I had a conversation with a friend a while ago, who reminded me about a thread we used to have. It was about members posting as guests on the forum. For the most part, it was a fun thread, trying to figure out who was posting as whom etc.

It prompted me to think about our guest posting on a regular basis.
When you signed up, you agree in our TOU for the site to place a cookie on your machine, to help track IP's so we can identify spammers from members. So, when you log in, your IP address is recorded for the moderators and administrator to see. This is how we also track spam, do bans etc. Now, when you post as a guest, that little cookie still populates the same IP address that is associated with your account. Of course, once we review it, we know who you are and what you have posted. ;)

I have several questions now:

1. When a person lurks, and posts as a guest as opposed to just logging in with their member name, what is the benefit of this? Do they post something they would never have the balls to post as themselves? Do they do it because they feel they might be chastised if they posted the same thing as themselves? I'm curious.
     - I do understand those that come to the site while at work, and post as a guest because the company internet will not let them log in, this is not what I am talking about.

2. Also, when lurking, does that person go check out their posts as members, to see what kind of reaction they have spurred from the forum?

3. Invisibility. Why?
    - I can understand if you are trying to stay hidden from someone who is bothering you, but if they are truly bothering to the point that you have to hide, why not just report  them and get it over with?

Invisibility is a great tool for moderators and admins, because if we have to get stuff done, it is easier for us to do so as invisible. However, mods and admin can see everyone, whether they are hidden or not. We still see everything the invisible person is doing, the lurker is doing, or even if a banned member is trying yet again to register for a new account on the forum. We see when a banned member tries to log in, we see when brand new members seem to know their way around the forum a little too easily...

I guess it all boils down to a one word question: Why?

I don't understand.

Tam

Good question, Tam. 

I went invisible a while ago when I didn't want to be sociable and I never went back.  I never really thought about it.  No real reason for it, I guess.

By invisibility..I assume mean login in 'hidden' mode (as I am presently in)?  

I like it...that's why. I'm not certain WHY I like it but it suits my mood sometimes. But I always show up when I post so everyone pretty much knows I'm one of the 'hiddens'. I like the idea of people not being able to track me so easily until I post. I do understand that mods can probably see me anyway...but while I AM in hidden mode...I actually don't have much to hide.

Good questions. I know I'm not one who can answer them because I do not lurk. I don't think you were around Tam, when we had a guest thread that members were posting in and I did and out of habit I signed my "Cat" at the bottom and hit "Post" before I realized. In guest mode, you cannot modify your post so everyone KNEW it was me. Kind of defeats the purpose. lol Yeah, that was one of my "most embarrassing InThe00s moments."  :-[ :D ;D ;D Because of that incident, I realized that it will be very hard for me to "pretend" to be someone else. Of course, that brings up a situation with a banned member who pretended to be another member-and that went on for YEARS!!!! Which, to me, reeks of deceitfulness. 

As for the "invisible" mode, I'm already invisible in many regards so why bother.  ;) :D ;D ;D  Yeah, people can see that I am here almost ALL day-every day. I guess I really should get a life. lol


I guess it boils down to the fact that I have nothing to hide (except my name.  ;) )



Cat

Good questions. I know I'm not one who can answer them because I do not lurk. I don't think you were around Tam, when we had a guest thread that members were posting in and I did and out of habit I signed my "Cat" at the bottom and hit "Post" before I realized. In guest mode, you cannot modify your post so everyone KNEW it was me. Kind of defeats the purpose. lol Yeah, that was one of my "most embarrassing InThe00s moments."  :-[ :D ;D ;D Because of that incident, I realized that it will be very hard for me to "pretend" to be someone else. Of course, that brings up a situation with a banned member who pretended to be another member-and that went on for YEARS!!!! Which, to me, reeks of deceitfulness. 

As for the "invisible" mode, I'm already invisible in many regards so why bother.  ;) :D ;D ;D  Yeah, people can see that I am here almost ALL day-every day. I guess I really should get a life. lol


I guess it boils down to the fact that I have nothing to hide (except my name.  ;) )



Cat


Hey...when I logon..I kinda feel better just knowing you are here. ;)

Hey...when I logon..I kinda feel better just knowing you are here. ;)



Awwww, thanks. I would give ya karma but I already got ya today.



Cat

I hid because I don't want everyone to know I'm here. Of Course I blow my cover by posting everywhere ;D


No really it occurred to me that certain people read "too" much into the activities of others. Why are lookinig at so & so's profile or why are you posting in their topic not mine....

The occurrences were not frequent but they were annoying enough that I found it beneficial to make my posts but not my actions visible to others.

I too could never figure out the satisfaction as posting in guest mode. There were times I noticed some exmembers, and even
members, answering their own post under an alternate name, it can get annoying.

I feel I am a visible lurker.  ;D I can spend hours on the boards and not submit one post but I've never used the Hidden mode.

