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AnonymousDonor
MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesA valiant soul who contributes positively without ego; that is, without signature. This is in stark contrast to malicious anonymous fellows. A DramaticIdentity. Possibly an AntiPattern.
Comes from jargon of charities. As in, "An anonymous donor contributed $50 000 to the Heart and Stroke Foundation."
From [Article 15] of the BerneConvention, the copyrights of anonymous content is held by the publisher in trust for the author until such time as that author reestablishes claim. The process to reestablish claim varies by country, but generally demands a legally rigorous level of proof.
See also: PostAnonymously, CommunityWiki:AnonymousContributionCopyright
Signing as AnonymousDonor
Many wikis use AnonymousDonor as a DramaticIdentity for anonymous discussion:
One of the complaints about ThreadMode is that it is hard to follow if contributors do not sign submissions, in order to indicate flow. Using AnonymousDonor helps solve that problem for those wishing to add content to ThreadMode sections, but without encumbering the submission with a signature, and the "ownership" that implies. -- AnonymousDonor
However, it is not a full solution, especially if several different people use the same AnonymousDonor tag. And if they do not, it is not really anonymous any more. -- AnonymousDonor
An AnonymousDonor contribution should be seen as a contribution by an anonymous person. The reader does not know if the second AnonymousDonor on the page is the same person as the first AnonymousDonor. This should not be a problem, as the poster believed that who submitted it was not relevant, but rather used it to indicate start and end of their contribution. I rarely use DocumentMode, but would prefer to not sign submisssions. Alternating between regular and italics breaks down once three people are in on the thread. I would love to explore better ways of achieving this. Ideas? -- AnonymousDonor
- With three people you can use a mixture of italics and indenting, like this. But that can easily get annoying. --AnonymousDonor.
An AntiPattern? -- anon.
AnonymousDonor frequently gets co-opted as a DramaticIdentity by those seeking to do harm. For wikis like MeatballWiki where we track IPs/domains, this may not seem to be a problem, but sometimes trolls (WhatIsaTroll) who come to the wiki use AnonymousDonor as a UserName. Creating a culture of AnonymousDonor invites such horseplay.
Further, the phrase AnonymousDonor is loaded. As noted earlier, it connotes valiance and egolessness, which only demands asking what other types of anonymous contributions can there be. A lot, as it turns out: cf. MetaWiki:anonymous. AnonymousDonor and its ilk are PenName""s, as they are dramatic identities. This defeats the spirit of anonymity, and replaces it with a spirit of playfulness that a UseRealNames policy tries to limit.
Therefore, use the signature "-- anon." The -- Signature style is meant to look like a quotation, so anon. is the proper typographic form. This signature has no emotive element. It is factual, simple, and succint.
To distinguish anonymous authors, write anon.(1), anon.(2). or something like that.
Posting as an anonymous donor at MeatballWiki and at UseModWiki using at least some versions of the LynxBrowser or w3m is not possible--either the poster's IP name or partial IP number are displayed in the RecentChanges log. See the LynxBrowser page for more details.
The poster's IP name or partial IP number are always displayed, no? Is this to do with cookies/preferences?