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Comments on Allow posting without logging in at least in some communities

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Allow posting without logging in at least in some communities

+2
−11

I ran the search queries "anonymous", "register" and "unregistered" in the search box but didn't find a thread about why isn't anonymous/unregistered contribution allowed here.

I recall one or two cases were I sat in the bus and wanted to ask something without logging in but didn't do so because I avoid logging in to any application from my smartphone's browsers (from several reasons) and avoid installing any unnecessary apps (Codidact's app is unnecessary for me) so I published these questions in Stack Exchange instead, were some communities there do allow posting without logging in.

I suggest to allow it as a measure to bring more initial content creators (i.e. askers) to the site.

I personally don't use caching in my smartphone's browser at all and generally won't use it, which would obligate me to mentally recall a "long" password for my Codidact account, something I don't want to do

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2 comment threads

XY problem? Maybe you want an easier login/registration method? (9 comments)
Don't want spur-of-the-moment questions banged out on a cell phone. (6 comments)
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+7
−2

Adding to the previous answer, your use case is, in your own words

I sat in the bus and wanted to ask something without logging in

Realistically, if someone can't be bothered to take the brief moment it takes to sign in, then is that same person going to take the time to come up with and compose a quality question at that time?

My guess would be: probably not.

Seeing that you aren't going to get an answer immediately even if what you propose were possible, there is already a perfectly viable alternative approach. Simply type up your question, complete with tags and title, which you can already do without ever signing in, as some kind of document, and then post it later when you can be bothered to sign in.

Simply the fact that some feature is perhaps available elsewhere doesn't mean that Codidact has to, or even should, copy it. That way lies madness.

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I find your approach wrong and here's why (6 comments)
I find your approach wrong and here's why
deleted user wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

I have published here maybe about 140 questions spanning about 84% of the communities, most of them are well received by the community or at least not-badly-received by the community.

I personally don't use caching in my smartphone's browser at all and generally won't use it, which would obligate me to mentally recall a "long" password for my Codidact account, something I don't want to do.

  • From my experience, in StackExchange it works fine.

Due to these data, I downvoted.

Canina‭ wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

deleted user I wasn't aware that this question was about implementing anonymous posting (without logging in) only for you. Perhaps you could somehow make that more explicit in your proposal?

No, seriously. You are an anecdote. You could be the most exemplary person in the world. But that doesn't matter one iota. I don't care about you here. Nothing in my answer is about you. If something like what you propose, namely allowing people to post unaccountably and anonymously (because there would be nothing tying a post back to an identity, even a pseudonym) is implemented, then that feature would be equally available to everyone because pretty much by definition there would be nothing to differentiate one person using it from another who does. Therefore, we should consider what a random person, perhaps one with evil intent, could do with the proposed feature.

And that picture does not look pretty.

deleted user wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

Canina‭ I am not an anecdote, I gave one...

I didn't say unaccountably, and, anonymously doesn't necessarily mean "unnamed", in StackExchange I can choose a new name any time I post, this name is based on a randomly generated machine name and it is even obligatory.

Such posting is always heavily monitored by automatic mechanisms aimed to prevent vandalism such as time limit between posts, time limit after a few down votes, IP blocks, browser cookie limits (flushing all caches will require creating a new temporary_account --- in that browser, etc.), closed records of mods about specific trolls and more.

Skipping 1 deleted comment.

deleted user wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

Olin Lathrop‭ you cherry pick this scientific speculation community out of others in which I got quite good question receiving such as Software development, Languages and Linguistics, Cooking, Photography, Physics, and even your self-moderated Electrical engineering.

About the last part of your reply, your wild imagination about me is something I don't care about, nor should it bother anyone in this community I believe, and because it's disgustingly anti-communal I should of course flag it and encourage mods to block your profile.

Trilarion‭ wrote about 2 years ago · edited about 2 years ago

One could probably make it work. By allowing anonymous questions (mobile or desktop doesn't matter, the content license doesn't require a logged in user) but sending them to a special review queue before and only making them visible to others if they are vetted. This would circumvent abuse and would give people the freedom to not sign up, albeit at the drawback that content wouldn't immediately be visible. However, it would probably add something to the platform (in case somebody doesn't want to reveal his/her identity legitimately). Does anyone want to write a feature request about it? If not, I could. But I would not see it as high priority. Maybe something for the future, when more pressing matters are solved.

Canina‭ wrote about 2 years ago

Trilarion‭ At which point one can just as well type up the question elsewhere and then copy and paste it into the submission interface when logged in whenever convenient, like I suggested in my answer, because then the question won't appear immediately anyway. Composing a post doesn't have to happen at the same time as posting it.

Actually, let's not forget that for a long time, unless one had institutional access to the Internet (for example through a university), to read and compose messages offline and then batch submit them for delivery was the norm. It also had the side benefit of encouraging putting some extra time in to ensure clarity, because depending on timing any misunderstandings due to lack of clarity could easily waste a few days if one was unlucky.