I’ve been doing some looking around and I have some thoughts:
Some people honestly don’t mind having their name in their usernames. (Count me as one of those people. It’s not hard to find out all sorts of things about me online.)
Students often use multiple accounts:
a public account using their own name
an account for doing things they don’t want their parents to discover
disposable accounts for various purposes
Traditionally CC hasn’t supported multiple accounts officially. If you get caught, you’re likely to end up with your accounts suspended.
People aren’t that good at coming up with usenames. We have thousands of users with names like “stressed_student” and “student812”. (It’s sorta the same problem we have with the titles of Chance Me threads.)
I can change the setting so that it doesn’t suggest based on first and last name, but the it bases the user name on email. If I turn off that setting too, we will start seeing names like “user292”. I’d rather have “student47”.
I can change the grace period for changing usernames. It’s set at 60 days, but we often see people who create a CC account and don’t use it until months later. If I up the number to, say, a year, people will be able to change their username later if they regret using first and last name. But that also means people will be able to change their usernames for other reasons.
If we increase the grace period, I’m tempted to just let people change their usernames whenever they want. Most people won’t change their names often and if anyone abuses it, we can always take moderator actions.
While researching this issue, I found a few things I’d like to change about the registration page. It might be that we can update the copy to warn people about using their real names like we do in the guidelines. It’s possible we can also disable the username suggestion feature, but I’m not positive about that.
I suspect it’s off-putting for users to be told that they should change their names to avoid having their identity exposed. As I said in #1, some people prefer just using their real names. And it’s especially frustrating since we don’t support multiple accounts (#2). I get that we have “Confidential” right in our name. I guess different people have different values and it helps to be aware of that.
So what I’d like to propose is:
remove the restriction on changing usernames for now,
see if it causes any problems,
work on fixing the registration flow to warn people about using their full name and
gently remind people that they can change their names if it seems like they might regret being associated with something they wrote.
I’m going to think about it a bit more, but unless someone suggests a good reason to not try this, I’ll remove the restriction on changing names sometime next week.
I’ve seen students post some remarkably revealing information, not just in Chance Me but in posts about academic dishonesty. Obviously, someone like you has no issues with your real name out there, but a lot of people do. I flagged one incident where the user didn’t have a revealing name but posted their ENTIRE full college application on CC with their name, SSN, grades, and essays. It was a PDF printout of the application that they printed and posted. So compromising things happen in a number of ways (I appreciate this wasn’t related to a name).
I would suggest that the easiest thing is just to warn folks when they register about giving away their identity. Like you said, some won’t care, but many do.
Also, I wouldn’t allow folks to change names without going through the admins. Doesn’t that tamper with continuity, etc? Honestly, I don’t see too many boards allowing this, but I have a limited universe to consider. I think that would be kind of disruptive too.
Also, from the tech perspective, doesn’t it make it easier to have folks take on alternate identities for different points and also heighten the chance of “sock puppetry”?
These are great points and I want to pull them together because it reveals a tension in community building. When people take on an identity like “user487”, they don’t feel as part of the community as if they select their name. Even “student487” creates more of an investment than taking the default username. One nice thing about using your real name is that it means you are importing your identity into the community. So you don’t feel like your account is quite so disposable, but you also don’t have to spend any time thinking of a clever username.
It also has an effect the other way around. If you see nothing but a sea of “user821” and “user732”, it starts to feel less like there are people behind those accounts. You have a firmer understanding of who I am because I use “Jon” in my username. There’s an almost magical quality to names. (By the way, if you haven’t read A Wizard of Earthsea, you should fix that. ) It’s critical for developing community that most of our members have an identity beyond a number.
Name changes do disrupt a community because it means we need to get used to a different identity of someone we already know. My son’s best friend changed their preferred name and pronoun recently and it adds a layer of friction. We can handle a bit of that. It’s not that hard to get used to one or two new names. But it really is disruptive if people are constantly switching all the time.
Not easily. If I could make a change to how the system works, I’d rather limit how frequently names are changed. So: “you get one change a year”.
Point well-taken on “userxxx”. Could you block “user” as a word for a username? I would assume you automatically block offensive words as part of a UN, so PERHAPS this could be added?
Alternatively, people could be encouraged to come up with interesting names, while also being told they should carefully consider using their real identities.
I know some of the students who ask about very personal issues suddenly realize that people from their school (other students, faculty, staff, AOs etc) might be also reading CC and then they panic. That has happened SEVERAL times.
I confess to being WAY over my head here, but it’s an interesting issue.
Great point on the value of names @CC_Jon.
And I agree that frequent changes are disruptive.
Not sure if our tech platform supports this, but some platforms suggest usernames based on a random selection from a list of adjectives followed by a random noun (plus numbers to avoid duplicate usernames).
Example: CuriousFish23, SparklingApple65, and so on
This provides memorable names that we can associate with people.
