I kind of like real names of people on posts, etc. in our forum environment. I believe it to help making things a bit more civil (which they have been already) and make me feel that I am not dealing with gamer-tags, avatars, handles, and pseudonyms -- Just folks with a common interest whom I'd like to know.
To that end, I have enabled the display of full-names of posters in the forum which you may have noticed already. If there is enough negative feedback on this from the community, we can disable it.
If you didn't use a real name when you registered, you can go ahead and correct it now in your profile if you want to.
Frankly, I'm rather ambivalent towards showing that info. If someone is curious, he/she can still click one's username to see that information. I don't think it should be visible by default.
@tmomas - you'll notice for those the software at least doesn't display it twice. If that's what you choose to have for a name, then that is how you will be known. I am not insisting that you have an actual name for whatever reason you deem appropriate.
I believe that not disclosing real names has merit, but I take it that editing the full name filed in the profile is not against forum rules? While full names can lead to more consciousness that forum discussions happen between real people (encouraging civility) it also can make life easier for people who want to bully others; so I vote for making that part voluntary (in addition with active moderation to keep the forum a pleasant place even for people who disagree with each other )
I am counting @moeller0's vote as yes since we plan to allow editing full-names so one could opt-out of full-name display. Unless... we get more 'no' votes than 'yes' overall. I'd like to see a clear majority for either. In the case of a tie, I guess we can turn them off
I voted 'no', I think it's better to have the nick as default, and the full name not displayed unless one clicks the profile. That seems like a sensible tradeoff for me.
On an unrelated note: I am liking the new 'front page' with the categories on the left and the most recent topics to the right.
Edit: to clarify my stance - in the spirit of goodwill, one should allow people to opt in, not opt out. So: a modicum of privacy by default, if someone wants to use his/her real name as his/her nick, that's that person's choice.
Opting out makes you no better than the corporate moguls, and we don't want to be like them do we
I believe it's already "opt in". If you enter your full name in your profile, it'll be shown. Leaving that field blank, or setting it equal to your nickname will not show a full name.
[quote="Borromini, post:15, topic:86, full:true"]Edit: to clarify my stance - in the spirit of goodwill, one should allow people to opt in, not opt out. So: a modicum of privacy by default, if someone wants to use his/her real name as his/her nick, that's that person's choice.[/quote]Logging in through github might not allow people to change the nick. I'm unable to change mine, for example.
Not that I'm going to cry about that, my nickname is fine. I'm just pointing it out.
It seems for now we're sticking to nicks only, so I'm happy with that.
I can see how you might think that, but it's not. Opt-in means you know that your full name would be visible, if you filled it in, so you can choose to leave the field blank; not that you enter it into the designated field in your profile, only to find out once you start posting that your name appears atop your posts. It's like buying something online, finding out you were put on their mailing list a month later. Of course, you can still opt out - but the 'damage' has already been done.
True - but there you trade the convenience of using a single sign-on for the flexibility of another nickname .
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