A "former member" posting new content and triggering notifications - how come?

[BaerbelWinkler]

Hi Folks,

here is something weird:

I received a typical notification email yesterday about a new answer having been published on a question:

So I went to Georg's answer and was a bit surprised to have it show up as "Former Member":

When I click on the link provided in the email to Former Member it ends with a "404 - not found error"

So, what's going on here? Considering Steffi Warnecke's comment in another thread that "former members" cannot interact in the community I'm wondering why Georg was able to post his answer and why I received a notification showing his name (which I left in and visible on purpose as he showed his name in plain writing in his Q&A-response anyway).

Is this a bug or a feature?

Cheers

Baerbel

[former_member181891 · Accepted solution]

Hi Bärbel,

This is likely a case where the user saw a question he wanted to answer, turned on his privacy setting (to allow public profile display) so that he could answer the question, answered the question, and then turned his privacy settings back off. So, when he posted the answer, he was an 'active member' but as soon as he turned off his privacy setting, the name changed to former member and the links would no longer point to his profile. This is working as intended, though obviously for Community members to get the most out of interacting with each other we don't want to encourage this kind of behavior. However, for the sake of giving users the most control over their data privacy, they can make this change as often as they like.

Best,

Jamie

[BaerbelWinkler · Accepted solution]

Thanks, Jamie!

Yes, that would explain it - although personally, I find that a weird choice for interacting in a community. In this particular instance the "Former Member" masking is accompanied by the SAP-logo, denoting a SAP-employee. Shouldn't that piece of information be hidden as well if the profile isn't public?

Cheers

Bärbel

[former_member181891 · Accepted solution]

Non-personally identifying (cannot be assigned to an individual on its own) information, particularly the role icons, stay on an anonymized piece of content to ensure that readers of the content get all the relevant information. For example, a reader may read information shared by someone with an SAP icon or a moderator icon or a Mentor icon differently than an anonymous member with no role icons. This is especially useful for anonymized content because the person's personal reputation is no longer associated with the piece. It helps give readers context.

[JL23 · Accepted solution]

it is just very unsettling in this specific case that the SAP user even signed his answer with his full name.

[BaerbelWinkler · Accepted solution]

Indeed, Jürgen! It's a bit like wanting "to have your cake and eat it too" or "trying to be a bit pregnant". Couldn't the profile be set to public but then just not share many details?

[Steffi_Warnecke · Accepted solution]

At least I'm happy that my comment in the other thread was correct. 😉

But it feels a bit like playing "Peekaboo". What do ya know: People already finding a way to kind of misuse the new "hide me" feature.

.

Regards,

Steffi.