Anonymous Posting

The Sandman

Well-known member
I'd like to see a built-in anonymous posting feature at some point. We have an add-on for this at TAZ, and it's very useful for members who want to post something too sensitive to publicly attach their name to. The problem with the add-on is that it puts all of the anonymous posts under a single "Anonymous" user account. It would be much better if the anonymous posts were kept as part of each particular user's account but still showed up as "Anonymous" to non-staff members.
 
Upvote 35
This is a good suggestion but could be done with a good mod... simply adding an additional field to the post DB, and some conditionals to the templates for showing the username/avatar... the actual user account would still be available though (for admin's etc) :)...
 
I know there is guest posting.
But that won't work for your second point about linking to a user's account.
 
are we suggesting a checkbox when posting that allows you to make the post author visible or not by choice?

Yes from my understanding of the OP that is what is being requested... Again something I see better as a Mod personally... Though no harm if it was in the core and easy to turn off.
 
Well personally I like this idea...as long as only admin...not moderators can see the poster. This minimizes the amount of people knowing the actual poster and therefor all responses will be based on actual genuine feelings of a previous post one is responding to.

It's nice to know what people really think and social standards say that influence can change ones answer. A user name not being there is a great way to have a person respond to "a nobody" and see their genuine response.

I'm all for this as long as it's an option to not allow users within certain usergroups (new members...etc) to use this feature. A person should have to prove their worth to have a reason to post anonymously.

Incorporate that and you have my vote.
 
Well personally I like this idea...as long as only admin...not moderators can see the poster. This minimizes the amount of people knowing the actual poster and therefor all responses will be based on actual genuine feelings of a previous post one is responding to.

It's nice to know what people really think and social standards say that influence can change ones answer. A user name not being there is a great way to have a person respond to "a nobody" and see their genuine response.

I'm all for this as long as it's an option to not allow users within certain usergroups (new members...etc) to use this feature. A person should have to prove their worth to have a reason to post anonymously.

Incorporate that and you have my vote.

I agree with these points, and it actually also goes to why I'd like to see this as a built-in function - it's somewhat complex to do this correctly and it's very important that it's done right - what good is a cloak of invisibility that doesn't completely and reliably render the user invisible?
 
I'm all for it. Many members on our site are high level executives and while they do post publicly once in a while, this feature will allow them to contribute more often and avoid the risk of getting into problems with their Comm dept.
If we can assign this privilege per user instead of making it yet another usergroup, it would be perfect.
 
This would be a nice feature though I think we'll see this as an add-on by someone from the community but I also feel at some point it would be nice to see it included into the stock product.
 
It's an important feature that I feel should be included in the core product. However, anonymous posting should not be allowed in all forums and it might be good to be able to restrict some users from using it if they abuse it.
 
Some permissions worth noting:
- Turn on/off the system globally
- Turn on/off per forum and per usergroup(e.g. what usergroups are able to use anonymous posting and where they are allowed to do it)
- Choose which usergroups are able to view the anonymous poster's real username, most of the time this will be limited to only admins and perhaps the super moderators
- Choose the name of the anonymous poster, for instance some might want to call him "Anonymous" or "Anonymous Poster" or "Hidden User" or whatever
- Turn on/off a profile for the anonymous poster

The last option is great for those who want to enable a link on the anonymous poster like if it was a real user. Some admins might want it to appear like a guest and have no link to a profile, they can just turn that option off.
 
Yes, in the reply page under watch thread option, there should be an option that says "post anonymously". Selecting this option would change the user who posted to "anonymous", a forum default user. Then somewhere at the bottom of the post "Originally posted by Xarcell" will should up for admin's/moderators.

This feature for people who are too embarrassed to confess to something, or too ashamed to admit/agree to something.
 
It would be much better if the anonymous posts were kept as part of each particular user's account but still showed up as "Anonymous" to non-staff members.
Bolded part would be key for me. Anonymity must come with accountability. While I see a use for this, staff must have visibility to "peek behind the mask" to avoid misuse. I think the ability to use anonymous posting needs to be controlled by a user right. That way, you could create a group for people who abuse it that prevents them from using it. Or limit use to certain users for that matter.
 
It probably varies by community and the differing views on privacy and free speech. Also needing to register may make a person wanting to contribute something turn away.

In my case, I prefer to allow anonymous / unregistered users to post with moderation. I have some custom code where registered users can choose to 'ignore' the anonymous user group as that feature didn't exist in XenForo. I had made a suggestion earlier but it didn't get any response.

 
In my case, I prefer to allow anonymous / unregistered users to post with moderation.
I described my problem in detail in another thread, but I had a user (now banned) who would have definitely abused anonymity so I would want to know if an anonymous post was "real" or him s**tposting and trying to hide it.
 
The moderation system helps with curbing abuse but it is certainly an issue and takes up time. I see it as one of the side effects of having that freedom.
 
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