Forum Username - Discussion

[Andrew McHarg]

After suggesting the naming convention of Forename Surname, it would appear that some are unhappy about this. Can we please use this topic to discuss the reasons for and against, and vote on the issue.

[Hugh Brechin]

I've always registered under my own name, but I think people should be allowed to post anonymously if they want. I certainly wouldn't want to say 'you can't post under your initials'. Reading a post from 'Joe Redpath' would just seem odd, and that's before you get into whether anyone would believe 'Alistair Campbell'.
I will say this - having this poll on a new noticeboard where the presumption is that everyone registers under their own name seems likely to lead to a fairly significant sampling bias.

[Andrew McHarg]

I voted for Yes because I think it's nice to know who you are talking to, and to put a name to an opinion. You would expect to know who you were playing a game with, so why not who you are speaking to?

I'd ask those who wish to post anonymously: are they afraid of people knowing their opinions in the public domain?

[Andrew McHarg]

I will say this - having this poll on a new noticeboard where the presumption is that everyone registers under their own name seems likely to lead to a fairly significant sampling bias.

I don't see any other reasonable way of doing it? Any suggestions? It's not serious enough to involve a letter to everyone, and the only people who are likely to care are the people who regularly use the forum.

[Hugh Brechin]

Well, it would certainly at least be possible to take a poll by handing ballot slips out at a congress. A few years ago, before you became an active poster, the acceptability or otherwise of anonymity was an extremely hotly-debated issue, with a fair few people defending it. Many of these guys will have ceased posting quite a long time ago, I suspect.

[J*R]

As long as the administators know who the user is then I don't see a problem. This was a badly thought out proposal that really affected activity on the noticeboard for a long time.

You do know that the current system is flawed anyway, you can have no way to be 100% sure who anyone is.

[Andrew McHarg]

Okay. Well I wouldn't go as far as that, as I don't think it's an important enough issue. Perhaps a good compromise would be to have a particular section of the forum where anyone and everyone can post anonymously... don't know. I don't intend to make a new forum and impose my rule on everyone, I've already said to Andy that everyone just assumes the same roles that they had on the previous board, with my only role being to make technical improvements etc.

Happy to let others make a command decision, and I'll work with whatever the outcome. Perhaps the poll will give a good indication of how weighted the opinion is though, even if it's biased. ;P

[Andrew McHarg]

You do know that the current system is flawed anyway, you can have no way to be 100% sure who anyone is.

It's not anymore. Registration now requires email validation, which in most cases we can compare against email addresses that we have in the membership and grading databases if we are concerned about authenticity. =)

[J*R]

It's pretty easy to fake an e-mail address also if somone really wanted to ;P

I think people should be allowed to use initials if they want to. To get around the issue of anonymity how about having a topic at the top of the forum where the real identity of users using initials is revealed, that way no-one can have any complaints.

[Andrew McHarg]

It's pretty easy to fake an e-mail address also if somone really wanted to ;P

I think people should be allowed to use initials if they want to. To get around the issue of anonymity how about having a topic at the top of the forum where the real identity of users using initials is revealed, that way no-one can have any complaints.

True, but we will never get around the issue entirely; it's impossible. There are other ways of helping secure things such as pairing IP addresses with known patterns and using geolocation etc, but all pretty pointless. We don't exactly speak about top secret things on the forum. :U

;P