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Why doesn't Lemmy implement an anonymous post feature? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by aCosmicWave@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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How many times have we seen people create throwaway accounts on these types of platforms? People often want to share something valuable yet intimate without having it be tied to their online identity for privacy reasons. Some folks create new accounts for this reason. Others decide to remain silent.

Why doesn't Lemmy offer a simple checkbox when creating a post to indicate whether the OP wants their username to be publicly displayed or simply show up as anonymous? Furthermore, any comment that the OP makes on their anonymous post should be anonymous as well.

Benefits

fewer throwaway accounts in the Lemmy database
user will have ability to track their anonymous post(s) from their primary Lemmy account
potentially less bot activity because anonymous posts will be originating from established Lemmy accounts instead of new accounts with no history.

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[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Metafilter had this back in the day. Exactly as you describe: just a checkmaek saying “post this as anonymous.” The admin would review and moderate these requests and if approved, move the post to an account named “anonymous” so that it was no longer even connected to the user at all. Then it would start showing up on the site. It was a good feature and met a real need. However I don’t think we need to be all “why hasn’t this happened already???” about it.

[–] aCosmicWave@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Requiring a moderator to approve anonymous posts is a great idea!

I’m sorry I did not mean to imply that his has never been done in the history of the internet. I was mostly referring to Reddit and Lemmy, and this is yet another feature that could help Lemmy differentiate itself.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh I wasn’t saying that you were ignorant of it ever having been done. I just found your wording a little confrontational for a feature request. “Why are you ignoring this obvious feature?” is a very demanding way to make a feature suggestion, especially with a platform that is currently undergoing extreme growth and no doubt many growing pains for the developers to handle. Just present your idea and why it would be highly valuable to many people. And then step back and realize that it must be weighed against a thousand other things you aren’t even aware are going on behind the scenes.

[–] aCosmicWave@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looking back at my post, I totally see your point. I will try my best not to come off quite so confrontational going forward.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Good edit to the title 👍 thanks for hearing the feedback