Half-anonymous commenting: commenter must leave name but doesn't have to log in

[aedifica]

Title:
Half-anonymous commenting: commenter must leave name but doesn't have to log in

Area:
Comments by non-Dreamwidth users

Summary:
A comment-posting option that does not require the commenter to be logged in but does require the commenter to leave a name or handle.

Description:
Problem to be solved: A lot of people I know on LJ haven't gotten the hang of this OpenID thing and use the "anonymous" option instead when commenting on Dreamwidth entries. However, these commenters who use the "anonymous" option often forget to sign their comments, which bugs me because I want to know who the comment is from. Yet I don't want to turn off anonymous commenting altogether, because I want my LJ friends to be able to comment on my Dreamwidth entries.

Proposed solution (two parts):

1. Create a new level of authentication for comments, where no login is required but there is a text box labeled "Name" that requires input before the comment can be submitted.

2. Add this new option to the choices Dreamwidth users already have for what level of comments to allow on their journals (the option is on the Manage Account page, Privacy tab). Current choices are to allow comments from Everybody, Registered Accounts, Access List, or Nobody.

Possible drawbacks: I can't think of any unless this would be a complicated thing to code.

Alternatively, I suggest something identical to this but with a box for Name and a second box for Email Address instead of just the one box for Name. Once the comment is posted, the email address used would not be visible to anyone except the journal owner, like how IP address tracking works already. In practice this option would be like what a lot of blogs use for comments.

Possible drawbacks to the alternate option: This option seems like it would be more complicated to code because of hiding the email address, but that might be easier than I think it would because something similar is already in place for IP addresses.

Poll #1560 Half-anonymous commenting: commenter must leave name but doesn't have to log in

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
16 (45.7%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (11.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
4 (11.4%)

(I have no opinion)
4 (11.4%)

(Other: please comment)
7 (20.0%)

Comments

[cesy]

I'm pretty sure something along these lines is already planned.

[aedifica]

That would be sweet! (Did I miss an earlier Suggestions post about it? If I did, I apologize--I didn't check the comm first because I thought I'd have noticed and remembered it.)

[cesy]

No, it was in Bugzilla before Suggestions was started. Bug 759.

[yvi]

And I'd rather have it implemented as in #759 than have a different security level for signed anon comments.

[aedifica]

Oh, very cool. Thanks for that link! I read through the description there and I'd be very happy to see that happen whenever it does. Some of the stuff in "would be nice" is especially neat!

[denise]

I let it through because I wanted to see what people came up with.

[charmian]

I definitely think making commenting for non-registered users easier would be great. A place to put in web site, should the commenter desire that, would also be good!

[kerravonsen]

+1

[erinptah]

+1

[gchick]

I voted "other" on this one because of the existing spec, but I want to make it clear that I'm vastly in favor of it happening in one version or another.

[sedge]

+1

[the_shoshanna]

+1

[susanreads]

+1

[kaigou]

plus infinity for whatever variation gets used, so long as it can style itself as close as possible to the web's existing standards. (see wordpress, joomla, drupal, and any of the other hundreds of blog-like apps that ask name & email.)

[kyrielle]

+1 for existing spec and one note, the existing spec suggests email address and sending emails to it (allowing enable/disable after the first). In which case, anonymous users filling in that field should be able to check/uncheck a "send replies to my email" box - I don't care which way it defaults, but there ought to be a choice.

[triadruid]

It sounds like some tighter integration between OpenID and DreamWidth would satisfy what you're looking for. I agree with the above comments that just requiring a 'name' (that's Mr. hjgghdfhdt to you!) won't help anything.

[swaldman]

Depends on the problem you're trying to solve.
I get a lot of anonymous comments where somebody has clearly intended to put their name at the bottom but has forgotten, and where they pop back 10 minutes later and post again saying "oh, that was Fred, by the way".

This would be valuable to have implemented. The need for it would also be reduced by making the process of setting up an openID-based account a lot more obvious... most of my LJ-based friends are confused by this.