Are follow-up posts by the asker to anonymous questions anonymous? January 12, 2010 9:57 PM   Subscribe

Anonymous questions

If I ask an anonymous question on askmefi, will my follow-up posts to responses be anonymous as well?
posted by bookman117 to MetaFilter-Related at 9:57 PM (54 comments total)

The mean answer would be yes.
posted by Juicy Avenger at 9:58 PM on January 12, 2010 [21 favorites]


Nope. There is no built-in anonymous comment system.

If you need to clarify or elaborate or otherwise add a comment to your anonymous question (or want to reply anonymously to someone else's question), you can drop us a line via the contact form (see the bottom of every page for a link) and we can post it for you by proxy.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:00 PM on January 12, 2010


Methinks I hear a pony!
posted by dunkadunc at 10:05 PM on January 12, 2010


cortex, I'm curious, is it common for people to do so? I can imagine they might if they left some crucial bit of information out of a post, but do people also ask you to post thanks or followup comments if their question has been resolved?
posted by zarq at 10:28 PM on January 12, 2010


Yes. I mean, no.

Yes and no. I mean, yes, but no.

Yes. Yeah, yes.
posted by not_on_display at 10:59 PM on January 12, 2010 [1 favorite]


cortex, I'm curious, is it common for people to do so? I can imagine they might if they left some crucial bit of information out of a post, but do people also ask you to post thanks or followup comments if their question has been resolved?

We get probably a couple of proxy comment requests via contact mail every week, on average, covering all those possibilities—someone wants to toss a quick addendum on their anony post, or wants to provide some response or additional info based on prompts from answerers, or just wants to cap it off with a "thanks, this is what I'm doing or what happened" comment.

Methinks I hear a pony!

You're actually hearing the hard-soled shoes of a glue magnate. We'd have to significantly recode the way the anonymous system works under the hood to even make it possible for anonymous askers to anonymously reply to their own questions without mod intervention.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:00 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]


From past discussions I seem to recall that they are not likely to implement such a feature because the way the database is currently structured does not support that kind of association, i.e. the information is not there for the system to know it's you posting in an anonymous thread that you started.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:01 PM on January 12, 2010


Or I could preview.
posted by Rhomboid at 11:02 PM on January 12, 2010


>: You're actually hearing the hard-soled shoes of a glue magnate

The eleven-year-old girls are going to be devastated.
posted by dunkadunc at 11:07 PM on January 12, 2010 [2 favorites]


His name is Elmer.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:08 PM on January 12, 2010 [3 favorites]


Thanks guys
posted by bookman117 at 11:20 PM on January 12, 2010


Seems to me this cold easily be done with a $5 sock puppet.
posted by Daddy-O at 1:34 AM on January 13, 2010 [3 favorites]


*could*
posted by Daddy-O at 1:54 AM on January 13, 2010


I've been wondering a bit since a mod said it was some amount of an effort to match up the anonymasker with user whether you do that if there's a followup, or how you otherwise verify that the followupper is one and the same anonymasker

but I'm already guessing matching IP addresses just as I think about it
posted by criticalbill at 2:24 AM on January 13, 2010


Seems to me this cold easily be done with a $5 sock puppet.

WhyTF didn't I think of that?? There have been several anon questions I'd like to ask but I'd like them to be, you know, anonymous.
posted by DU at 2:53 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Seems to me this cold easily be done with a $5 sock puppet.

So long as you don't add so much that your writing style becomes recognizable.
posted by inigo2 at 4:37 AM on January 13, 2010


ThAt'S a GoOd PoInT, iNiGo2!!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:57 AM on January 13, 2010 [4 favorites]


Yeah, we can spot trunk muffins from a mile away.
posted by fixedgear at 4:58 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Poor anonymous. He asks so many questions, his very username has become an adjective for describing embarrassing AskMe posts.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 5:28 AM on January 13, 2010


Already did that joke.
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:45 AM on January 13, 2010


Using sockpuppets to get around question posting limits is frowned on. Frowned on TO THE MAX!
posted by blue_beetle at 6:14 AM on January 13, 2010


To get around question limits, yes. But if you are only posting one question a week, I *think* a sock puppet would be perfectly okay for anonymous, embarrassing stuff. Mods, please correct me if I am wrong?
posted by misha at 6:21 AM on January 13, 2010


