Anonymous Posts & Comments

Hi Mr Rafi,

I feel very strongly about this. It's an issue that people are going mental about on both the Forum and Blog. I personally feel that the commenting process only should be open to anyone to comment. As long as they put their name. Right now the login process it to heavy and as you said above 'intimidating' - it also isn't mobile friendly (the login screen) it's very buggy.

I can see why you have done it this way, to protect spam, but it really is causing us to not have engagement because people do not want to sign up for an account to comment a few words.

I don't particularly like it because we lose the perks you mentioned, but there are times when people don't want to identify themselves, mostly when asking personal questions or asking about things they're embarrassed about or concerned about bullying from admitting.

I don't want this feature, at least have the option to turn it off. I don't like the idea of visitors posting without logging in.

No no no! I am STRONGLY against anonymous posting in the Forum. Many of our FB users (mostly female sadly) have stopped commenting in FB cos of bullying and harassment and we are convincing them to consider moving to our Forum cos we have more direct control over who can post and when and more easily block users and profiles. Please don't implement this. The addition of existing FB log ins etc is enough.

I would prefer anonymous comments with the option to first approve their comments before they go live. The reason being is because many students sometimes ask questions in these forum that to them might be embarrassing to tell their friends thats why they go on online forums to find other peoples opinions without being poked fun at. Especially in the university campus' these anonymous forums are needed. I would just like to have the ability to accept the comment/question before it goes live.

Is this a possibility? Will we be able to have this feature added on?

The key thing for me is that the Forum should not default to anonymous posting. It looks like some people need the feature but it should be an opt in not a default please.

I see this is evolved to very interesting discussion - this is great, exactly what I've wanted.

First of rest assure that if we will have it - you'll be able to choose.

Second - the people that do want it, if is it just for so people won't recognize you - you can always sign up with a different email or not write your full name (your email anyone is not seen by anyone).

I'll ask you that - how you expect anonymous to get back to your community? he wouldn't know about new comments cause he won't get notifications.

Rafi maybe an idea is to have all posts connected to an account so they get notifications, but have an option on posts that says “use an alias” or ”post anonymously” and it just shows no links to their profile but they still can get notifications?

Janettee - this is great idea :)

Robert - why they don't want to signup to the site? they have a reason?

#Rafi , Can you do that all people can comment ( user and alias #Janettee ), but only user can Create a new post

I would like to be able to hide the identity of members because they are young and because we do not like to give out full names of under 18s. There is currently no way to do this safely.

Hi :-)

How can i set that users dont have to log in to write something. I dont want a log in for my forum :-)

3rd type: Every user can read and write. No login...

In Facebook all use his own names and share this and that but in forums they want to be anonymous...lol

I am trying to set up the new blog on my site, and the required login in is very cumbersome. Could it not be as simple as when they go to reply to a post the name is required with the option to include their email? As a blog I do not want anyone creating post other than myself, but do want them to be able to comment on post. It seems the blog is being treated like a forum which is very odd since they have very different functions.

#DrYannickNM I saw that, but I still say that a blog should not be treated like a forum. They are not interchangeable and serve two completely different functions. A forum is more along the lines of Facebook where anyone that is on your friends list (ie a member) can originate post on your wall. A blog is more like Instagram where friends can respond to post but only the owner can make original post. There is a huge difference with functionality between the to. The "New Blog" is misnamed because it is not a blog app, but rather a forum app.

@Rafi Laufer so what was implemented after all? I would like the option for people to engage in the forum without signing up, (simple because people don't like to sign up at first). Maybe they will decide to sign up later down the road

@Rafi Laufer I really don't like the idea of letting users post WITHOUT signing up. I think you should be able to hide your identity the same way you can now (changing your name). It would probably cut the amount of people on your forum.

Hi Refael,

From one perspective, making people sign in is a good thing to avoid comments on blog posts becoming an easy location for spam or to host malware.

From the other, depending on the nature of your site, it will put people off from commenting in the first place and engagement on the site is what we are striving for.

There is also the question of being responsible for someone's personal data (name, e-mail address) which, in general, I'd prefer not to be resposonsible for.

My 2 cents:

- Allow anonymous posting to be enabled or disabled on blogs posts.

- If anonymous posting is enabled on blog posts, give the site admin the option to enable Captcha images to raise the bar a little on spam avoidance (and digitize books in the process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReCAPTCHA).

- Whether anonymous posting is enabled or not, give the site admin the option to enable or disable comment moderation.

Our ideal solution would be an comment form that contains Name, E-mail address, Comment fields with all but the Comment field optional, a Captcha image to avoid the spam and an option to sign up if the person so chooses.

If the person chooses to sign up:

- something that clearly states what information will be displayed publicly and what will be stored to facilitate notifications to followed websites or blog posts.

- allowing sign up via alternate providers (such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook) so people don't have to remember ANOTHER password.

Is this a feature that is still being investigated? We've been hitting the vote buttons like a snare drum on the sites below but haven't heard anything further.

https://support.wix.com/en/article/request-allowing-guests-to-comment-anonymously-in-new-wix-blog

https://support.wix.com/en/article/request-allowing-guests-to-comment-anonymously-in-wix-forum

https://support.wix.com/en/article/request-allowing-readers-to-like-a-post-without-logging-in-to-the-new-wix-blog

Thanks,

Mark

good article

I think anonymous browsing is more than enough - anonymous posting is a huge credibility loser for an online community. You end up with horrible spam and people having gaslighting conversions with themselves under two different aliases to sway opinion of other readers.