Think not twice, but five times before you post anything of yourself on the internet, especially if it's of a certain "delicate or salacious" nature.
This isn't the twentieth century anymore, when you could just burn a poorly thought out photo.
The internet means it all lives forever.
Be ready.
Redditor BrixtonsFinest2 wanted to hear from everyone out there who has been witness to seeing their online and private lives collide by asking:
"People who post NSFW content: Has anyone from your real life ever found out? What happened?"
Whateves...
"I once accidentally sent to a friend with the same name as an ex. After explaining the mistake he asked if he could have more. I ended up sending a few more. It weirdly never became sexual between us. He was just like thank you and we moved on lol."
justapples95
GiphyMark of the Beast
"A customer got pissed off at me and posted my video to a bunch of porn sites once. A friend who knew what I did found the video and let me know so that I could get it taken down. Interestingly, I've never had sex with this friend before, but I've taken my clothes off around him enough that he was able to recognize a birthmark that I have."
"Even though I wasn't showing my face. Another funny part of this is that before telling me that he'd found my video, he spent a minute explaining why he had searched stuff that led him to finding the video (the video was kinda kinky and taboo)."
Minaowl
OMG!
"One of the lawyers at my previous job sent me something by mistake. It was only a 'lewd', what she was wearing was lace and you can kind of see through it but nothing too revealing."
"I sent her a text back saying 'Uh, don't be embarrassed, but I don't think you meant to send this to me.' She replied back 'OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY!!!' Told her not to worry about it."
"Then she texted 'do you at least think my boyfriend will like it?' with a bunch of cry-laughing emoji's. I replied 'He'd be pretty dumb if he didn't!' Then I deleted the convo. We never mentioned it again afterwards."
bangersnmash13
FB Issues
"I used to have an alternate Facebook account and was in private groups with 'T&A' posts. (Tits and A**). I used to post a lot of pictures on there (super insecure and lonely part of my life where validation from internet strangers was everything) and some guy found my real account and found my dads account."
"He sent them all to him. But unbeknownst to him, I was the one who set up my dad's Facebook account so I just logged into it and deleted the messages before he saw them."
SadGirlPancake
The Ponies
"Well, since I don't plan to run for office I guess I can finally tell this story. More than 20 years ago I appeared on a North American cable TV show that was discussing "interesting" sexual behaviours: this episode was about BDSM Pony Play. [ note: if you don't know what Pony Play is then have fun finding out from someone other than me, and no I don't do any BDSM stuff any more I am a much different person now. :)"
"I was wearing my Gear, my voice was muffled a bit, totally covered except for my eyes. There was nothing explicit shown on the show, but still it's odd/entertaining to explain Pony Play to regular people. Show finally airs, months and months later, on a Saturday late-night slot. ONE GUY at work saw that show when it aired."
"Guy comes up to me on Monday morning."
"So have you ever seen [name of show]"
"No I don't stay up that late."
"It sure looked like you were on that show the other night"
"Couldn't tell you, I don't watch it."
"Pretty sure I saw you on your knees dressed up like a horse."
"The only time you'll see me on my knees is in the Server room trying to fix the Oracle server, bud."
"Other than that there was no fall-out, personally or professionally. All in all I'd give it a rating of 6/10 would probably not do again."
m_Pony
I don't know who has more moxie, the people posting or the people who confront the posters. Like, if I found my Christian neighbors engaging in less than Godlike activities while searching for bananas on the web I would be too flabbergasted and embarrassed—for them—to bring it up. Even if I was carrying a grudge against them I'd rather stay quiet. I have enough drama, I don't need to understand theirs.
Let's Swap
"Several years ago, I described a fairly NSFW situation that took place—appropriately enough—at my job. Someone who used to work at the same place (and who had been present for the event in question) read my account, recognized the details, and reached out to me, intent on confirming that we knew each other. We wound up swapping a few messages, then wishing one another well. It was pretty dull, actually... but we both had a good laugh about the situation."
RamsesThePigeon
GiphyThat Pic
"Accidentally sent a penis pic to a good female friend of mine that had the same name of the chick I was dating. She asked what the hell I was doing I told her it was a mistake and asked her to delete it. She said she did. Fast forward a couple months after her and I broke up and I get a pic of my friend in lingerie."
"I politely ask her what she is doing and she said sent it by mistake. The next day, same thing. After the third day she tells me she didn't send it to me by mistake. We started dating shortly after that. Found out that she saved that pic I sent instead of deleting it."
kobester1985
The Prude Meltdown
"I post on a social platform that is for adults and their various kinks. Funniest thing was when my husband and I were dating and started getting serious, he showed me his profile to explain and let me know a bit more about what he was into. I laughed and showed him my profile."
"Apparently we had both created profiles about a week or two before we met on a different site in a chatroom. Then there was the time at one of my old jobs where my co-workers found out that my husband and I were on there and one person had a prude meltdown freaking out about how terrible and unnatural it was to do various things."
"And how dare we have the audacity to even show those things, and try lecturing us about how our marriage was going to fail since we were obviously just using each other for sex and the only way to save our marriage was to have a monogamous traditional relationship where occasional bjs were as kinky as it got. Besides her though, a majority of our co-workers were also on that site but we just ran in different circles."
