In a support discussion titled “Anonomous Mode Description/Groups?”, jylinman seeks clarification on visibility and permissions in anonymous mode, particularly regarding what admins, moderators, and users can see, and whether anonymous users can access group-restricted categories while preserving their anonymity. Mittineague outlines the current limitations: anonymous posting is limited to public topics, while access to restricted categories requires manual group assignment — a cumbersome process. HAWK explains that regular members see anonymous users as generic “anonymous” accounts with minimal info, while admins and moderators can trace activity via IP lookup to potentially identify the real user. riking adds that admins can also view account associations — showing which real account created the anonymous one — offering another path to trace identity. jylinman acknowledges the complexity and accepts that seamless anonymous access to restricted categories isn’t easily achievable. The consensus is that while anonymous mode offers privacy for members, moderation tools allow admins to uncover identities when necessary, balancing anonymity with accountability.
I have yet to find a good post on who can see what and what for anon mode. Could someone please explain that thoroughly? What can admins vs moderators vs users see / dig up if they need to for moderation purposes?
Also, I have a situation where I have different groups that have viewing permissions on categories. Each group has their own category and you can only see it when they belong to the group. However, if someone wants to post to that protected category anonymously, they need to switch to anonymous mode, somehow add them to the group, then they can post to the category (haven’t figured out how to add them to the group). Could it be possible, since each anonymous account is tied to a specific user, to have the same permissions the user has?
Please correct me if my assessment is incorrect.
Best Case: Users that want to be both less identifiable and post in limited exposure topics won’t need to wait for someone to let them into the topic.
Worse Case: More work connecting accounts when necessary.
Current Case: Users can post either anonymously in public topics or in restricted Categories as themselves, but not both until someone adds the anon account to the Group.
That sounds like a fair amount or work would need to be done compared to how many sites would use it.
Members see an entirely new user with the username anonymous and they get no essential information about that member other than when they joined and what they have posted. It would be fair to say that tone etc is often enough to identify people though.
Admins and mods can see the new user via the UI and can do an IP lookup on the last used IP address to see who else has used it. In many cases that is enough to identify the user.