michaeld introduced the discourse-anonymous-categories plugin, designed to enable “always-anonymous” posting within specific categories rather than globally. This solution addresses the need for anonymous Q&A sessions where users do not have to manually opt-in or risk forgetting to opt-out, automatically anonymizing all posts and replies in designated categories via a simple toggle setting.
Originally created by JaredReisinger, the plugin eventually faced compatibility issues following Discourse’s internal changes to anonymous user handling in version 2.4. sam moved the topic to the broken plugins category after Daniel_Lopes identified a NoMethodError related to AnonymousShadowCreator. Daniel_Lopes subsequently provided a quick fix, and RGJ confirmed that the plugin has been fully repaired and is now functional on the latest stable and test-passed versions. The community was advised to fork the updated repository at https://github.com/communiteq/discourse-anonymous-categories. codinghorror acknowledged the contribution, noting the plugin’s relevance amidst ongoing major upgrades to the platform’s Ember CLI architecture.
I had a request from a co-worker to find a way to offer “anonymous Q&A” to our division’s employees. At first blush, Discourse seemed like the wrong tool for the job: anonymous posting seemed anathema to the whole point of fostering open, friendly, but lively discussions. Discourse does have built-in support for anonymous posting, but it’s a global setting. What we needed was a way to restrict anonymous posting to a single category (or a select subset of them). Even better, make anonymous posting automatic, so that users don’t have to think about it (and can’t get it wrong).
This plugin lets you choose individual categories for “always-anonymous” behavior, where all posts and replies automatically use the anonymous pseudonym for the user instead of their actual identity. The user doesn’t have to opt-in, and more importantly, doesn’t need to remember to opt-out when they are done posting.
Here’s what that looks like:
After the plugin is installed, turn on the global setting to enable “always-anonymous” categories:
Then, pick a category (or create a new one) for which you want “always-anonymous” behavior, and turn on the “Force posts to be anonymous in this cateory” setting:
This plays very nicely with recent versions of discourse-feature-voting, which can be used to anonymously vote on topics. (The votes themselves aren’t anonymous, but the identities of the voters are not currently surfaced through the UI, unlike “Likes”.)
Yes, it still works. I had to delete my tmp folder in order to make it work but I think this is a problem with my local dev installation only (not using docker).
Sadly, the purpose for which this was created no longer exists, so I haven’t given the plugin any love for the last several years. If anyone wants to take over maintenance, I’d be happy to let them!
I have a use for this plugin. How do I get it ‘looked after again’? Non-tech person asking, I’m on Communiteq (formerly DiscourseHosting). @michaeld@RGJ
Yes, I agree the post says it needs a new maintainer. I guess that’s what I’m wondering if someone would do. Is that something that comes with my Pro hosting package?
@JaredReisinger moved this to #plugin:broken-plugin pending your investigation. I redid the way we do anon accounts in 2.4 so maybe it broke the plugin.
I think I could remove the user custom_fields parts too now that Discourse has better support for anonymous users, but I will keep this change simple for now.
@JaredReisinger are you still maintaining the plugin? If not perhaps @Daniel_Lopes can change to OP here to point to the branch so we can ship this out of #plugin:broken-plugin
