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Oct 22 2008

Drupal - how to change anonymous commenter's name


Filed under: Content Management Systems » Drupal,
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Tired of the old anonymous comment setting?

By default, if you choose to let anonymous posters not leave their contact information in Drupal, their name will be filled in as "anonymous." Not exactly the most creative name. You'll notice that we use "visitor from afar." We're not saying that's super creative, but we like it better than simply having it be "anonymous." We're going to show you how to change this to anything you like, but first, how to get to the comment settings?

How to access comment settings in Drupal

Browse on over to /admin/content/comment/settings, or, if you have the highly recommended admin menu module installed, which provides a nice drop-down CSS interface for your admin menu, browse to Content Management -> Content -> Settings. On this page you'll be able to set various options for comments, such as letting them appear on the same page as your post, and determining what kind of information (website, email, etc.) commenters are allowed to post. The only limitation we see here is that you can't specifically choose which information they can leave behind. At the time of this writing you can only choose to let them either leave their contact information, or not. If you choose to let them leave it (or require them to, a third option), they will be able to leave their name, email address, and homepage, in addition to the subject of the comment they're making. If, on the other hand, you don't let them leave their contact information (as a spam prevention measure, for example), their name will automatically be filled in as anonymous. Here's how to change what automatically gets filled in.

How to specify the default comment name for anonymous commenters

To change the default name of anonymous commenters in Drupal from anonymous to a name of your choosing ("passing drifter" for example), simply browse to admin -> settings -> site information (Site Configuration -> Site Information for those of you with the nifty admin module installed). Here you'll be able to fill in a customized name for anonymous commenters in the "Anonymous User" field towards the bottom of the page. Have fun! Laughing out loud

Average: 4 (4 votes)
Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Anonymous commenter

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-03-04 05:30.

You know why I am anonymous? I am truly anonymous when posting using Cloakfish). It's the current best solution to be anonymous on Drupal.

Anonymous comments allowed

Submitted by cwd on Sat, 2009-03-07 08:22.

Or it could be because we allow anonymous comments Eye-wink

Advantages/ disadvantages of anonymous comments

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-03-14 11:15.

Nice! I was searching for a way to do this - kind of remembered being able to do it in the past but just couldn't find the setting.

Allowing anonymous comments carries a big advantage - you'll hear from people that otherwise may not have taken the time to register for your site. On the other hand, you're also vulnerable to more spam attacks. Although if your registration process is automatic, automated registrations are a possibility as well.

Anonymous comments should be banned

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-03-30 11:02.

Anonymous comments should be banned!! If they are not willing to reveal their name and email address, why should they be allowed to share their views?

Privacy

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2009-03-31 08:44.

I'm guessing a lot of people don't want to reveal their email address for privacy purposes, which is why we allow anonymous comments - such as that one just made by yourself Eye-wink

I was searching for a way to

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-06-14 05:05.

I was searching for a way to do this - kind of remembered being able to do it in the past but just couldn't find the setting.

Anonymous comment spam control?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-06-14 07:12.

I think it's great to allow anonymous commenters to leave comments, but how on earth do you control the spam? I've tried the riddler and captcha modules, but stuff still gets through...what do you guys use?

Image captcha vs recaptcha

Submitted by cwd on Wed, 2009-06-17 07:54.

Good question - we use the image captcha module, and some spam still gets through, but not an extraordinary amount.

If you want even tighter control, I suggest you try the Recaptcha module. Or, try settings questions with the riddler module (captcha pack) that a computer would be unable to guess.

Spam is a pain - good luck!

Thanks...

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-06-28 10:14.

...much for this! Now that I've got this fixed, I can go glue all my hair back.

Regards,
Fred

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