2baverage
We were on a break...
"I briefly posted on r/gonewild, when my now husband and I were broken up for 7 months. A friend of my husband's saw it, but didn't bring it up until a couple of years later. We all had a good laugh about it. I'm not really shy about people seeing me naked."
both-and-neither
GiphyLet's Eat
"I had the opposite happen, found a tinder match on a fetish site. I thought she was super uptight and didn't really know how to broach the subject. Ended up just asking her point blank while grabbing lunch with her. She opened up and was super excited to talk about it, learned about a whole new side of her."
"I am pretty open up to any fetish so we explored a few things she was on the fence about. It was fun but we didn't really have much in common besides sex so we just drifted apart."
Sworl
"reply all"
"This kind of applies, though it's related to emails rather than posting on social media. My friend worked at a large company that was throwing an office holiday party and apparently their holiday parties were open bar and known to get a bit loose. After the reminder email for the holiday party went out, a woman accidentally hit 'reply all' instead of replying to the admin that sent it with a message along the lines of 'I hope there are some tight-bodied latin men for me.'"
"It went out to the entire office's email distribution of several hundred people and his email was basically spammed for the rest of the day with people hitting 'reply all' to tell her how inappropriate those comments were, because they also don't seem to know how to reply to a specific person instead of the list (even after she very quickly apologized for her comments)."
"It finally ended when the CEO sent out an email noting that she had apologized and requesting that people refrain from commenting on it further. I don't think anything substantial happened to her, she wasn't fired or anything, just very embarrassed."
FaithfulNihilist
I mentioned it...
"I found a good friend of mine and his FwB on an NSFW sub. They were incredibly tame posts all things considered. I had known both of them a long long time and thought it was cute. I mentioned it in passing to my friend, knowing they were both very liberal, and though he seemed a little surprised I thought nothing of it."
"I later found out she took everything down because I had said something and I was kinda shocked, and sad I ruined that for them. I'm absolutely not the type to be stalking their page and they knew that and as far I knew they were both very confident in their skin. I never brought it up again because I still felt kinda bad about the whole thing."
Supercaptaincat
"yeah that seems about right"
"If anyone in real life found out I do that they'd probably just say 'yeah that seems about right' and that'd be it. It's not like I'm hiding the fact that I enjoy sex. The funniest thing is when people on reddit start trawling my post history whenever they get into arguments and try to act like I'm scum for posting porn or having unusual fetishes."
"It's like damn *itch, you think I'm ashamed of any of that when I'm happily posting it on the same account? Why even try to shame me when it's obvious I don't give a f**k what you're saying? It's like trying to blackmail someone with a sex tape they put on pornhub."
MaievSekashi
Scandalous
"I have another account here with some less dressed pics and it was found by my friend, with the words 'it appears we're both posting on the same Reddit.'"
maartenvanheek
No Way Reaction GIF by LaffGiphyThat Fireplace
"Somewhat related. I was browsing a certain niche port subreddit. As I was clicking through pics I clicked on one and for some reason the first thing I noticed was the fireplace in the background. I thought 'wow that fireplace is super familiar' and after a second I realized it was my fireplace."
"Then I looked at the person and realized it was a friend of mine and I had taken the picture. I didn't upload it so I assume she did, but it was not being posed by her account so it just goes to show you how stuff gets around."
Nurum
hey did I see you?
"A few times. Got a message on FetLife from a dad I'd nannied for. That actually happened a few times in various ways - 'hey did I see you... online last weekend?' Oh my god Dan just say you check out cam girls, it's fine."
"A number of times a**holes on Reddit have tracked down my Facebook and threatened to 'expose' me for having the audacity to disagree with them on the internet."
"I'm not ashamed of my body or of showing it off in ways that I enjoy. The only people who've ever given me crap for it have just been reaching for reasons to lash out."
Erotica
"No one who I didn't tell myself, as far as I know. I always figured if they found out I posted that content, we would (depending on the person) either just confirm it's not revenge porn or have an argument and then they could get over it or otherwise move on. If they actually like, consumed it (videos specifically, I understand that there's nothing to be done about seeing a photo or a still)."
"I'd probably be creeped out and have to do some kind of damage control. I did tell my mom I wrote erotica and I was like, going through some shit at the time so it was kind of f**ked up (not illegal f**ked up, but worse than it just being like, kink or something), and I super regret letting her have access to any of it because she was grossed out and if I had been more self aware at the time tbh I would have been too."
averie-end
Roasted
"I found someone I went to high school with completely accidentally. I recognized him from r/roastme then clicked on his profile. Lots of NSWF and personal content. He was always kind of awkward in school, and I've never really spoken to him. He has no idea I know."
chandlerland
Sexy Look GIFGiphyFlaunt
"I just started and it's kind of a fear, but also I got it so might as well flaunt it! There are of course always people who you wouldn't want finding it and people who you wouldn't mind as much. Gotta make ends meet some how."
quinn_outnabout
Let this all be a life lesson.
There is nothing wrong with consenting adults engaging in online adventures.
And if that is how you roll, then roll on.
Just be really, really, reeeeeeeaaaally sure.
The internet sleuths today and of the future will always "out" you.
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