at ruby conferences he attended, folks would offer him a ride back home, so he'd have them like, drop him off at a park near his house or at a street corner. all of his talks and writing was written as "_why," and his event namebadges carried his screen name as well.
i remember thinking that one of the reasons why he "disappeared" in 2010 was because some folks were trying very hard to uncover his real-world identity
Yes, _Why (and his wife) for sure were doxed and it included information like their home address. For long time, his name was actively removed from online pages that mentioned _Why, but at some point the removals stopped; for example, the Wikipedia page for _Why.
Not only horrifying, but more often than not, being doxed is followed by progressively worse experiences like: malicious lawsuits, false accusations, stalking, unwanted potential harmful mail, random visitors, death threats, swattings, physical harm, etc — not only against the person doxed, but others who are of significance to them.