There are times that I search the boards without signing in but only for a few minutes and that is out of laziness more than
anything.

I go invis a lot... why, I dunno. Holdover habit from being a mod I suppose.

As for guest posting, from what I've seen, this forum is one of the few left that allows it in most sections. AmIRight is all "guest" posting. I think it works on both because the userbase is pretty tight knit and those that try to take advantage of name games and trolling get ferreted out very quickly, even with dynamic IPs and proxy use (DD).

One forum I recently joined not only requires signing up, but near full and accurate info. I put down my initial location as "East Coast, USA", only to see it was changed to "Hampton, Va" the next morning. Yep, an admin looked at my IP and changed my info accordingly. I don't live in Hampton, so I changed it to where I am.

A few times I'll appear as a guest here because:

a) I deleted my cookies/history/tifs after the last log-in and haven't logged back in yet or
b) Have my security settings on high, in which case the board can't read the cookie I have.

I've only made two posts here as a guest, one was "Lou Sers" and the other when I muffed up my email settings.

I dunno about posting while being a guest unless you are a guest - never figured that out myself.

Mods are not the only ones who can tell who is hidden. All one has to do is look at the profile of the person they think is hiding and view the "Last Active:..." time. If it's less than 5 minutes ago, they are online but "invisible".  ::) ;D

Ant

What if we use a penname such as Samuel Langhorne Clemens?  Is that a bad idea?

Actually, i never go visible or lurk.  Its funny to see that people do that.  lol

Obviously I'm missing something here.  I get that you can hide yourself and that people do that, but I'm guessing that something more than that has been going on lately.  Has someone been posting as a guest or under an assumed name a lot?  Is this something that members do frequently?  Like, a lot of members? 

Obviously I'm missing something here.  I get that you can hide yourself and that people do that, but I'm guessing that something more than that has been going on lately.  Has someone been posting as a guest or under an assumed name a lot?  Is this something that members do frequently?  Like, a lot of members? 


Nothing too serious. Just noticed a lot of things today, ranging from 3 years ago up until a few minutes ago.
Just behavior that isn't necessarily understood by me. I guess that's why I asked - because I see people do it, and wonder "what the hell?"

With the exception of April Fool's last year - I have only ever posted as myself. I can't imagine posting as someone else. Just never appealed to me.
And when banned members try to get back in - it is as if they think we don't track their attempts. And spammers - shoot, gibbo called a good one earlier. No sooner did I see the email the guy used, I went to ban and delete, and gibbo already replied to the guy's spam thread with "Soon to be gone" or something like that. (To which I gave gibbo karma for 8)  ) I don't know....

When decadeology was all over the boards, I used to go hidden so people wouldn't see me reporting that crap, but after a while, I just didn't care anymore.

I don't really see a need to go invisible anymore.  I have nothing to hide ;D

I don't really see a need to go invisible anymore.  I have nothing to hide ;D


Here in all your resplendent glory, eh Jason?  ;)

I am invisible so you can't see what I'm doing unless you're a mod, and even then I'm not doing anything that bad :D

I stopped posting as a guest in disguise once it was disabled for the Penguin fun section.  I still post as a guest when I'm too lazy to log back in though, and then later on I'll log back in and repost because I'm weird :P

I have never hidden or lurked.  I don't really see a need to.  I'm either here or I'm not....

I have never hidden or lurked.  I don't really see a need to.  I'm either here or I'm not....


Hell I'm here....even when I'm not here  ;D

I get interupted a lot so the last thing I want is someone monitoring how long it takes me to reply.

I sometimes login as a guest and read posts but I never post as a guest... well I did once as a joke but I made it obvious that it was me.  I wasn't trying to be deceitful.


I used to go invisible back when everyone used to hit "Who's Online" and copy/paste it into a thread.  I didn't want to get caught viewing someone's profile for too long, when I was investigating certain things.  ;)  I haven't even thought about going invisible since then...

I had my profile set to invisible before; I may again.  I'm not a fan of that "Who's Online" thread.  If someone wants to see what a visible member is doing they can check the link; no need to post it for all the public to see.  Who cares?

Thanks for all the replies.

Currently, I am hidden, only because I am trying to get active threads older than 6 months moved to the WoW, and was sent links to move other topics to the TTT. Like I said before, I do this so that while I am in the process of board related stuff, I don't go and check my replies or messages until I am done. That way, people don't think I am ignoring them or just plain being rude.

Also, being a creature of habit, when I see my other mod or Chucky online, if I have to talk specifically to them, I go into hidden mode, because then they can see me, and we can get things done a lot faster.

I have never been sneeky about my online presence, of course, if I am hidden and my profile says that my last login time was one minute ago, then obviously you know I am hidden. Or if I don't appear online but I keep reply to threads - then you know I am online.....

It's when my profile says it has been days since I logged in...  :o ;)