I really wouldn't worry about it. Based on the 160 incoming bytes that I've read so far, and a few status bits I've skimmed over, I've determined that they are not in fact a real person. </s>
It seems more likely that someone assumed that u/bstroustrup was someone impersonating Bjarne Stroustrup, without there being any malicious intent. The end result is the same of course.
Speculation like this isn't particularly productive. It's just as likely that someone else thought of the same association as you and chose the name to impersonate.
I'm not saying the poster is necessarily faking, but how should we know that someone who chose the name MattCutts is the Matt Cutts he claims to be? Do we assume he's not an impersonator because we like his answer? This comment is the very first activity on that account.
I don't think I breached any agreements here, but in any case this handle is not my real name, and personal information I give through it is not all factual. :)
I did that. "Impersonation" is usually posting something with someone else's name, though. This is way past that, though - Substack that allows people to reuse hostnames + URL slugs, and put back-dated posts on them, so the entire original URL is impersonated.
Anybody claiming to be me (Dalton) or an admin/moderator is lying. Anybody can set their username to anything and I advise everybody to exercise caution as impersonation is very easy. Thanks
> It's just as likely that someone else thought of the same association as you and chose the name to impersonate.
And by doing this they achieve what? Tarnishing Joe's already-tarnished reputation? They could have also pretended to be Joe O'Brien directly. Is there a gain from trying to hint at a potential association?
Even if the name similarities are pure coincidence, it's not entirely unlikely that this commenter is in fact Joe O'Brien or someone close to him. Of course it's pure speculation, and perhaps you're right and it's not productive to make such speculation. I didn't have any ill intent.
The comments by "Bruce" don't strike me as markedly more irrational than the posts themselves, and by internet standards they seem not-especially-harassing. I'll admit I didn't devote too much time trying to decipher anything.
If this person is in fact impersonating a real person, then ask that person to press charges for identity theft. Aside from that, just block the user every time he shows up.
That doesn't mean the name is a real name, or that it doesn't belong to a compromised account.
Either way, searching the name on Google suggests it is like "John Smith" in how very common it is. So nobody should wrongly get the blame this time around.
You can share his name, or at least the name he uses to send similar messages for that. No need to share a document that will be used by dangerous people to impersonate him.
Clearly not everyone is, plenty of calls in the comments here for the real name of the person in question to be exposed (so that they can - potentially illegally - avoid doing business with them or hiring them)
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