Take a look at my comment history. Can you figure out who am I? I worry constantly about this.
I was targeted once in a politically motivated witchhunt on Reddit (that also targeted other moderators of a national subreddit), and there were a doxxing pastebin that circulated in hate groups. It contained the real name, addresses, id number, etc of many moderators; a lot of them had made a conscious effort to not leak anything, but they could be traced nonetheless.
In my username it had "none information could be found". But I later checked out my comment history on reddit and found out plenty of information leaks; people were just not determined enough to comb out the comments.
To say "just practice good opsec and never tie your name to your real identity" is the same as saying "just don't make friends on Discord" to me. I understand why people would do that, but I really don't like the idea of being a pseudonymous blur on the internet like I am on HN/reddit.
I assumed it's been Internet 101 for several years now. To the point I don't remember when I used my real name on the Internet. And whenever I do, it must be a really important and a well thought-out reason.
Moreover, I use a different nickname for every service so that if someone looks up dvfjsdhgfv they will only find HN and HN-related posts.
people can be extremely naïve.
It has also been a problem with people who make content on platforms like Onlyfans. A lot of them learned a bit too late that it's a bad idea to take pictures that show the street where you live.
Reading this it just hit me that GeoGuessr is basically doxxer training.