By tsusiat on

This request is in reference to 5.x Drupal installation.

I am using Akismet to deal with spam, and I have set the permissions to allow anonymous comments by guests to the general posts on my web site. But when the poster is just identified as a "guest", it takes a way some of the creativity and fun that are often found on a blog, with all the characters and assumed names that can appear.

To encourage some interaction, I decided to find out if I could expand the options available for identifying anonynmous guests via a nickname.

What I am interested in doing is setting some fields to appear like are commonly seen in blogger or wordpress, where a poster is given the option, when anonymous, to pick a nickname, enter email (required), and enter a web-site URL (optional).

I think this might be a good way to let people participate on my web-site, while also directing traffic back wherever they prefer. When I post on blogger sites, for instance, I always choose the "other" option and enter my own web-site address.

Anyway, after searching the Drupal forums using the terms "anonymous" and "nickname", I found nothing dealing with this type of feature.

I tried searching the web via Google, and didn't do any better.

Looking at the modules, I wouldn't be surprised if one could do what I am after, but I don't know where to start. I couldn't see anything under User Accer or User Management that looked right.

If anyone can either suggest a module to check out, or an approach you think will work, I would appreciate it.

I'm happy to work out the details, if someone will just send me in the right direction. Thanks.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

Christefano-oldaccount’s picture

Christefano-oldaccount commented

This is possible with Drupal core (no additional modules are needed). Go to admin/content/comment/settings and change the "Anonymous commenting" setting to "Anonymous users may leave contact information" (or perhaps "Anonymous users must leave contact information"),

When anonymous visitors stop by and leave a comment, the comment will be attributed to the name they type in and will appear like "christefano (not verified)". To see how to remove the "(not verified)" part or change it to "(anonymous)", check out:

  http://mattfarina.com/2007/04/12/removing-not-verified-anonymous-users

tsusiat’s picture

tsusiat commented

christefano -

The only thing I would add is that the settings are in the slightly different location of Administer » Content management » Comments » Settings, but it was easy to find with your help.

I am fairly new to Drupal and, while I now have an ever more complicated web-site underway, I can't always remember where to make the basic adjustments. So thanks for your help and the quick reply!

I have bookmarked your solution for the (not verified) output. I have not settled on a template yet, as I find with a little bit of use my initial choice is not my favourite. Once I have made a longer term choice there, I will look at implementing that adjustment too.

Christefano-oldaccount’s picture

Christefano-oldaccount commented

When I said admin/content/comment/settings I was using the path as a shorthand reference. Sorry for not being explicit about that.

One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts with Drupal are the inconsistencies of names in the paths and corresponding names in the breadcrumbs. Examples abound, but "Administer > Content management > Comments" is at admin/content/comment (instead of admin/content/comments) is one example.

Anyway, a module you might want to look at is menu scout. It helps admins locate settings in the administration interface.

  http://drupal.org/project/menuscout

Welcome to the community! Drupal can be weird sometimes, but its awesome software.