Participant-
Many years ago Joseph got the email address that I used when I signed up for my screenname (he either hacked into the system or used social engineering to get it from a moderator). It wasn’t the regular email address that I use- just the one I used to sign up for accounts. To throw him off I went into settings and changed my name to a fake name before I replied and then changed it back. I did this each time we corresponded. I tried to answer his questions but to be vague. Had he known who I was he probably would have called me out on it. So this is how he emails me without knowing who I am.
Back then there was a moderator (# 80) who would try very hard to make sure no personal information got through. I think they didn’t want anyone trying to meet people online and then find each other in real life. If I remember correctly I posted a hint to an email address on the Limerick thread but it was edited (by 95). I think Joseph saw it after it was approved by a different moderator before it was edited. (It’s happened before.)
The thing about my brother-in-law is a joke. I posted a story that happened to my sister on a date and he wrote back that he was the guy so I played along. I doubt he knows my brother-in-law, he was probably just trying to get more information out of me. If he is who I think he is, we do share a distant cousin through marriage (through my brother-in-law) but I think it’s just a coincidence.
The encrypted messages are boring- just asking people to contact me assuming that the only ones who’d be able to would be the ones who I normally chatted with and would be able to track down the public key and extract the private key from there (they’re not supposed to have anything to do with each other but I used a set that were related or it would have been virtually impossible to crack the code without giving the other users the private key). I haven’t been able to track down the post with the public key and I don’t know if I kept a copy of it anywhere so good luck with that.
I don’t remember the exact thread where I discussed my commute by I didn’t hide the route that I took. I probably passed a movie or TV shoot at least once a month- hence the wagon frequency.
I hope this helps.