Honestly, I found this admin post very surprising, and even borderline shocking. Wouldn’t one of the highest values of a site called “College Confidential” be, you know, confidentiality? Since the whole concept of the site is to encourage honest sharing of information and opinion that might not be public knowledge (or at least might not be connected to a particular person), I would think that the site would take great care to make sure that real names and other identifying information are not used unless the member makes an informed choice to enter their real name as the user name. When students are alerted that the site is using their real names (which does happen all the time), they usually change the name and thank the commenters who alerted them. I strongly agree with others who suggest that this needs to be fixed upfront, with new members prompted to enter a user name while understanding that this name will be shown on the site in connection with that person’s posts.
How about…you get two changes total. I am suggesting two because we have had folks pick user names with a college in them…and then they don’t get accepted to that college. But they want to continue using the site.
But two max would be fine with me…not once a year.
Honestly it’s not. I think confidentiality can be a useful tool to helping people get the information they need to make informed choices about college. But it’s just a tool. The value come from knowledge.
I do agree with the concern that some (maybe most?) people who have their real name supplied for them aren’t aware that that’s not the norm here. So that’s what I’d like to fix.
I flagged something last year with a confidentiality issue in relation to a name, and @Lindagaf, in her mod role, explained that the problem comes up most frequently when someone uses another site (e.g., Twitter, Facebook etc) and signs up with their real name.
@Lindagaf can definitely explain this better than me, but if this is a significant source of new CC sign-ups, perhaps that’s an area to focus on.
I firmly believe that new folks should be promoted to choose a unique username. If they choose to use their real name, then it’s their decision. Not a smart one, in my opinion, but it’s their decision.
As it stands right now…their real name is the default…and that is the problem.
@CC_Jon , I think this is a great idea. Why can’t the system suggest a user name which they can use or reject as they see fit? Reddit does this. It would be quite refreshing to see @BubblyDuck, or @winsomeparrot instead of @Frederick_Jones. I do agree that user127 et al., is too impersonal, and confusing for regular posters who get used to a poster’s name.
As a moderator, I’ve seen so many requests to have accounts deleted, posts removed, information removed, names changed, and so on. So many people flag their own posts, a year, 5 years, 10 years down the line. They say they’re being doxxed, etc…
MANY people create very unimaginative user names, often a variation of their own name. It’s common to see something like @JasMas, and then 6 months later, Jason Mason contacts us asking to change his name or delete his account because he feels it’s too easy to identify him. Let the system create a name for new registrations and give people an option.
I don’t mean to bring ageism into this, so perhaps I will couch it in terms of experience, as it can happen to all of us. Not too long ago, a student posted some details about themselves. One was an absolute DEAD GIVEAWAY as to the real identity of the student, and two seconds of googling showed exactly who the poster was. It was an honor, but it was way too specific.
The poster was told this, and they hadn’t realized what they posted on the thread was so revealing. Folks explained to the poster how to edit this.
I guess my point is that many of our users are posting deeply intimate details of their academic and personal lives and simply don’t realize that something they are posting online (name, academic details, personal details, etc) sometimes makes it very easy to figure out who they are. And that can have severe repercussions.
I think the second C in CC is very critical, given that many users are students etc.
And, of course, I totally agree that the real value add of CC is the knowledge folks get. There is simply no site that I am aware of that has the wealth of information about ed that this one has, and that’s a real hats off to the mods and the admins (and of course the users!). But confidentiality is kind of critical to that, as in order to get questions answered, users often have to reveal things about themselves that they might not otherwise do so if they were concerned about their true identity being discovered.
Just one person’s opinion but I also believe that confidentiality is important to this forum.
–Students who post are often around 16-17 years old. A number of them include more than GPA/SAT/awards – some posts contain very personal information such as family finances, family disputes,mental health issues, and other things along those lines. These students (who are minors) may not think through all of the ramifications of using their actual name on a public forum. The internet certainly makes it easy for anyone to further delve into the identify of people especially if their name is listed. I feel CC should do its best to protect the privacy and identity of these HS students.
–I agree with other moderators that many come back later (some many years later) and ask to change their name, have their posts deleted etc. Again, they maybe did not consider all of the ramifications when they posted using identifiable information.
–IMO during the sign-up process new members should be required to choose a CC username. I would include a note saying that CC is confidential and to please choose a non-identifying name. I don’t think there should be a default to an email or other existing name.
PS @CC_Jon While you do have identifying information in your username almost all of your posts are related to your job – you are not a teenager providing personal information so I consider that to be a different situation.
It is not just kids that post too much very specific info about themselves. Down to every specific club or award they’ve ever received. There have been threads lately that I’ve seen started by family members (aunt or uncle for instance), or teacher/mentor type person that gives out pretty specific info about a minor . I’m not a fan of allowing this.
) It’s critical for developing community that most of our members have an identity beyond a number.
