How to Create an Anonymous Google Shared Sheet
In new material on The Cut, writer Moira Donegan reveals that she created the Shitty Media Men , an anonymous collaborative Google Sheets spreadsheet that lists famous men in the media who attacked, harassed or otherwise used them, were shitty to the women with whom they work with participation. The list went viral overnight and helped end, or at least abort, the career of multiple sexual harassment. Although several copies have survived, the original sheet lasted only 12 hours, listing only 70 people before Donegan deactivated it. Unrelated: Here’s How To Create Your Own Anonymous Shared Google Sheet For Any Reason, Who Knows!
Create a new Google account
Google Sheets allows you to anonymously share “view” or “comment” access, but if you give someone edit permission, they can also see your account name. So, if you want to go unnoticed, create a new Google account:
- Sign out of Google or open a tab in incognito mode.
- Go to https://accounts.google.com/SignUp and create a new account. You don’t need to fill out a “phone number” or “current email” form.
- Use a strong password. You definitely don’t want this account to be hacked.
Make your spreadsheet
You know the information you want to share anonymously and the place where other people can add more information.
- Go to Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet.
- Enter your starting information. For example, I wrote a leaflet about bad apples .
Share your table
You may be trusting a specific audience to use your spreadsheet correctly and are not posting Apple data to Reddit. Or maybe you want the whole world to know about these garbage apples. Google Sheets offers a number of privacy options.
- Click the blue Share button in the upper-right corner to open the Share with Others window.
- If you only want to share with certain people , enter their email addresses in the People field. Use the button on the right to select Can Edit, Can Comment, or Can View.
- By default, anyone who has the editing rights can also invite new editors. To control who can edit the list , click More in the lower right corner.
- If you’d like to share your spreadsheet, click Get Sharing Link in the Share with Others window. By default, this will change the privacy setting to “ Anyone with the link can view. You can change this to “Anyone with a link can comment” or “Anyone with a link can edit.”
Now your spreadsheet is as public or private as you like, and you can pool your knowledge of which apples to avoid, or fire, or investigate for assault, but the cops are useless and HR blames the victims.
To get back to the unrelated topic in the intro: Donegan has previously reported on feminist issues in the New Yorker , New Republic and n + 1 , and her article is now a must-read for anyone wanting to express a consensus on the list.