Forum suggestion: Option to publish your post as “anonymous” or blank, that then reverts to reveal your real forum name in a week.
This would be an opt-in feature that lets new and old authors gain less biased feedback on their posts, and lets readers read the posts with less of a bias from how they feel about the author.
At the moment, information cascades amplify the number of votes established authors get based on their reputation. This has both good (readers are more likely to read good posts) and bad (readers are less likely to read unusual perspectives, and good newbie authors have a harder time getting rewarded for their work) consequences. The anonymous posting feature would redistribute the benefits of cascades more evenly.
I don’t think the net benefit is obvious in this case, but it could be worth exploring and testing.
This is a feature we’ve been considering for a while! Thanks for sharing the idea and getting some upvotes as additional evidence.
I can’t promise this will show up at any particular time, but it is a matter of active discussion, for the reasons you outlined and to give people a third option alongside publishing something on their own account and publishing on a second, pseudonymous account.
Forum suggestion: Option to publish your post as “anonymous” or blank, that then reverts to reveal your real forum name in a week.
This would be an opt-in feature that lets new and old authors gain less biased feedback on their posts, and lets readers read the posts with less of a bias from how they feel about the author.
At the moment, information cascades amplify the number of votes established authors get based on their reputation. This has both good (readers are more likely to read good posts) and bad (readers are less likely to read unusual perspectives, and good newbie authors have a harder time getting rewarded for their work) consequences. The anonymous posting feature would redistribute the benefits of cascades more evenly.
I don’t think the net benefit is obvious in this case, but it could be worth exploring and testing.
This is a feature we’ve been considering for a while! Thanks for sharing the idea and getting some upvotes as additional evidence.
I can’t promise this will show up at any particular time, but it is a matter of active discussion, for the reasons you outlined and to give people a third option alongside publishing something on their own account and publishing on a second, pseudonymous account.