How does anonymous posting work?

support
1

Hello,

I’m looking for forum software that will allow users to post anonymously to a specific section/topic of a forum. The user should be able to track the responses to the anonymous post, contribute to other posts as they usually do (with their public ID), but other users should never be able to deduce the identity of the user.

How can I do this with Discourse?

2

You can test that out here by selecting the spy icon in the avatar dropdown:

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That will create you a new anonymous account. Admins will know it is you (if they dig) but other members won’t.

In order to track the responses to that posts that you make anonymously you’ll need to stay logged in as the Anonymous account in a browser I think. Test it out.

3

I don’t have this option available in the avatar dropdown. Checked under user settings but did not see any (obvious) options regarding anonymous posting.

Thoughts?

4

Ah yes. Sorry about that – you have to be Trust Level 4 to utilise that feature here. You can try it on your trial site (assuming you started a trial after our last discussion) with that Trust Level setting at 1.

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5

That’s the thing - I need to try it out first. Or at least obtain some clarification of its use.

  1. People participate on a post by creating an anonymous user/post.
  2. Will the user receive notifications/updates of that post on their regular account?
6

I’m not sure I follow. You can set up a free trial and have a go there without being charged.

No.

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7

How do users follow-up and contribute to the conversation then?

8

I’m not being dismissive here. It’s just that I rather have input from people who have used the feature on their own forums.

9

Users can still manually start watching the topic with their normal account.

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10

All good, I didn’t think you were.

I’ve used it on a couple of forums that I run and I’m trying to answer in that capacity.

It is almost always better to try it for yourself though, especially given your unusual use case.

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11

In order to follow the discussion as the anonymous user you would need to stay logged in as that anonymous user (in an other tab).

You can get notifications of topics to your other account but you’d then need to go anonymous again (which would mean you were another anonymous user) in order to reply.

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