Is there a way to allow a user to choose what gets displayed when they post in the forum? We would like our users to be able to choose between using either the Username or Name field. We’ve had some questions around privacy since it defaults to their username. Thanks!
AI-generated summary
The discussion focuses on allowing users to choose between displaying their Username or Name when posting in a forum. Sean_Procyshyn1 wants to provide users with this option due to privacy concerns, as the default setting displays the username.
robmc explains that the display preference is determined by site settings, which involve three elements: Full Name, Username, and Priority. He suggests that users can be given the option to display their name instead of their username by disabling the Prioritize Username in UX setting. However, he notes that completely hiding usernames might not be possible due to their use in various Discourse features.
alex.ehlke points out that usernames are not always private, especially if users didn’t choose a private username or have control over it due to SSO. jmsachs questions the design choice of hiding the second element when the username and real name are the same, suggesting that this should be a site setting.
Overall, the discussion highlights the need for flexibility in user display preferences and the importance of considering user privacy and control over their online identity.
Users do not specifically determine what is shown, this will be determined by your site settings in different places.
User cards & profiles
The three elements to juggle are:
-
Full name
This is the ‘real name’ and you can make it required or not. If you are worried about privacy, then you might not ask for it. Alternatively, you could collect it but hide it by unchecking theenable namesoption -
Username
This is required for Discourse to operate -
Priority
You can de-emphasise names by prioritising usernames, or you can turn this off to focus on the real name
Another useful option is to disable user cards and profiles for anonymous users. In combination with the security below, only logged-in users will see more personal data
Posts
If the data exists and is available, you can enable this setting for posts (or not enable it for privacy)
One thing to bear in mind, is that when the username and the real name are the ‘same’ (ignoring spaces), the second element will be hidden to avoid duplication, so for example:
My username robmc is different from my full name
… while my colleague’s matches
Hi Robert,
If I want to remove the username from showing up and only display the Name field would I deselect “prioritize username in the UX”?
Thanks
Sean
I need to go and check whether this is possible. Discourse uses usernames as a default for many things, including traffic referral, mentions, and so on, so hiding this entirely does not seem entirely possible, or sensible.
Can I ask what you mean by this statement, as I’ve been confused
Surely a username is MORE private than a real name? Can you please explain the use-case?
Usernames are only more private if the user picked a private username in the first place. There’s no ability to correct that if the user decides they prefer a username that doesn’t reveal something private about them / which doesn’t identify them publicly (not really a supported feature to change usernames) unlike the editable name field. Sometimes users don’t even have direct control over their username if it’s been populated via SSO. I think you mean that usernames are more private for users who were able to make that choice at the start and don’t have any reason to change their minds later - seems user hostile to vulnerable groups
I would question that design choice, please make it a site setting. (see my comments in Feature request: make the "deduplication" of name vs. user name a site setting)