Making posts anonymous on AccountingWEB.co.uk - Important update

I have managed to edit some of my replies to other postings to make them anonymous, but I can't find a way to do this with my own original postings.
If the username was entered instead of the writer's name will it remain like that or will the username be replaced by the writer's name?

Will my username, ie my login name, appear on posts or will it be the pseudonym that was used when posting?
If it is my username, which I do not want to appear, are you really suggesting that I have to go through every single post I
have made over the years and edit each and every one? If so, I think I would rather delete my profie and all content
in one swoop - can it be done?

Which name will be displayed?

The editable one?
or the profile name?

If its the later, I will have to ask you to delete ALL my posts to date as I don't have the time to go through posts one by one to find the one or two that might lead to an issue.

Is it only answers or questions posed under the new website design that you need to edit. there only seems to be an option to edit the newer posts.

I hardly ever post and I have 7 pages of comments going back over the last 5 years. You seriously want me to edit all these to make them anonymous????

Sorry, I'm deleting them all. Much quicker: only takes one click per comment rather than 2 (edit then tick anonymous box) and I know there will be no issues then.

This feels like an upgrade which has been put together on a shoe-string in-house with no thought given to the user's perspective whatsoever!! Not impressed at all.

I've clicked to make the post above anonymous and the edit and delete buttons aren't there.

Does that mean if people post anonymously they can't edit what they've put??? Those people who post anonymously for reasons other than clinging to their personal privacy might have a big problem with that.

Actually I have a big problem with it too. Grrrr.....

I really believe it is totally unacceptable for AWeb to give users only a couple of days over the weekend to do what needs to be done to make posts anonymous. It's rather put me off using the site.

Right, I've just wasted half an hour of my life deleting 5 years' worth of occasional comments. I'm now REALLY REALLY fed up and need a drink.

If it wasn't for the CEO's diary and the entertainment of Swiss Toni (who must currently be tearing his hair out cos I bet that's not his real name...) I'd be cancelling my membership of the site. If you want to upgrade a website, get in professionals. Kind-of like the debate about getting a proper accountant to do your accounts... it's worth paying for a proper job not fudging something together and hoping it'll do.

AWeb - Please take note of what the above posters are saying and also the numerous posters on this subject on Any Answers. THIS REALLY IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM AND IF IT IS NOT SORTED, THERE WILL BE SOME EXTREMELY UNHAPPY SUBSCRIBERS. Many of us are having to spend time this weekend trying to anonymise our replies and I, for one, am very concerned at the apparent inability to edit existing questions.

Everyone saying what I am thinking but no-one replying as far as I can tell. Loved the site as it was, personally and dont have time to work all the functionality out - theres facebook for that.

Must say its a plus that the posting appears immediately.

Could this retrospective action be a breach of Data Protection.

Many people post on this site anonymising the client situation, changing the facts a bit and using a pseudonym so that there is no chance of being 'traced'.

Most people's profile probably has 'correct' details about their name and address etc. as that is what's needed to click through on the site to various offers etc.

So an email sent on a Friday afternoon says 'unless you go through every post you've ever done you could risk links being made so that actual questions or answers could be tied back to you - oh, and you've got to do it by next monday or it'll be too late' must be a breach of some sort of data protection law.

What if you were on holiday this week and come back to find that previously anonymous posts on accountingweb have become linked to your name.

This should be stopped and someone should think again - hard

Where are you, Steve Roth?? You should be here, helping us to sort this out, or at least helping to alleviate our worries.
Is it really fair to make such an announcement on a Friday afternoon then run off home for the weekend?
Very very poor customer service.

So, at 5pm on Monday 22 June the tide goes out and anyone who has been swimming naked is going to be found out.

I can't wait!

Well done AccountingWeb!

1. It is ridiculously short notice. What if I was on holiday?
2. I strongly think your default (if you have to choose) should be to make all old commets anonymous - not previously anonymous comments public!
3. I can't see any links to old comments on my profile but I know I made some and some I want to keep anonymous.

None of my posts are listed against my profile so how can I make these anonymous? Will they be attributed to me or not? What about people who no longer use the site - I definately think they should make all old posts anonymous.

I have chosen to receive email notifications of additional postings to articles etc to which I have contributed. I have just noticed that the recent notifications contain a list of additional postings including the USER NAMES of the posters. So presumably my anonymised postings have also been emailed to the other posters along with my user name which was set up over eight years ago with my real name. So it will now be possible for users to link pseudonyms with real names just by posting a comment to a particular question/article!!!!!

As a member for over 10 years I have made many comments, raised questions and given answers. Why would I want to do this anonymously? I have no problem with any of my contributions.

Excuse me for being a bit thick but can anyone explain to me why there is a legitimate reason for posting anonymously. Surely if you don't want to put a name to the post, then don't post!

