Annonymous Posting - Why have it?

agreed.

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... a way should be worked out for AP's to have ratings like everyone else (perhaps by IP address?)

Good idea, i.m.o. , a A.P. rating.

A significant number of industry professionals use anonymous accounts here, for the sake of anonymity or to avoid going against company policy. If you see AP posts which are out of line, just flag them.

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Original post by programwizard I think Annonymous Posting should be abolished, or at least a way should be worked out for AP's to have ratings like everyone else (perhaps by IP address?).

I disagree. At first I didn't want to sign up on gamedev as I didn't want my name and location given to anyone, even mods or staff.(I used to have an irrational fear on computer security) It's not a matter of laziness. People come here all the time looking for help, seems a same to turn them away just because they don't want to give out their info, or don't want their email address on a spam list.

We should, however, have a system to stop silent posting of registered users, but this would be hard if they use a school computer and now no other students from that school can get help without signing in an unknown account.

I simply think we should limit Anom posting to the 'for begginers' and maybe a few other forums.

APing is already disabled in the Lounge, at least.

Personally I don't see a problem with it. Sure there are a couple abusers, but AP posts are IP logged, so if disciplinary action is needed the appropriate member(s) can be punished. Having an active system is just asking to be evaded (via one of several methods, primarily proxying), and alerts people to the fact that, omg, AP's can actually be tracked.

That said, I haven't seen any really bad AP's recently. Sure there are a couple of flames now and then, but meh.

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Original post by Anonymous Poster I don't disagree with that. If someone wants some form of annonymity, they should be forced to at least create a new account.

Just to show I'm not really a coward ;-)

Aren't duplicate accounts suspended/banned?

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Original post by Sneftel If you see AP posts which are out of line, just flag them.

That's really only fixing the problem, not preventing it. Having to see the posts before they are dealt with is a very minor annoyance, but it's personified by the fact that no good actually comes out of the system.

And I'm not sure about the "industry professionals" part. If the AP isn't flaimbait, then it's offtopic/incorrect information (in general; maybe I'm just seeing the wrong AP's).

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Original post by programwizard And I'm not sure about the "industry professionals" part. If the AP isn't flaimbait, then it's offtopic/incorrect information (in general; maybe I'm just seeing the wrong AP's).

Nah, there are plenty of "good" anonymous posts. There are also quite a few in the new article discussions, which aren't even attached to the forum (though they are techically integrated and use the same software).

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Original post by rip-off Aren't duplicate accounts suspended/banned?

Yes, and the original account is reprimanded with a warning level increase (or worse, depending on the user's history).

I agree in that I dislike the idea of anonymous posting, but I can understand people that don't want their name known (i.e. John Carmack or someone).

Why not change the rating threshold? go to Control Panel - Board Settings and change the rating threshold to 1000. This will make it so that you don't see posts from anybody below 1000. No more anonymous posters for you ^_^.

HTH!

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Original post by programwizard Quote: Original post by Sneftel If you see AP posts which are out of line, just flag them. That's really only fixing the problem, not preventing it.

That's our problem, not yours.

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no good actually comes out of the system.

Yes it does.

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And I'm not sure about the "industry professionals" part.

I am. And I have more information available than you do.

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Original post by Programmer16 Why not change the rating threshold? go to Control Panel - Board Settings and change the rating threshold to 1000. This will make it so that you don't see posts from anybody below 1000.

Then I wouldn't be able to see nearly 50% of the posts in the forums; including my own!

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Original post by Sneftel That's our problem, not yours.

Yes, it is, because I'm the one who has to read the post, and then see it derail an otherwise on-topic disscussion for a good two or three posts.

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Quote: Original post by programwizard No good actually comes out of the system. Original post by Sneftel Yes it does

What good comes out, other than providing industry professionals a way to get around company policy (correct the last statement if it's wrong, I'm not familiar with any sort of "policy" in the games industry).

I just took a look at the last 20 AP posts. The vast majority were on-topic and helpful. So apparently mostly good DOES come out of the system.

Admitedly, I did post this immediately after seeing this.
The majority of AP's I see are like this. There was another example in a thread by brandonman in the Consoles forum about creating a game console from scratch; I'll dig up a link if I can find it.
There are probably more helpful AP's in other forums, but this is the behavior I observe in general.

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Original post by programwizard The majority of AP's I see are like this.

No. You're wrong. Measurably, the majority of APs are helpful. Since APs are already prohibited from posting in the lounge, and since most other forums have about an even amount of trolling, that means that the AP posts you're seeing are mostly helpful. You're just remembering the unhelpful ones more.

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There was another example in a thread by brandonman in the Consoles forum about creating a game console from scratch; I'll dig up a link if I can find it.

That's funny. I don't remember you flagging any posts like that. So you're too lazy to click the flag button, but not too lazy to whine about it here?

I can't honestly remember an AP being unhelpful or unfriendly at all in response to questions I've asked here. Anyone using anonymous posting to give unconstructive and immature responses are dealt with swiftly by the moderators, there is no problem with the system as far as I can tell.

On GameDev, I rarely (if ever) see anonymous posters trolling or being rude. I would go as far as to say I see more obnoxiousness coming from those whose names are right in their signature.

Did I mention that all people suck and I hate singletons and Java and XBox is better then PS2, and also GameCube is for kiddies!

See, told you so! :)

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Original post by Sneftel Quote: Original post by programwizard The majority of AP's I see are like this. No. You're wrong.

How do you know what posts I read? I have never seen a truly helpful AP. Whenever I see an AP, they are trolling or providing incorrect information. This is not a statement on AP's as a whole, as I only read a few forums regularly. I see unhelpful AP's, but you see more posts, so you see otherwise. You are probably correct in the statement that AP's are generally helpful, I am just reporting what I see from my point of view.

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Original post by Sneftel That's funny. I don't remember you flagging any posts like that. So you're too lazy to click the flag button, but not too lazy to whine about it here?

I have never used the flag button, even when named users were making bad posts. I never really think about flagging, but if you want me to get in the habbit of flaggin bad posts, I will.

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Original post by programwizard How do you know what posts I read?

Hey, I can see what post you're currently reading, which means it could be logged somewhere.

And I get annoyed at APing too, but it is true that I only see roughly, one or two really bad APs a week, over a few mildly annoying ones, and a bunch of helpful ones. But maybe I hang in the lounge to much to see enough APs to gather info on.

Maybe there should be a 'Ignore AP posts' switch in the control panel? It may lead to a bit of confusion from those who use it, but it may satify others. (I wouldn't use it myself though)

What I'd like to see would be some self-moding powers. What I mean is that you can moderate your own threads(or at least pretty much). So, if someone was really annoying you, you could delete their posts in your thread(s). Or disable AP posting if you fear that it will increase flaming(especially when you're talking about MMOs or the like).

I just thought that this might be a good idea.