Anonymise all users by default during sign up

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1

Hey, I need help with this.

On my forum, to maintain the online privacy of all users, I’ve kept them anonymous and disabled first and last names. The only thing that is visible is the username, which I’ve also been changing manually to a unique alphanumeric number, for example: User0000188.

I did that manually for 1800 users, but now, as more users are joining every day at a higher rate, it’s getting quite difficult for me to do that manually.

I’ve tried the anonymous mode, but I didn’t like it as it requires me to educate all new users regularly.

Kindly please guide me on how I can change the username in that format (User0000178) for all users automatically, or during the sign-up, the username will be automatically pre-filled in that format.

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2

I think you need a custom plugin that either assigns them a random username or perhaps somehow forces everyone into anonymous mode all the time (may be possible in a theme component?)

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3

Okay, thank you for sharing that!

4

Came across this item. With a similar user population we have a similar requirement. Users are authenticated externally using OAuth2 (AWS Cognito). In our case for two reasons:

  • provide anonymity for the users on the public forums (the moderators review all content, although sometimes things slip through)
  • avoid leaking commercial data on the user base since it is related to product forums.

For a forum of a foundation, there is a similar need but for reasons of anonymity since it relates to journalism. That forum uses internal user directory currently.

Currently we approximately daily look at the users and change their user names such that it is hard to relate the user name with existing user base.

For deletion, a feature is available:

For registration it is currently not out-of-the-box nor could I find a plug-in on Plugin - Discourse Meta.

A plug-in which would assign a user name like PREFIX plus the number of a unique sequence of numbers or hexdigits would be best.

5

Do you want them to have a different username for every post? Can’t you just get cogito to give them a username that you deem safe?

Is it unimportant to be able to connect a user to their previous posts? If it is important, can’t you let them choose a name that they deem safe?

If you have a budget, I’d be happy to write a plugin that fits your needs and budget. It could change the username of new users to a random one that fits your requirements, for example.

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