How To Create An Anonymous Collaborative Google Sheet

In a new piece on The Cut, writer Moira Donegan reveals that she created the “Shitty Media Men” list, the anonymous collaborative Google Sheets spreadsheet naming prominent men in media who have assaulted, harassed, or otherwise used been shitty to the women they work with. The list went viral overnight and helped end, or at least interrupt, the careers of several sexual harassers.

While several copies survive, the original sheet lasted just 12 hours, naming just 70 men, before Donegan deactivated it. Unrelated: Here’s how to create your own anonymous collaborative Google Sheet, for whatever reason, who knows!

Make a New Google Account

Google Sheets lets you anonymously hand out “view” or “comment” access, but if you give someone edit access, they will also be able to see your account name. So if you want to stay hidden, make a new Google Account:

• Log out of Google, or open an Incognito tab.
• Go to https://accounts.google.com/SignUp and make a new account. You don’t have to fill in the “phone number” or “current email” forms.
• Use a strong password. You definitely don’t want this account getting hacked.

Make your spreadsheet

You know, the info you’d like to anonymously share, and room for other people to add more info.

• Go to Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet.
• Put in your starting data. For instance, I made a sheet about apples that are bad.

Share your spreadsheet

Maybe you only trust a certain audience to use your spreadsheet appropriately, and not publish your apple data on Reddit. Or maybe you want the whole world to know about these garbage apples. Google Sheets offers a range of privacy options.

• Hit the blue “Share” button in the top right to open the “Share with others” window.
• If you only want to share with specific people, enter their email addresses under “People.” Use the button on the right to select “Can edit,” “can comment,” or “can view.”
• By default, anyone with edit access can also invite new editors. To keep control over who can edit the list, click “Advanced” in the bottom right.
• If you want to publicly share your spreadsheet, click “Get shareable link” inside the “Share with others” window. By default, this will change the privacy setting to “Anyone with the link can view.” You can change that to “Anyone with the link can comment,” or “Anyone with the link can edit.”

Now your spreadsheet is just as public or private as you like, and you can pool your knowledge on which apples should be avoided, or fired, or investigated for assault but the cops are useless and HR blames the victims.

Back to the unrelated topic from the intro: Donegan has previously reported on feminist issues at the New Yorker, the New Republic, and n+1 and her piece today is required reading for anyone who wants to express a single opinion about the list.

I Started the Media Men List [The Cut]