Display name when member posts anonymously

[DolSch]

We upgraded our test site to version 4.6.11.  We had 2 members post Anonymous in the same forum topic.  Each post showed "Anonymous" for the poster display name.  It is confusing; it seems like the same person posted both posts.  Is there a way to make Invision use a different display name for each person posting anonymously?

 

 

[Marc]

The idea of the anonymous feature is that it does not show a display name at all, and shows anonymous. The intention in the first place would be that you have no concept of who the user is. Whether it's the same person, or whether its 2 different people.

[Marc]

Could I just ask what you are trying to achieve here by using the anonymous function?

[DolSch]

We are a non-profit parent organization - npnparents.org.  Our members ask other members for advice regarding their children/families.  They post very personal information; they frequently post anonymously. Our production site currently uses version 4.4.10; we use the TSP plugin for the anonymous feature - 

 

 

The developer will not upgrade the plugin to work with IPS ver 4.6.  We will upgrade our production site to ver 4.6 soon.  Our online community needs the anonymous feature in order to protect our parents' privacy.  Please add a feature to differentiate the anonymous posters from each other, within a forum topic.

The TSP plugin displays an identifier for each poster.

 

Having the different identifiers allows our members to follow an individual's thoughts/posts and respond to the anonymous poster.

[Jim M]

For any changes in this feature, please make them in our official Feature Suggestion forum for further evaluation so that your request does not get lost in our support forum. Currently, this is working as intended. Sorry I do not have better news for you at this time.

[DolSch]

On 3/29/2022 at 10:58 AM, Jim M said:

For any changes in this feature, please make them in our official Feature Suggestion forum for further evaluation so that your request does not get lost in our support forum. Currently, this is working as intended. Sorry I do not have better news for you at this time.

FYI: I was able to show a unique display name for each anonymous poster, within a thread, by taking the topic number and adding the last 4 digits of the poster's ip address and 357.  (Example: "Anon194637".) It was simple code that I added to the forum template.  Please consider adding it as an option for the Anonymous feature.  Thank you.

[Marc]

9 minutes ago, DolSch said:

FYI: I was able to show a unique display name for each anonymous poster, within a thread, by taking the topic number and adding the last 4 digits of the poster's ip address and 357.  (Example: "Anon194637".) It was simple code that I added to the forum template.  Please consider adding it as an option for the Anonymous feature.  Thank you.

While you could certainly add that to our suggestions forum, doing it in that manner I would suggest not doing. You are actually making an anonymous feature, far from anonymous. In fact its actually revealing data (albeit only part) that should probably be kept private

[DolSch]

The poster's anonymous display name would change in every thread; it would be difficult for another member to determine the poster's identity.

It is confusing to follow the conversation when all the anonymous posts are under "Anonymous".  Our members need to differentiate the multiple voices in a conversation.

[Marc]

I can understand the need you are trying to resolve an issue for of course, and this should be posted in our suggestions forum. I was just pointing out there you really shouldnt be using IP address data