Make anonymous mode button less prominent, less likely to be pressed accidentally?

AI-generated summary

The discussion is about making the anonymous mode button less prominent to prevent accidental presses. tobiaseigen shared an experience where a user accidentally entered anonymous mode, causing unintended actions. david suggested removing the feature altogether since it’s rarely used, but tobiaseigen explained that it’s intentionally kept for members working in human rights who may need it. To address the issue, david proposed adding a confirmation popup using a theme component, and copymonopoly agreed, also suggesting that anonymous mode should be allowed only in specific categories. Additionally, copymonopoly reported an issue with temporary anonymous accounts earning badges, which can be problematic for limited-edition badges.

I’m at a workshop in :kenya: where I just trained up a bunch of people on using discourse. One of the things that came up is that one person (who is an active smartphone user) accidentally entered anonymous mode. It was only later that we realized it, after he liked and wrote posts, and wrote some PMs.

I was able to merge the anonymous account into the main account using the rake command, and I think there was no bad after affect to it.

However, it seems to me that this button, which is rarely used, should maybe sit somewhere less prominent so an errant finger doesn’t accidentally land you in anon mode. Near the bottom of the hamburger menu seems to make sense.

Another thought is that maybe a modal could pop up to explain what it’s for and allow the user to cancel and go back, in case they accidentally select it.

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The anonymous feature is very niche, we know of only a small handful of sites actually using it.

Is it actually required on this site? Or has it just been enabled “because it’s an option”? The best way to reduce confusion is to not have it at all :wink:

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I am aware that it’s a niche feature. But it is something we considered and decided to keep because many of our members work in human rights. It has not been used much but we want to make sure it’s available for those who feel the need to use it.

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You could probably add a confirmation popup fairly easily using a theme component. The relevant code can be found here:

7 Likes

Recently, I have accidentally enabled anonymous mode several times. I think the normal situation should be that certain categories allow anonymous posting or replying. Of course, popping up a confirmation dialog after clicking on anonymous mode is also a relatively straightforward approach.
Additionally, I have encountered issues where temporary anonymous accounts receive SQL badges, especially some limited badges, which is very frustrating for me.