Anonymous posts and/or topics

[Tanax]

Hello,

I saw this on a board I was a member of way back in like.. 2006. There I had the option to, when posting a new topic, tick a box that would make my topic entirely anonymous. Instead of showing my username it displayed the forum's default anonymous username(which at the time was "Anonymous User") and no post count or any of that information. No link to a profile or anything. Basically, it's like a guest posted the message - but without the fuzz of having to log off and possibly encounter various priveledge problems.

I found that system very nice. I don't know, because I haven't read your licence that extensively, if you support boards that are involved in sexual aspects, for instance perhaps a "Sexlife problems" forums. Now, I'm definitely not starting one of those forums, but if I was it would be very nice to allow my member to have the option to post anonymous posts since I'm sure you all can guess that posting a post like "I can't get it up" can be quite embarresing.

It can however be of use in other boards aswell and not only in stuff related to sex. In a forum I'm currently a member of, actually a moderator on, they have a "Personal Matters" forum. In that forum it would very nice to allow for anonymous posting.

Some settings that needs to be included in this is:
- Turn the system on and off globally
- Turn the system on and off per forum and per usergroup (what usergroups can use it in what forums)
- Allow/Disallow to see who made the anonymous post per usergroup per forum(what usergroups can see who made the original post in what forums) <- I mean, we wouldn't want anyone to be able to create WHATEVER post they want, personally I would allow admins to be able to see through the anonymous post and see who made the post

It could also be discussed if it only should be allowed when creating a topic or only when replying to a topic or both and if there should be options for that aswell in the ACP.

[AlexJ]

I am not against your suggestion but I don't see the point in having it. It's internet where everyone can have more then 100's and 1000's of identity.

Why you would like to add bunch of options (code and more work for coders) when user can make new username and change his/her identity?

I would say if a person with a name of XYZ (in real life) gets embarrassed of posting under the username ABC, then he/she/shemale first needs mental treatment. Who knows him under that ABC name? No one. Isn't that anonymous in itself?

personally I would allow admins to be able to see through the anonymous post and see who made the post

Also, why admin would be interested in someone's personal life?

[Tanax]

I am not against your suggestion but I don't see the point in having it. It's internet where everyone can have more then 100's and 1000's of identity.

Why you would like to add bunch of options (code and more work for coders) when user can make new username and change his/her identity?

I would say if a person with a name of XYZ (in real life) gets embarrassed of posting under the username ABC, then he/she/shemale first needs mental treatment. Who knows him under that ABC name? No one. Isn't that anonymous in itself?

Also, why admin would be interested in someone's personal life?

True, but it's easier to just tick a box and post anonymous instead of logging off, then register as another user(pressuming the user haven't done so already), then login as the other user having to remember another password and another username, then navigate to the topic or forum where the user wants to create an entry. Assuming the new user have priveledges to view the forum where the user wants to post, some boards prevents new members from having full access instantly. Or perhaps the forum is only for paying members. I mean.. with so many permission possibilities with IPB you can't be serious when suggesting that the user should create another user.. :P

Also, if the user creates another user, the other, the new user is still.. a USER. Moderators who has permissions can cross reference IP's. Some boards require a valid email to register. Sure the user can register his other user with a fake email that he isn't using, but it _can_ still be tracable. It's obviously quite tricky, but it can be done.

With anonymous posting all of that would be solved. The "Anonymous User" won't have a clickable name, it will be just as if a guest is posting, only that it's posted by a registered user under a specific guestname that the admin can define in ACP.

#1 The user won't have to sign off and sign in on his other account
#2 The user won't have to actually register another user in the first place and remember a secondary username and password
#3 The user can just navigate to the forum where he wants to post and check the box "Post anonymous" - assuming the admin have allowed it there for the usergroup the user belongs to
#4 There won't be any permission issues, if the user can see a certain forum and admin enabled anonymous posting in that forum for his usergroup, he can post anonymous. The user won't have to worry about obtaining a certain rank or a certain usergroup to get the permissions to access the forum where he wants to post


Regarding the last thing, the anonymous posting is great(according to me) but an admin can't allow ANYTHING to be posted. What if someone posted that he were planning on assasinate someone? An admin can check his real user account, get his email or IP and report such stuff. This was of course a really extreme example, but you get the point.

[bfarber]

I think the uses for such functionality are extremely limited, and as such, unlikely to be developed in the near future. That's just my opinion.

[dfadmin]

I am not against your suggestion but I don't see the point in having it. It's internet where everyone can have more then 100's and 1000's of identity.

I disagree, there are some forums where this makes quite some sense. I would hate to have lots of "duplicates" in the userbase just because a user felt the requirement to post a question under the cloak of anonymity.

It should be a feature toggleable by user group to avoid spamming/trolling, but for certain forums (think self-help, drug rehab, etc. oriented forums) this would be an important, reassuring feature.

Of course I agree that on the majority of forums it might be a cause of problems/trouble or just plain useless. But "useless features" to one forum could still be integral to another (as an example, I see absolutely no point in having user profile background wallpapers, yet it seems there was demand for it and it is under development from what I read).

So, I would love to see such a feature, or at least someone creating a modification that enables such a function.

[Ciprian Cosma]

this feature is a must.
a lot of members of a community get to know each other in real life, and many times in communities members get their real life nicknames from the board nicknames, and that creates an identity of their own.
that's why there are some personal or confidential informations/questions that those people feel safer to share or ask as anonymous.
it's just my opinion but i think an automatic anonymous posting for logged users in a certain category would be more than a plus for ipb.

[Tanax]

Not many people supported this feature. I still think it has good uses and it shouldn't be THAT hard to implement, just a tickbox in the create new topic page that basically hides the username and replaces it with a predefined "guest"-name that the Admin set in ACP. Everyone will see the guest-name except for the usergroups the Admin defined in ACP.

I feel that it's better to have implemented instead of an addon.