I know I’m very much in the minority on this, but when I make any post online, on any public website, I view this as “sharing my creative work with the public.”

Whatever I posted– a meme, a shitpost, a random detail about my day, a comment on someone else’s blog– if I did not view it as “creative work worthy of publication,” I would not have created it and literally published it.

Public posts are published. If publication weren’t my goal– and if virally widespread publication weren’t a potential outcome I accepted –I would have kept it in either a private journal or a private conversation between friends.

Yeah, of course these aren’t always well-thought-out publishing decisions. But IF I regret a post of mine going viral, I’m regretting my own bad decision in making it public in the first place. That’s totally on me.

So… if someone ever screenshots my public post and shares it somewhere else with the name covered up?

I do not view that as “protecting my privacy.” I deliberately chose not to have privacy for that post.

I view it as stealing and reposting my ART with the ARTIST NAME CROPPED OUT.

Just one more way I’m weird enough to be unfit for this world, I guess.