Stephen Quay

May I suggest IN FUTURE unless you are prepared to be identified then do not post and then there will be less to read

And before anyone has a go the last one was posted by
Stewart Ainley Director / Partner
of Account Business Management Solutions Ltd

When rolling out a change, the default action should be to leave things unchanged - and despite the apparent contradiction, this might take a deal of effort !! but it's necessary when you have professional people (with reputations) posting over a number of years on subjects that might be sensitive to them or their clients.

Plus a lot of useful information in those posts that would be (has been ...) lost if the posters just deleted their postings to save hassle (see somewhere above - or is it below ?)

How about pre-announcing proposals another time - or even piloting the changes in just one small area - then members' feedback can be taken into account.

You say you are looking at other solutions.... here's two demands....
1. Relaunch the old site.
Forget your new fancy graphics that you love and several/many/most hate. Get rid of the narrow/unusable narrow format
text
that
is
really
annoying.
Put the anonymity feature back as it was at a stroke
Reorder the comments
2. ANY change MUST require NO action from users. Anything else will cause potentially serious issues for some and annoy all.

And in answer to the person above who asked"why is this an issue?" I have posted anonymously when I have been asking for advice on a sensitive issue and I don't want my boss or other colleagues in the organisation I work for to know it was me.

I can't edit the above post to put in a missing space, reconsider the use of the word demand, 1. is a suggestion, only 2.is a demand!
IT'S PANTS!!

ENGLISH please. This is NOT a techie site so please don't use technical jargon. ESPECIALLY when it is in a request for user action!!!!

Can you please tell me in words of one syllable, with screen pictures, how I find the list of my postings that others have found. I can't see where in my profile this list is.

Thanks

From Rebecca Benneyworth

If you look at your comment as it displays, below the date line under the comment are the options you need to edit, delete, click here to reply. On posts by other users you also have a flag as offensive option.

I've just edited a mis-spelling so I know it works!

As before, where is the list of our postings?

I can't find mine and I'm not the only one.

Do you really want your competitors to know your areas of weakness?

Do you really want your clients to know your areas of weakness?

Do you really want your colleagues to know your areas of weakness?

Especially important to sole practiotioners (who are probably in the majority on here) and whose clients (if handled correctly) believe them to be one small step down from God in business and financial matters!

In answer to the question about how you can see a list of your postings:

Following concerns from members over the weekend we have temporarily disabled the profiles to prevent any chance of users being identified with comments while we look at alternative solutions.

This means you won't be able to see your list of postings until we enable the profiles again.

Our team is working on it right now and this function will return as soon as the issues have been worked out.

Many thanks for your patience.

Kind regards,

Gina Dyer
Deputy editor

Sorry but you are. The edit option is not available if you make the posting anonymous!

I have just managed to edit my anonymous posting so??????????????

New thread but related I think. CEO and Practitioner's blogs offline for several days - guess 'cos of the changeover. Now it's reappeared only recent postings are shown, the earlier part of June has disappeared. And the blog index is awful! Instead of the old one item listed for each blog we now have each posting to the blog listed separately. So if you want to review comments to, say the practitioner's diary, you have to scroll down to find his last posting. Then the comments are not shown at the bottom of the blog but...

Ok just sussed it. Each entry on the blog page jumps you to the June blog which looks much like the old format, except the newest comment is at the bottom. So extra clicks but same functionality. Thank goodness!

Only complaint now is that the blog list has a new entry for each blog posting. So with the CEO more active than the Practitioner you do still have to scroll down.

Were they offline 'cos you almost revealed their identity?

Now each blog entry is a separate page. So if you are catching up one several days you have to jump out and then back to the new day!!

Come on people! Get your brains in gear!!

I see what you mean about the blogs and it is an adjustment. The reason the Practitioner's Diary and CEO's Diary did not update for a couple of days is that it's taken everybody a bit of time to get used to the new format.

They each have their own blog pages:

The CEO's is here

The Practitioner's is here

The form now is that there will be a separate entry for each day.  If you want to view all the CEO's or Practitioner's entries on one page, just use the links above.

I appreciate that it is frustrating at first when you're still getting used to a new way of doing things (don't forget, we're getting used to a new way of working too) but change is part of life! I can assure you that our brains are still very much in gear... it's just a higher gear to the one we used before! :)

Gina Dyer

Deputy editor

Yes you can sort of see all the recent blog entries at once but only the last few days so I repeat if you want more you have to go out and back in. The comments are now attached to eaqch day rather than all together in one place for one month so again if you were following a thread started on, say, 15th June and the conversation continued for a while...as they sometimes do...then you would have to jump to that specific day.

This is definately not an improvement.

Also I now notice that it is no longer possible to format the text in a comment, I wanted to make recent bold italic!

Please can we have the old format back. This is awful.

Thanks for your comments, I will feed them back to the team and we'll see what we can do to make it better.

