# Anonymous posting/private messaging

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-posting-private-messaging/53475>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [November 28, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-posting-private-messaging/53475 "2016-11-28T11:54:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 7

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mittineague](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mittineague/32/114259_2.png) [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 9:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/anonymous-posting-private-messaging/53475/7 "2016-11-28T21:25:04Z")

</div>

> [@cbella](#):
>
> we as admins are unable to see who that user was

Not easily perhaps, but possible.

This query “works” in [Data Explorer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/32566?silent=true) (Admin only)

```plaintext
SELECT users.username
 , user_custom_fields.value
FROM users
JOIN user_custom_fields
ON users.id = user_custom_fields.user_id
OR users.id = CAST( user_custom_fields.value AS int )
WHERE user_custom_fields.name LIKE 'shadow_id'
ORDER BY user_custom_fields.value

```

example results

```plaintext
username value
AdminGuy1	35
anonymous	35
anonymous1	36
LeaderGal1	36
anonymous2	37
LeaderGuy1	37
SpamGuy2	38
anonymous3	38
BasicGuy1	39
anonymous4	39
TrollGuy1	43
GothGal1	46
anonymous5	46

```

\* the “anonymous” for TrollGuy1 is missing because the post was deleted.

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