Question Enabling "anonymous" posts in a Kunena discussion

I'm trying to figure out how to enable anonymous posts in a discussion. Somehow, this would involve registered users having an option to a) change their user name in a posting and b) have the capability of suppressing the link to open up their profile. It's not clear how I could do this. I would rather not have users enter anonymous names when they register. Any thoughts or ideas?

Let me see if I understand the issue. You only allow registered users the means to post to your forum, right? (I mean, you do not permit the "general public" having the ability to post to your forum).

For whatever reason, a topic is started by someone but your other members are too intimidated (perhaps) to reply or reply in a way that identifies them? Is that right? :S

I have to say, that's a strange forum. In my own case, I'm perfectly happy to stand behind everything I write. Perhaps I've missed something? If people (who may include your registered uses) want to post anonymously, you could allow allow public write to your forum. If your registered users want to benefit from other aspects of your site (that requires them to log-in) they can login.

It's not that simple. Our discussion board involves business executives. We vet / validate the people that register are qualified. However, they may, for obvious reasons, want to post a subject (question) anonymously. Example "I need to fire my VP of Marketing. How do I do it"? We have an operational web site, but I am planning to move to Joomla and have been impressed with the Kunena form features. This is my first try at asking a question. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

OK, I understand.

BTW, when I said I was happy to stand behind everything I write, I'm quite happy to do that when I sign myself "sozzled"

Obviously if you're dealing with a private forum, you don't want the general public even being aware of what is being discussed. In particularly sensitive cases, a broad-spectrum discussion forum may also not be entirely appropriate, either.

If the discussion board is purely for the executives of one organisation, you can quarantine the site by using intranet/fire-walling.

Getting back to your particular situation - how do you provide the means for someone to anonymously but cadidly ask "I need to fire my VP of Marketing: how do I do it?" - let's return to the real world. How are these situations approached today by more traditional methods? They're normally dealt with face-to-face, one-on-one, by internal office memorandum or telephone. Would an internet-based discussion forum provide a useful adjunct to those procedures? I don't know. :dry:

It's difficult to advise you without knowledge of your site's goals. If your site stresses the need to vet user registrations, then that's what you do. If, subsequently, you say "to hell with that, let's allow people to contribute any way they like," that's OK too. But doesn't one seem to contradict the other, especially if people think that there are other members who are potentially playing the "hidden agenda" game? Why, for instance, couldn't a "sozzled" join your website? (Well, I, for one, would be a bit miffed! :laugh:)

It's a good question. There's probably a technical solution. Would I advise you to use a technical solution? That's an entirely different subject.

We definitely need a technical / configuration solution.

While I have you engaged, I have a different but related question, and perhaps you can give me some input. Remember, I'm a really new user here. I see that the Kunena forum also has JomSocial which expands the user-related information available. We also need to expand the user related information in a small way. We really don't need a full social network with friends, etc., though.

a) do many sites that have Kunena also use Jomsocial? Are there downsides? Does it add too much complexity?

b) do you know of any other simple extensions that can expand the information we can store for a user -- and which he can enter at registration time?

kross76 wrote:

We definitely need a technical / configuration solution.

:laugh: Ah, before we can do that we need to understand a lot more about the problem. People beg for a technical solution and, when it's forthcoming, they're rarely happy with it.

So, let me understand the situation we're faced with. You have a user (let's call him Mao Zedong who is the Chairman of the Board for a medium-sized off-shore political advocacy group). This person is invited to join your website and so, he sign up, accepts the Code of Conduct and submits his application for membership. You decide that he's a good risk so you provide him with an account. Let's assume that he chooses the username "PekingDuck". So far so good?

Now this is the part I'm not sure about. You want this person to be able to contribute in some kind of authoritative way in your forum. Have I got that right? Rather than have his messages signed "PekingDuck" you want your readers to appreciate the thoughts of Chairman Mao as written by the man himself. Is that correct?

But, occasionally, perhaps, Chairman Mao faces a "cultural revolution" situation in the forum and would rather not like his identity revealed. In these situations he would rather disguise himself behind his PekingDuck façade. Have I roughly summed up the situation. It's important to know what we're dealing with before I give you a technically definitive response.

In terms of your secondary question, I wrote briefly about some of those issues yesterday: see Kunena and Jooma . If you want to know what people think of the range of community management extensions available, you should browse the Joomla Extensions Directory and read the user testimonials. This discussion board is primarily focused on how to make those extensions work with Kunena, not to provide opinions, criticisms or complaints about them. It's a good policy, in my opinion.

At the moment we're still discussing things hypothetically and I would feel more comfortable moving this to a different category. "General Talk about Kunena"