Why has the guest a name?

[khalderon]

Why must a guest specify a name, when trying to start a new topic? There is a predefined member "Anonymous" already. I don't understand why a name?

[ameeck]

Well, I don't see much to explain, anonymous users can be distinguished at least by the name, even though it's not reliable as they can change them. It's handy when you have more anonymous users posting in one topic and you need to know who is who.

It is also used when you delete a user and want to retain his posts. The poster ID is changed to the anonymous user, but the username is set to the user's one.

[khalderon]

Thanks for the explanation. But is it possible to leave the user name field empty then?

Btw, nice cat you have!

[swedenhacker]

Why shall you let the Anonymus write in your forum , let them be members and you will have more members.

[ameeck]

Well, that isn't a solution, and there are many arguments why allow anonymous users


I'm thinking of a least invasive change to the phpBB files so they can't select their name...this will hide the username input and make it hidden, it is set to a default value - "Anonymous"

Find this in posting_editor.html in the template directory of your style:

Code: Select all

<dl>
		<dt><label for="username">{L_USERNAME}:</label></dt>
		<dd><input type="text" tabindex="1" name="username" id="username" size="25" value="{USERNAME}" class="inputbox" /></dd>
	</dl>

Replace it with:

Code: Select all

<input type="hidden" name="username" id="username" value="Anonymous" />

Try it out and see if it works as you imagine...