Yabbut they're talking about sock puppets to be anon, not to get around the limit.
posted by Pax at 6:22 AM on January 13, 2010


Anonymous has a favorite-to-post ratio of more than 5:1. Very few of us can boast that.
posted by The White Hat at 6:25 AM on January 13, 2010


I sure do wish there were anonymous answers though.
posted by smackfu at 6:55 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I've been wondering a bit since a mod said it was some amount of an effort to match up the anonymasker with user whether you do that if there's a followup, or how you otherwise verify that the followupper is one and the same anonymasker

Generally if there's nothing bizarre in the requested followup we just trust people. I don't know that we've ever had someone try to spoof a followup comment for someone else's thread; if they did, I imagine we'd hear from the actual asker, and that'd be grounds for the kind of banning that'd make heads spin.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:04 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


To get around question limits, yes. But if you are only posting one question a week, I *think* a sock puppet would be perfectly okay for anonymous, embarrassing stuff. Mods, please correct me if I am wrong?

This is correct. It's on the person using the second account for privacy/anonymity purposes to police their own use of the extra account such that they keep firmly to the 7-day-minimum between questions; it's a per-user, not a per-username, limit.
posted by cortex (staff) at 7:05 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


I'm glad someone asked this. I have an embarassing question I want to ask anonymously, so this is perfect timing. It has to do with pus-oozing boils in my genital area, and I would hate anyone to know I have those. I've been afraid to post it, even anonymously, for fear I wouldn't have a way to follow up. So thanks! I can finally ask my question without fear of embarassment!
posted by The Deej at 7:06 AM on January 13, 2010


o shit
posted by The Deej at 7:06 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


We'll also post comments for people who don't want their username associated with a particular comment [or you could have a completely anonymous account just for posting comments you don't want associated with your username. On a few occasions I've dfinitely posted comments from members who wanted to remain anonymous.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:10 AM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Anonymous has a favorite-to-post ratio of more than 5:1. Very few of us can boast that.

I'm working on it, but these favorite-worthy comments take time to compose. You people could help me out, you know, you could lower your standards.
posted by quin at 7:38 AM on January 13, 2010


We'll also post comments for people who don't want their username associated with a particular comment [or you could have a completely anonymous account just for posting comments you don't want associated with your username. On a few occasions I've dfinitely posted comments from members who wanted to remain anonymous.

Interesting. I would think that would be a very good way for people to speak about matters they don't want linked back to them legally.
posted by zarq at 7:46 AM on January 13, 2010


I would think that would be a very good way for people to speak about matters they don't want linked back to them legally.

*waits for questions about infiltrating Earth's planetary laser defense system*
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:20 AM on January 13, 2010


*waits for questions about infiltrating Earth's planetary laser defense system*

CABAL ARCHIVE PREMIUM LOGIN REQUIRED. SYSTEM HALTED.
posted by zarq at 8:23 AM on January 13, 2010


*Registers Sockpuppet*
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:32 AM on January 13, 2010


*rushes in*

Am I too late?
posted by sheena is a sock puppet at 8:43 AM on January 13, 2010


Seems to me this cold easily be done with a $5 sock puppet.

Yup, it's been done (quite a few times): Anonymous.MeFite, anonymoose, anonymous78, anonymous comment, anonaccount, Anonymiss, Anonymous 5$ Sockpuppet, anondonna, anonymous response, anonymous account, anonymous_account, AnonAnswerer, RandomGradStudent, and many more (infodump is lots of fun for those inclined to dig).
posted by filthy light thief at 9:45 AM on January 13, 2010


Man I really hope the next anonymous AskMe is about something really weird so that I can assume it's bookman117.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:55 PM on January 13, 2010


Entire pony show: allow existing members to purchase a $1 anonymous account with an auto-generated name like "anonymous-2339822" that only lasts for one week's time, and can only post once to AskMe. Limit these $1 anonymous account purchases to one per week.
posted by davejay at 2:18 PM on January 13, 2010 [2 favorites]


Clever idea, but anyone who planned to do that at least 5 times would be better off just getting a sock puppet.
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:36 PM on January 13, 2010


When someone checks the "post anonymously" box it might be encouraging to insert a page before posting that just says, "If you'd like to comment about replies to your anonymous question, feel free to email the mods using the contact link at the bottom of this page and we'll post your comment(s) anonymously."
posted by mediareport at 3:07 PM on January 13, 2010 [1 favorite]


