Who's reading this

[Neetu]

Nice point Paula. Set me thinking.

I lurked on some sites, just reading. Guess the whole idea was to find out if I was alone in this world and whether the way I feel is OK or not? Being a CD is, I guess, a very lonely area and so very difficult to share with anyone. Those of us who have understanding wives I believe are truly blessed! It can be such a stress otherwise. I cannot imagine how life would have been- I recall distinctly the kind of risks that I took to dress back when I was younger. it makes me cringe now, wondering what would have happened had I been caught?
But coming back to the point. I reckon we are all finding out whether we are alone in the world or there are more of us 'out there'. And what a relief it is to find people with similar or much more advanced views than what one has! This is like home to a CD- where one can share or openly express our innermost feelings. I dont know how many can do that even with supportive wives. My wife is tolerant but there are things that I cannot tell here for fear of pushing the boundaries too far. Dont ever want to risk that! But I do want to keep in touch with what my fellow sisters are doing/thinking/feeling .

Luv, Neetu

[Anthony Simon]

I have the impression that most cross-dressers are careful about the possibility of being outed, just in a general way and I'm sure that carries through to here. I doubt people can really work out who posters are unless you're not careful in that way. If it were me and I was trying to research someone, I'd have to get past that. But why? I mean there's a degree of effort involved in trying to work it out - and why would anyone bother, at least past a certain point of idle curiosity? That is to say, unless someone has a particularly strong set of feelings about you - and you'll probably have some inkling of that, like private messages or something - my instincts are that the chance of outing is negligible.

Of course there's always chance...But even then...

[Susan]

I have the impression that most cross-dressers are careful about the possibility of being outed, just in a general way and I'm sure that carries through to here. I doubt people can really work out who posters are unless you're not careful in that way. If it were me and I was trying to research someone, I'd have to get past that. But why? I mean there's a degree of effort involved in trying to work it out - and why would anyone bother, at least past a certain point of idle curiosity? That is to say, unless someone has a particularly strong set of feelings about you - and you'll probably have some inkling of that, like private messages or something - my instincts are that the chance of outing is negligible.

Of course there's always chance...But even then...

Anthony

I agree with you up to a point. I was careful for many years but having passed 50 a few years ago I now do not care any more who knows in my real life. I have told a number of female friends about Susan and one of them is coming on a girls night out with me very soon. Since I learned how to make myself up I go out in public. I am careful on the internet however, my own website is not searchable by search engine bots. I work with internet servers and I am very sceptical about the motives and technology of so called social web sites. I hope one day you can feel as comfortable as I do one day.

Best wishes

[Anthony Simon]

Susan,

I was thinking more about individuals trying to find out who you are rather than big organizations (like social networking sites) - or people who work for big organizations who thus might have special access to your data (I'm not sure, was that your point?). I have certainly researched people (who are in the public eye, and thus the research is kind of legitimate) and it's possible to find out stuff about them they don't want you to know. But it's tremendous hard work (at least in my experence) involving collating lots of documents - and why would you bother, if it were some ordinary person who you had no particular animus about?

The stuff to do with being out and proud in public, walking about dressed up, seems like a different (if related) subject to me.

[Susan]

Anthony,

The social sites I meant are the likes of facebook and flickr their privacy policies simply stink in my opinion - try reading their T&Cs some time. Facebook especially is so full of security holes they should use it as a fishing net. If I put a picture up on say photobucket then decided I wanted to delete it, can I be absolutely certain that is has gone for ever. Its that lack of trust that I have in them that stops me using them. I dare say if someone searched for my email address on facebook they would find it as I keep getting invitations from people I know to join. As far as I am concerned I have no intention of ever accepting such an invitation.

I don't object to people seeing my pictures but they have to be under my control and not in the hands of someone else trying to make money from my images.

Maybe I am being a little paranoid but just remember, nothing is ever forgotten on the internet. Its out there some where.

[Paula G]

Being another who has passed the 50 landmark, I must say that for myself I am not too concerned, but I think my wife would be devistated if my CDing became general knowledge, however I don't see anyreason for anyone who is not supportive or involved in some way on cross dressing to be visiting this site.

A number of years agop I was invited to stand for Parliament, if I had persued that life then I would have to be a lot more circumspect, but not being in public life I feel reasonably secure. I think I am more at risk when I go out, and I'm not going to stop doing that.