# What do we mean by 'anonymous'?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-we-mean-by-anonymous/107262>\
**Category:** UX\
**Created:** [January 23, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-we-mean-by-anonymous/107262 "2019-01-23T10:10:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 10:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-do-we-mean-by-anonymous/107262/2 "2019-01-23T10:42:24Z")

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> [@rizka](#):
>
> The user is not logged in or doesn’t have an account.

That doesn’t _need_ to be called “anonymous”, per se, but it is a nice shorthand for “user who is not logged in”. Other synonym suggestions are welcome.

> [@rizka](#):
>
> The user is logged in but is in **anonymous mode**.

A very rare use case behind a default-off site setting. I don’t see a huge conflict here.

> [@rizka](#):
>
> Furthermore, a staff member can anonymize a user.

This is the strongest case for the literal meaning of the word.

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