Clever idea, but anyone who planned to do that at least 5 times would be better off just getting a sock puppet.
If you're posting more than five anonymous questions but all as the same sock puppet account, the odds that someone recognizes your sock puppet name are going to go up...
posted by tantivy at 5:00 PM on January 13, 2010


OK, OK, I admit it. I am the "anonymous". All of those questions? Mine. I thought you'd all have caught on by now that this account I'm using now is my sockpuppet (which I created so that I could actually talk and post about non-embarrassing things) but man, it feels good to finally step out of anonymity.
posted by not_on_display at 5:04 PM on January 13, 2010


I, too, would like an anonymous-Ask-Me that is genuinely anonymous, rather than one that is anonymous to everyone but the moderators.

I dunno--this might be a huge technical problem, and there are probably massive downsides I'm not seeing. But if it's possible, I think it's worth considering.
posted by box at 5:11 PM on January 13, 2010


I, too, would like an anonymous-Ask-Me that is genuinely anonymous

It's definitely something that we've thought about. Right now the only people who even have access to who has asked a question are team mod minus vacapinta [and I'm not even totally sure about pb] and we have to go digging in the database to make any real correlation [which as we've mentioned before involves matching datestamps on the notification email that gets sent to us with the time a question is asked]. I'm probably the only one that has any real guesses most of the time. We've gone over this in other threads, but the reasoning for not having total anonymity include

- verification if someone is posting a follow-up or an edit, that it's really their question
- suicide questions [I contact these people personally]
- other batshit insane questions
- "this question would be okay if you could make one small edit to it" situations
- making sure you're not asking anonymously to end run the seven day limit
- rather dull stats stuff [including who is overusing the system and which users are using the system. We don't track that sort of thing, but we have the ability to and we can go digging if we think someone's really overusing the AnonyMe feature]
- just a general check in place to make sure people using the feature are actually community members, this is technically feasible but would require some new tools

And I think part of our thinking, though I guess I'm speaking mainly for myself, is that if you need that level of anonymity, this may not be the right place for you. I would assume that means you wouldn't have an email address for follow-ups, or much identifying information in your question. We had one member who really really wanted to ask a question anonymously but was really nervous about getting found out. His question was a long complicated "I have done bad things" sort of question which we really felt didn't belong on MetaFilter anyhow. The "it has to go through a mod" check is sort of a sanity check to see if it should even be here at all. Best way to be anonymous is to have another username and use it very rarely [but more than never] and make the occasional follow-up and ask the occasional AnonyMe question with it.

And yeah I'd love to ask questions without my boss reading them, but them's the breaks.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:35 PM on January 13, 2010


If you're posting more than five anonymous questions but all as the same sock puppet account, the odds that someone recognizes your sock puppet name are going to go up...

Yes, but so what? It's still anonymous.
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:58 PM on January 13, 2010


Yes, but so what? It's still anonymous.

I didn't mean that someone could see that the five posts are linked together; I mean that more people could plausibly connect the sock puppet to the real you. Withholding your name doesn't make something anonymous if there's lots of uniquely identifying information.
posted by tantivy at 6:09 PM on January 13, 2010


jessamyn ... my boss...
oh... you're the boss of me??!?
oh... OH!
posted by Drasher at 6:41 PM on January 13, 2010


Am I anonymous yet?
posted by flabdablet's sock puppet at 7:10 PM on January 13, 2010


Yes, cortex, you are!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:39 PM on January 13, 2010


"suicide questions [I contact these people personally]"

Wow. Do those come up often and how does it usually go when you contact the person?
posted by Jacqueline at 10:17 PM on January 13, 2010


We see a few a year. I can think maybe of eight or nine emails I've sent. Usually I get an email back from someone saying things got to a less urgent place for them and thanks for caring [or sorry for scaring]. Sometimes the people take a long break from the community and I never hear from them and freak out a little.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:07 AM on January 14, 2010


And yeah I'd love to ask questions without my boss reading them, but them's the breaks.

omigod the taters were on Matt's computer.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:51 AM on January 14, 2010 [2 favorites]


inigo2: "So long as you don't add so much that your writing style becomes recognizable"

This is just a simple, Google will use to convert several times.
posted by Kadin2048 at 12:49 PM on January 14, 2010


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