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!

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

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

Anonymous comments are great

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-02-26 18:25.

I think anonymous comments are great. It saves me the trouble of sharing my info every time I want to post a simple comment. What could be better?

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

Nice post

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-07-20 01:31.

I really thank you for the information provided in this post.

Visitor from afar

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-07-20 14:07.

Nice tutorial - gosh that was hard to find! You'd think they could have made the location of the commenter's name a little more intuitive...btw, I like the "visitor from afar"

Anti-spam

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-08-05 14:53.

People struggling with spam try Mollom.

I never really had a problem

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-08-13 11:36.

I never really had a problem with the whole anonymous thing. But it is nice to know there are alternatives if need be.

Anonymous comments are the best

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-09-10 15:07.

I think comments should be unmoderated with no spam protection at all. The internet after all should be an open exchange of ideas and links

Independent of SEO?

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2009-09-15 08:49.

That's fine, but would you be happy with that even if backlinks, etc. had no impact on your search engine ranking? The problem is that too often people misuse comments to boost the popularity of their pages, while providing a comment that does little to enhance the quality of the comment page's content. This to the detriment of the page author. Therefore, in our view it makes sense to enforce comment moderation, so as to keep the quality of comment content high and relevant, and reward those that are actually contributing to the content.

Nice post!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-09-11 11:14.

I think it's great that you allow the anonymous comments!

Wisdom

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-09-11 12:01.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Confucius

Why would anyone care if

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-09-13 17:34.

Why would anyone care if a comment is anonymous given the fact that the author is not going to know many of the people making the comments anyways. I have never understood why people get so concerned about comments. Unless it is a bunch of blatant spam who cares!

Bill Gassett
Framingham MA Real Estate

Anonymous Coward

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-09-25 19:24.

On my site, Unforgettable Name, I gladly used your suggestion, and I thank you for your kind help.

Best regards.

Anonymous

WP over Drupal

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-10-18 13:46.

One of the reasons I chose Wordpress over Drupal for my last site was there seems to be better control with Wordpress than Drupal unless I'm missing something?

I really thank you for the

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-10-21 13:30.

I really thank you for the information provided in this post. I gladly used your suggestion. But I still would like to say that anonymous comments should be banned.

Regards,
Earvin James

Anonymous commenter - who cares?

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-10-27 20:27.

Drupal is really easy to use

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-11-10 11:48.

Drupal is really easy to use. Drupal is written in php, so if you have a hard time understanding php use Drupal, as you won't need specific php knowledge to make use of this excellent CMS. Drupal provides an interface that anyone can use and work with.

Thanks

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-11-12 07:20.

Just found your blog through Google, and I have to say I thoroughly enjoy it. Thank you for the info...

Drupal is easy

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2009-11-19 22:52.

Good post - Drupal is really easy to use. Thanks for sharing this.

Drupal is more flexible than WP

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2009-11-24 18:59.

I found Drupal to be a better way to go than Wordpress because of its flexibility. You do have to be careful though, as some of its default configurations (anonymous blog commenting and dofollow) can lead to lots of junk.

regards,
e

Good information

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2009-11-30 15:11.

I agree with the poster using Wordpress over Drupal; I try and try and don't see Drupal's advantages. My primary field is seo services.

Search engine optimization

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sun, 2009-12-06 22:12.

I love this site. Thanks for great tips for search engine optimization.

GuruofSearch.com

Submitted by cwd on Mon, 2009-12-14 18:48.

Glad you like them. Visit our sister site, GuruofSearch.com, for a whole world of SEO knowledge.

I think comments should be

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2009-12-12 08:30.

I think comments should be un-moderated with no spam protection at all. The Internet after all should be an open exchange of ideas and links!

And spam?

Submitted by cwd on Mon, 2009-12-14 18:39.

And spam, according to the link we removed in your comment, right?

Just getting started with Drupal

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2010-01-25 21:19.

I am a Wordpress user but am researching Drupal to see if it is something I want to take the time to learn and implement for some web projects this year.

Thanks for the post
Bill

Thanks for all the great

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2010-01-25 22:44.

Thanks for all the great information. I am glad I ran across your blog. I look forward to reading your next post.

That's pretty cool because

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2010-02-10 12:06.

That's pretty cool because when it says "anonymous" it looks so blah. I also think that when they put a catchy little name it helps bring attention to the comment and you won't just skip over it.

sometimes anonymous

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-02-19 10:56.

sometimes anonymous commenting is also cool. Because for me i'd really like those catchy names they are using.

making it safer!!!

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-02-19 13:56.

Yep I could see why so many people don't want to reveal their e-mail address. Sometimes you get so much unnecessary stuff on them that every time you open it it makes you want to close it because all the stuff that you don't care about is in your mail...

Work vs personal

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Thu, 2010-03-04 12:17.

Maybe some people want to be anonymus because we are doing this for work, not for a personal thing. So we want to be known for work related names.

Comments

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2010-03-08 07:53.

Yes it's right sometimes this feature makes you frustrated when you see someone commenting anonymously in your blog, so I think it's quite a good move by Drupal.

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Drupal - how to change anonymous commenter's name

Tired of the old anonymous comment setting?

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How to specify the default comment name for anonymous commenters