depending on the material, this may not be useful.
posted by odinsdream at 12:30 AM on March 11, 2005

You might try giving it to some of those people who are widely read, and whose material your experience is somewhat related to, and see if they'd be willing to link to wherever you decide to put it. Blogger, LiveJournal, and similar places seem like obvious candidates.
posted by stovenator at 12:40 AM on March 11, 2005

Freenet is not googleable.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 1:21 AM on March 11, 2005

Tell kottke you want a quid pro quo......you'll consider becoming a micropatron if he'll host & post.
posted by peacay at 2:04 AM on March 11, 2005

Use invisiblog. Even the people running it don't know who you are.
posted by mcguirk at 3:17 AM on March 11, 2005

the reasonably big "EA Spouse" post was put on a livejournal
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 6:05 AM on March 11, 2005

library public access machine + anonymizer + throwaway email account [mailinater] + lj/diaryland/bulletin board system depending on your content. The big question/decision is whether you want to be anonymous to protect sources/self or whether you want to be anonymous to stay out of jail/trouble. Different levels of anonymity are necessary depending on how hard people will want to work to find out who you are.
posted by jessamyn at 6:27 AM on March 11, 2005

There's always Sealand/HavenCo, which runs a datacenter in international waters on a former British artillery platform in the North Sea and which Great Britain, at least, has declared outside its jurisdiction. Might be a bit of overkill, though.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 6:31 AM on March 11, 2005

Anonymously snail-mail a disk or printout to a group (newspaper? activist group?) that would be interested in protecting your identity and publishing the information. Ask them to burn the envelope and contents as soon as they have transferred it to their electronic system.

Then the group can publish it secure in the knowledge that it cannot reveal anything about the source but the date of receipt, memories of the appearance of the package, and perhaps the ashes of what used to be the envelope and disk.

If you choose a group with the right sort of hackers, they will be able to use all sorts of schemes to make sure the resulting page isn't traceable to them, never mind you.

Later, when you're looking to see if it made the net, be sure to use anonymous browsing from a public machine. After you're satisfied that it is there, stop going back to the page.
posted by pracowity at 8:03 AM on March 11, 2005

Great suggestions. Thanks!
posted by scarabic at 8:54 AM on March 11, 2005

Um, but now how are you going to let me know to go look at it?
posted by nobody at 11:15 AM on March 11, 2005

*hopes it has nothing to do with this*
posted by deborah at 12:14 PM on March 11, 2005

Can I ask what is in the AskMe 7921 thread? MeFi / AskMe / MeTa are not blocked at work, but that thread is.
/unhelpful
posted by raedyn at 12:25 PM on March 11, 2005

I posted too quickly. I got smart and viewed the 7922 thread and looked at the "older" button. There were just enough words visible to give me the idea...
posted by raedyn at 12:28 PM on March 11, 2005

Keep in mind that many libraries now require you to sign in with your library card before you can use their computers. Most universities require a login on the lab computers. However, "guest" (user name/password) accounts might be allowed. I don't know about internet cafes. Presumably you can pay in cash but they might require ID. That doesn't even cover the issue of security cams, which are ubiquitous.

Uhh. good luck?

Also, in addition to mailinator, there's:

http://spamday.com
www.spamgourmet.com
www.mytrashmail.com
www.dodgeit.com
www.spam.la
www.sneakemail.com
www.spammotel.com

Can't vouch for any of those it's all via FW.
posted by Jim Jones at 2:24 PM on March 11, 2005