### Explanation People have a natural desire to be recognized for their work, ideas, and contributions. This manifests across the internet in many ways: - **Explicit authorship**: Author bylines on articles and blog posts, "About me" pages on personal websites, signatures in forum posts, and portfolio links in social media bios - **Platform-driven attribution**: Verified badges, author tags in CMS platforms, contributor profiles on collaborative sites, and Open Graph / Schema.org author metadata embedded in web pages - **Code and technical contributions**: Git commits containing real names and email addresses, pull requests revealing contributor identities on public repositories, and package maintainer records in software registries - **Creative and professional identity**: Watermarks on images, credits in video descriptions, handles in podcast show notes, and bylines in newsletters Even when individuals attempt to maintain separate online personas, the habit of claiming authorship often bridges these identities. A person may use a pseudonym on social media but link to a personal blog with their real name, or contribute to open-source projects under a handle that is tied to a professional email in commit history. The investigative value lies in the fact that attribution is usually voluntary and intentional — people actively want to be associated with their output. This makes it a reliable and persistent signal, unlike data that users might try to delete or obscure. ### Examples {{to be filled after research}} ### Types - behavioural - technical ### See also - [[SOWEL-3. Creating Content]] - [[SOWEL-6. Reusing Personal Data]] ### Typical techniques - [[SOTL-3.4. Search for Traces of Activity on Other Pages]] - [[SOTL-8.1. Check Pseudonyms]] - [[SOTL-22.1. Check Commits of Source Code]]