The number of anonymous questions, as a percentage of all AskMe questions, has been rising steadily over time [13 out of 100 today]. We were sitting around talking about this over email and what limits we could implement, when we figured maybe we'd just try to talk about it instead....
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posted by jessamyn
on Jun 3, 2010 -
337 comments
Why is it that you can post to AskMe as Anon and then make a normal post, but you can't do it the other way around? Once you've made a post the Anon link vanishes from the post page.
Is it just the link vanishing, or does the ability go too?
Can it be changed?
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posted by twine42
on Oct 21, 2008 -
12 comments
Yeah. I know this makes me seem wildly stupid, but... I was trying to post a question on AskMe. I wanted to post it anonomously. (It was a medical question.) But I couldn't figure it out. I either had to post under my pseudonym, or I had to get a new account.
That can't be right?
posted by Dumsnill
on Aug 4, 2008 -
47 comments
Why close an anonymous question at the poster's request? Here's an
example (the recent question from a young guy who wasn't sure he wanted to marry)
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posted by desjardins
on May 13, 2008 -
35 comments
What percentage of users post answers, under their 'real' account, in their own anonymous askmefi threads?
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posted by oxford blue
on Jan 12, 2008 -
67 comments
I think it'd be cool if when posting as anonymous on AskMe, you had the option to provide a separate password which would let you log in as anonymous
just for the thread you're creating and post comments. The main benefit is that it would allow responders to ask for more information. The main risk I see is that someone could out themselves by accident if they forgot to log in as anonymous before commenting...
posted by Coventry
on Nov 19, 2007 -
51 comments
MetaMail question: Would it be possible to allow users to MetaMail posters of anonymous AskMe questions without revealing the identity of the poster (and possibly the sender)?
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posted by baphomet
on Oct 30, 2007 -
15 comments
In light of
this art project, UbuRoivas went to 59,469 Mefites, chosen for their intarnerdiness, to analyze, translate, or reinterpret a selected anonymous AskMe. The resulting collection of responses filled the grey place at MetaFilter with beauty, music, snark & mirth.
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posted by UbuRoivas
on Sep 27, 2007 -
67 comments
My comment on
This thread was deleted, not because of snarkiness or asshattery, but because I doubted the scenario was real. I sincerely complimented the quality of the writing in the post, but simply pointed out (based on my own professional experience as a writer) that it sounded too much like an idyllic encounter written to engage the reader for me to be able to accept it as an actual dilemma. Jessamyn suggested that kind of comment belonged in email or the grey--since the poster is anonymous, here it is.
posted by misha
on Jun 14, 2007 -
37 comments
I recently posted an anonymous question to Metafilter (within the past week). I browsed to the 'New Question' page without thinking about the question limits because I had a new query, but to my surprise the page didn't restrict me from posting. A bug? A way to get around the question limit? Am I shortly going to be shot for pointing this out?
posted by Phire
on Apr 30, 2007 -
16 comments
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
on Nov 27, 2006 -
19 comments
PonyFilter: could we make "anonymous" a category at the top of the "Posts by category in the past month:" list in the sidebar on AskMe? The results, of course, would be questions from
anonymous.
Dunno about other people, but I often find those the most interesting questions to browse.
posted by scrump
on Sep 11, 2006 -
33 comments
When someone asks an anonymous question on ask.metafilter, are people at Mefi or anyone else aware of the asker's identity? How anonymous is it really?
posted by vizsla
on Aug 28, 2006 -
19 comments
As an employee of a state legislature, I'd love to post anonymously in
this thread, but I don't know if that is possible.
posted by luriete
on Aug 9, 2006 -
20 comments
Little Abigail and the Beautiful Pony: For the "Posts by category in the past month" list on the green, can we include a section for Anonymous questions?
posted by cior
on Jul 5, 2006 -
4 comments
Are anonymous posters to AskMe notified if their question is rejected? (I did a search but didn't see the answer to this question.)
posted by tastybrains
on Jun 28, 2006 -
7 comments
So, has anyone who opted to AskMefi an, ahem, embarassing/humiliating/etc question been discovered by a coworker, spouse, etc, whom the original poster thought never knew what mefi was? that is, anonymous posting is great and i want horror stories of those who didn't use it, raining upon them great consequences. stories please?
posted by yonation
on Feb 16, 2006 -
41 comments
Anonymous questions in AskMe, as I understand it, are for those questions which are of a delicate nature, could cause serious embarrassment, result in legal trouble, or cause some sort of other harm.
So how is a
question about what tattoo to get deemed worthy of anonymization?
[MI]
posted by dirtynumbangelboy
on Feb 5, 2006 -
70 comments
When one submits an AskMeFi question anonymously, how long does it typically take to get posted? And if Matt rejects it, how would one know?
posted by jedicus
on Feb 2, 2006 -
1 comment
Roughly how long does it take for a question to be posted after someone submits an Anonymous post to Ask Metafilter?
posted by Effigy2000
on Dec 29, 2005 -
2 comments
I've noticed that many AskMe threads (like
this one) dealing with potential crimes and/or civil suits could be subpoened as evidence if the right person connected the dots. Should there be a notice on the anonymous question page that Metafilter may be compelled by law to release the IP address of anonymous posters?
posted by justkevin
on Dec 27, 2005 -
40 comments
Matt,
threads like this underscore the need for the anon poster to have the ability to respond in his or her thread. I'm sure that it's not a trivial amount of work for you - what would it take to make this happen, and what can we do to support your efforts?
