General Anonymous Forum

[anthony]

I've heard back from the developer about this modifications current progress, and he has advised me it is now in final testing stages... just trying to get any minor issues out of it.

From the sounds of it, it allows me to assign a forum (which is what we'll have) and members can post within it where it will generate a random username upon submission, as a guest user. In other words, no referral what so ever to your user account, thus likely you will also lose control over the content depending on how it is completed. I would say you will, leaving only staff able to edit the content. That is the nature of making something completely anonymous... there are pros and cons to such things for later control.

I have confirmed staff will still be able to see the users ip information, so anyone who thinks of abusing it will find their account facing normal forum rules, as all actions can be assigned without an actual post being referred to.

From the sounds of it, it will cater the ability for more than one, so I may be able to assign them into each group and then a cross-over supporter / sufferer forum for anonymous cross talk as requested by members previously.

 

[piratelady]

So, the only way to tell who the guest user is, is based on their IP address? And if someone didn't abide by the rules, the IP address would tell you what user that was? Just trying to wrap my head around this. Thanks.

 

[amethist]

Staff would know who the poster was piratelady, and the forum rules would still apply. If they did not abide by the rules we could deal with it.

We obviously cannot have complete anonymity, as there would be chaos.

 

[Nicolette]

So, the only way to tell who the guest user is, is based on their IP address?

From what I understand members will not be able to access the profile of the 'anonymous' user to obtain IP or any other information in the first place.... only staff.

 

[anthony]

This is the general anonymous forum discussion, which is different from the premium member one just done.

The premium member anonymity is on a per post basis in specified forums across the site.

This specific modification, which forces every single post posted within an identified forum to be anonymous. Please don't confuse both features as the same thing, as they're not.

And if someone didn't abide by the rules, the IP address would tell you what user that was?

Yes, it does. I know people love to be fooled into things like anonymity software to browse the web, ie. proxies, though they aren't actually anonymous. They give you a different IP from another country, but that is all they do. A person can still be tracked through the IP to their actual real IP, thus all that data is recorded and used.

I can enter your IP and see exactly who accessed the system and it will tell me every single IP you've used to access the site. Staff can see your latest IP, admins can see your history.

The premium member anonymity posts your username for staff to see, as that can be used on a per post basis, which can be an issue. The forum feature coming, is on a forum basis, so that isn't required, as your computers cookie will store specific information for you only, so that you can post under a specific anonymous random entity. (Wait and see the exact specifications.)

 

[anthony]

This is now live. Please test it out... see if you can find a hole, as I don't believe any exist that could identify you unless you posted your name to your post.

 

[Froggie]

I'm a computor twitt, but this morning during a PC when I clicked for it to be posted, I got a robot figure instead of my frog avatar and under it was marqued anonymous. It kind of freaked me out. It may be something for the Help desk section, but wasn't sure what to do with it.

 

[Mercy]

Does this mean the reader won't know who has written them a post? How will we know our friends from anyone else? Sorry, I am confused.

 

[Froggie]

Those robot men have disappeared, really a weird experience. It seems that I was the one who saw them and the member didn't see them.

 

[anthony]

That is kind of the point about having a specific anonymous forum... you are hidden. Some people don't want to be known for some discussions, for embarrassment, shyness, anxiety, all sorts of reasons. Knowing who is posting would kind of defeat the purpose of being anonymous within that section to begin with.

Froggie... I have no idea about robot figures for your PC. The avatars in the anonymous forum are a randomly generated figure from gravatar, so it doesn't just use the generic question mark or such in that forum, unlike the premium member anonymity feature which simply uses the generic question mark when posting.

 

[Froggie]

Thanks for your answer Anthony.

 

[Britt.f7]

It definitely has effected how I write in that section having this in the back of my mind. But, I definitely understand.