We won't be going back to the old format, but the beauty of the new format is that we can improve on things and change things if they don't work. We do take members' feedback seriously and we will be looking at how to improve things on the blogs page based on what you've said.

All I did was go to my original posting click on the edit tag below the posting and amend it and then the new version appeared when I looked at it again
Or are we talking about different things

Cheers
Stewart

If I post this without ticking anonymous then....
I get the edit tag you mention

...but if I tick the "Make this post anonymous" box then I don't get the edit tag. So allsilly typos are their forever

Retarded is an IT term for something that's badly messed up. I cannot believe that Sift, which when it started was on the cutting edge of community, long before it became a populist term, has managed to make such a dog's dinner of commenting.

Now I have to login BEFORE I can even see an article? Give-me-a-break-puhlease. As far as I am aware, Sift is the ONLY media organization doing this across all its properties. It will drive readers away.

The excuse...sorry...reason given...is that Sift wouldn't have much of an ad model if it doesn't know who its readers are. Right. Doesn't management understand that it's not about readers but about the conversation? What can you deduce when someone reads but doesn't comment? What is the likelihood that random readers will click on ads? Doesn't Sift understand that the pure ad based model, just like the vendor driven conference model is dead?

And what's with this anonymity nonsense? Can't people stand up for their own words?

Sad....terribly sad.

In the meantime, I've commented further on the generality of what's happened with the redesign here: http://www.accmanpro.com/2009/06/24/new-threads-at-accountingweb-but-sev...

PS - it gets worse: the link to a Blackberry whitepaper download ad I saw is broken. Oh well.

Why? Because I don't always want my boss, my colleagues or others to know what questions I am asking. What if I wanted advice from the accountingweb community on a difficult colleague (very unlikely!) or my boss...
When I have raised general points I have put my name to them. Just as I have when I've answered others.
Do you really expect the CEO or the Practitioner to reveal their identities? Although I think Sift may have done that for them this week!
As you say this redesign smacks of marketing believing it's own press releases, you know the sort of thing...
New = Old, repackaged
Improved = Retain the bad features and get rid of the good
We listened = We didn't ask and ignored any answers we happenned to get
Modern design = Illegible
The list goes on and on but I'll stop there.
Martin Tingle

Anonymity is not about not standing up for your words, for me as a practitioner it is about not giving your competitors a lever against you, because there are those would would use any information/opportunity to denigrate their peers for personal gain.

I used to get two batches of updates a day, conveniently at morning coffee and afternoon tea times. This was ideal as I could then quickly check through them, and as many would be on the same thread I was following I would only need open one and mark the rest as unread.

Now, I am bombarded constantly with updates through the day, and whilst I do not open them immediately, it is stll disruptive as they have broken your concentration.

Do AW think we are that engrossed in what is going on that we cannot wait a few hours to see any new comments?

I know I do not have to opt for updates, but it is useful to be notified: that was where the previous system was good as it prompted you to "take 5"!

I TAKE IT BACK - I HAVE JUST FOUND A BIT WHERE YOU CAN CHOOSE HOW OFTEN YOU LIKE TO GET UPDATES - DON'T KNOW IF THAT WAS THERE WHEN I WROTE THIS OR NOT THOUGH! YOU HAVE TO GO INTO YOUR PROFILE THOUGH - A BIT LONG WINDED - WHY NOT SET WHEN YOU REPLY TO COMMENT (AS YOU CAN IF YOU JUST WANT TO MONITOR) AS SOME THREADS ONE IS MORE CONCERNED FOR THAN OTHERS (I.E. THIS ONE)

We are listening to all your feedback and we do take your issues with the site seriously. We are working very hard to address all the issues you've brought up, but Rome wasn't built in a day as they say.

We have a really great team of people at this end (yes, people, actual human beings!) who work really hard on this site and really care about what happens to it. The thing about human beings is that they don't always get everything right - but we don't stop trying!

I appreciate that this has been a traumatic change for everyone but when you are pouring out your frustrations please remember that there's a whole team of people whose job it is to read all these comments and take positive action on them. Keep it constructive and we'll get there in the end!

Gina Dyer
Deputy editor

P.S. The links to the BlackBerry whitepaper download should now be working again and I have emailed you with pdfs of these papers so you don't have to go to the trouble of trying to download them again. Any problems, give us shout on editor@accountingweb.co.uk.

Fair points, um, Rebecca, sorry Gina (post-edit) (another one is you no longer see the article you are commenting on when typing)!

Positives
You are now listening
You will get there
I can be patient
The site is really useful and appreciated. I can tolerate a bit of advertising to get the interesting blogs, news features and any answers.
I'm sure the majority aren't about to desert you because of these teething troubles.

Recommendation
Get the anonymity issue sorted first, all the other points I have seen are really about cosmetics. Even the blogs being split is merely irritating not site-threatening.
Best Wishes
Martin Tingle