You can't ask anonymous askers questions

November 27, 2006 11:33 PM

I get very annoyed when people post anonymously on ask.mefi and then the answers ask follow up questions which compel the poster to revise their question, but they can't post because they would no longer be anonymous. Is this just me? Could there be a warning after the question saying the poster can no longer post on this thread? or maybe there is some way to allow the poster to continue to post anonymously?
posted by pwally to Feature Requests at 11:33 PM (19 comments total)

Well, anonymous posters are told when they post that they can post follow-ups to the thread via me or mathowie. A lot of people have been doing that via me this last set of weeks, it seems. It seems like the bad follow-up situation in anonymous questions isn't much worse than the bad follow-up situation in regular threads which is to say that people fail to follow-up occasionally, but not too often.

We added a note to the guidelines to encourage people checking back in to their threads, but beyond that it's really more of an etiquette thing andpeople understanding how the anonyme function works. I don't have much of an opinion on whether a mechanism for anonymous follow-ups would be a worthwhile pony, but I do know it's been discussed here quite a bit.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:02 AM on November 28, 2006

Could there be a warning after the question saying the poster can no longer post on this thread?

I would have thought this was kinda self evident.

or maybe there is some way to allow the poster to continue to post anonymously?

For a start, see here and here and here and [you can search for more if you like]. As jessamyn said, there's been a lot of discussion about his in the past.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:06 AM on November 28, 2006

I think pwally is actually annoyed with answerers for giving responses that request more information, not with anonymous posters. This annoyance is somewhat misplaced though, because as said already it IS possible for anon to follow up, either indirectly through the admins or with a sock puppet (and let's face it, if you're asking one of these "my life is falling apart, help me" questions I don't think a $5 temporary account is really a waste of money if it helps get better responses.) You can't blame answerers for wanting clarifying details when the situation is not clear. And yes this has been discussed a million times in the past too.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:13 AM on November 28, 2006

Can't you just assign a temporary anon ID for anonymous posters? I've bought an additional ID for updating an anonymous thread in the past, but it occurred to me at the time that a really basic workaround could have dealt with it (create a few hundred throwaway ids and cycle them?).

There are people here that are very efficient at determining poster's sock puppet accounts - driven and efficient - there is good reason for wanting to keep a degree of anonymity in certain situations.

The current method relies heavily on the good will of the moderators and is also quite a cross to bear for them as well.
posted by strawberryviagra at 1:25 AM on November 28, 2006

And also the ability to answer anonymously would make it more usable/informative in most situations - who really wants to betray themselves whilst providing the solution to their recent case of [insert outrageous physical/personal affliction]?

Does anyone have a solution for handling this?
posted by strawberryviagra at 2:15 AM on November 28, 2006

Strawberryviagra - that's (anonymous accounts) been discussed in the past.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:21 AM on November 28, 2006

I think pwally is actually annoyed with answerers for giving responses that request more information, not with anonymous posters. This annoyance is somewhat misplaced though, because as said already it IS possible for anon to follow up

Not only that, but the answerers are letting the asker know that they need to consider things that they might not have initially thought of. e.g.
Anon question: my boyfriend takes a gun to work and I think that's weird/wrong. How do I get him to stop?
Answerer: What's his job? Is he a policeman or a soldier?
The implication being: rather than thinking about how to stop him taking a gun, consider that maybe it's part of his job to carry one.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:24 AM on November 28, 2006

Everything's seemingly discussed in the past - I just wanted to labour the point (plus I got tired of looking at the endlessness of requests and not finding any reasons /solutions as to why it can't be done - thought I'd put it out there again, maybe someone has a fresh approach).
posted by strawberryviagra at 2:44 AM on November 28, 2006

I get very annoyed when people post anonymously on ask.mefi and then...

Please don't let it get to you like that, pwally. It's only a little quirk of a few particular threads on a fun (and, in the greater scheme, meaningless) website.

If you would like to be very annoyed, turn your attention here or here or here or here.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:04 AM on November 28, 2006

apt
posted by strawberryviagra at 3:41 AM on November 28, 2006

Maybe pwally gets very annoyed at some anonymous ask.me answerers Meatbomb, and maybe pwally gets so outraged or so angry at holocaust and genocide they are going to explode (no, not literally) - hyperbole aside. Nevertheless, although it has been gone over before, should it not be raised again because there is great suffering in the world? Is there no answer?
posted by tellurian at 5:20 AM on November 28, 2006

One of the strengths of AskMe is that questions frequently get reframed, which reframing is often enough to answer the question.
posted by OmieWise at 5:38 AM on November 28, 2006

Some people seem to get annoyed very easily.
posted by caddis at 6:57 AM on November 28, 2006

I think pwally should come back and clarify what they meant.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:23 AM on November 28, 2006

The first answer was good enough, thanks for all your smarmy opinions.
posted by pwally at 9:45 PM on November 30, 2006

Oh, how precious.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:20 PM on November 30, 2006

Well.... OK
posted by strawberryviagra at 11:26 PM on November 30, 2006

you are welcome, please post more silly ass nonsense
posted by caddis at 1:46 AM on December 1, 2006

I AM NOT A SOCKPUPPET!
posted by anonaccount at 4:42 AM on December 1, 2006