I think that this is one of the most important features on the to-do list. It must be so painful for the poster to be unable to respond in many cases.
posted by By The Grace of God
on Dec 9, 2005 -
56 comments
My AIM neighbor has an anonymous question pending with AskMe. How long does that take? If it gets kicked out for some reason, is questioner notified? He/she has asked me to ask this for the sake of his/her anonymity.
posted by snsranch
on Nov 21, 2005 -
12 comments
Hasn't the
Gulf Coast suffered enough? The fact that this is an anonymous post suggests that some MeFi admin thinks it is reasonable to forcibly send a troublesome kid off to some "volunteer" rebuilding program. I suppose if you wanted to harm the rebuilding process, this might be a reasonable approach.
How did this post get through?
posted by b1tr0t
on Nov 6, 2005 -
35 comments
AnonAskMe often poses embarrassing personal questions. Sometimes I withhold my opinion because, if you're too mousy to attach your name to your question, I don't think you deserve people's signed replies. Does anyone else agree?
posted by cribcage
on Oct 24, 2005 -
49 comments
I created a gmail account for anonymous askme followups. The username is anon.metafilter and the password is metafilter. Anymore can post there. Just log in at gmail.google.com and send email from that account TO that account (anon.metafilter@gmail.com).
Since gmail allows tags, you can tag your messages. You can also reply to them (or other users can reply to them) and gmail will automatically keep all the replies together.
Why hasn't someone already done this? Is it a bad idea? (No one will be forced to use it). If it's a bad idea, why is it a bad idea? Of course, it could (perhaps will) get utterly chaotic with people deleting each others posts, etc.
Lets see what happens.
posted by grumblebee
on Aug 22, 2005 -
40 comments
How much do you suppose Mathowie makes in extortion from the people who post anonymous AskMe posts? Think about it: HE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE!
posted by Doohickie
on Jun 28, 2005 -
63 comments
Why do anonymous posts seem to come in bursts on AskMeFi? It seems that more often than not, 3 or 4 anonymous questions pop up in a row (for instance: today
1,
2,
3) Do anonymous questions sit in an approval queue before being posted to the main site, or is this phenomena purely coincidental?
posted by nitsuj
on May 16, 2005 -
16 comments
Please, bring back anonymous AskMetafilter. kthxbi (
1,
2)
posted by geoff.
on Apr 16, 2005 -
12 comments
SecondTryFilter: After today's updates, the Anonymous AskMe link is gone from the post-a-question page.
posted by agropyron
on Feb 16, 2005 -
1 comment
If an anonymous question is posted to AskMeFi which is deemed inappropriate for the page, do the administrative powers e-mail the original poster to explain why?
posted by TeamBilly
on Feb 12, 2005 -
12 comments
Just noticing a quirk: The thread IDs of the anonymous AskMe posts seem to reflect the number that would be assigned to them had they been instantly posted at the time of submission. The three latest threads on AskMe are 14998,15006,15016 (all Anon threads) followed by normal threads 15032, 15031...etc.
posted by Gyan
on Feb 11, 2005 -
13 comments
Right now I see three "January 23" headings in AskMe, atop three "January 22" headings. Prior days display just fine. What's the story, Morning Glory?
posted by killdevil
on Jan 23, 2005 -
6 comments
I, like many people, have added
Anonymous AskMetaFilter as a
contact, due to his/her interesting, thought-provoking, often sex-related questions and complete self-restraint when it comes to making snarky comments.
However, I noticed a weird phenomenon. On
my contacts page, I see several anonymous questions that link to deleted/nonexistant posts. These do not show up in "Anonymous AskMeFi"'s posting history, and I never saw them on the AskMe page. Did they ever appear on the main page? Is there a reason they are
still visible from my contacts page?
posted by louigi
on Nov 22, 2004 -
11 comments
The first question in this
anonymous AskMe post made me realize that there is no way for anyone posting anonymously to provide information beyond the initial query.
posted by eyeballkid
on Oct 16, 2004 -
18 comments
Once I ran to you, I ranNow I'll run from youThis tainted love you've given
75% of this "anonymous" guy's output is love-related. I keep reading that we suck at politics, we suck at religion, we suck at (insert your favorite pet peeve here). I dare to suggest that, no disrespect intended, we suck at giving love advice (assuming that giving useful love advice is actually possible, which I doubt). Is this just a coincidence, or we'll use the anonymous feature mainly to turn AskMeFi into Mr/Mrs LonelyheartsFilter/BrokenheartsFilter?
posted by matteo
on Oct 13, 2004 -
30 comments
AnonyMe is up.
Posts ensue! Yay! A pony! I
personally think the Paxil query is exactly what AnonyMe should be for, and the good-lookin' cheaters question would have been better asked in the light of disclosure. What do you think? What's a good reason for anoymous posting, and what's a bad one? Let the guidelines scrimmage begin!
(Thanks Matt and thanks Seanyboy!)
posted by mwhybark
on Oct 12, 2004 -
35 comments
I'd greatly enjoy an anonymous feature on Ask Metafilter. Just last week I was going to ask for tips on buying an engagement ring, but worried the Google Indexing of the question might result in the surprise being ruined for my (now) fiancée. I'd be ok with it not *really* being anonymous (ie, for tracking down abusers, the data would still be stored, just not displayed).
posted by davebug
on Sep 10, 2004 -
18 comments
