Anonymous/Burner Accounts and CD Etiquette

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

Firing shots there, John?

FWIW, I don't do this with "unpopular" opinions, I do this when I know a Summer CD thread will devolve into stupidity.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...0&postcount=14

Consider the message it sends when a well-respected CD member preemptively concludes that a thread will have no merit. Does that encourage other members to take the topic seriously or does it, perhaps, lead others to take it less seriously, ensuring it does, in fact, devolve into stupidity?

Maybe a bit chicken and egg, but I often wonder if nothing said at all is better in those cases.

[GreyingJay]

I do not think anonymous accounts should be used to post "unpopular" opinions or to troll.

I do think there can be a legitimate use case for asking questions or soliciting advice about team dynamics without identifying the team in question.

For example, in some purely hypothetical situations, maybe I'm having trouble with a particular problem student (or mentor, or sponsor, or parent, or...) and I need to ask for advice about how to deal with it. Or maybe my team had a real problem with someone from team XYZ at a recent competition. Or, for a more positive spin, maybe I want to collect ideas for how to celebrate team achievements, such as a really great mentor or student. In these cases I would not necessarily want to post that with my full team attribution, knowing that my teammates are reading.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

I do not think anonymous accounts should be used to post "unpopular" opinions or to troll.

I do think there can be a legitimate use case for asking questions or soliciting advice about team dynamics without identifying the team in question.

When I was starting out on CD and posted a lot of stupid things, I would just PM the big names in FRC and ask for advice. Literally every time they would reply with essays. With them knowing my team, the situation, and the context of the problem, they were able to help more than random shots in the dark like most anonymous threads asking for help end up. Additionally, it creates an unfair bias because the person answering cannot know other sides of the issue. They can't reach out and really help the team itself. Typically, if they know the team number, they can find out more and get to the root causes of an issue.

If people want real advice about their teams, just PM someone. I encourage students and mentors to PM me if you want, but there are much better people who can dish out advice and I've never met one who won't help.

I think the fact that kids and adults here can't vocalize issues with their names attached isn't helping them for when they need to confront people with real issues in real life.

-Akash

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

When I was starting out on CD and posted a lot of stupid things, I would just PM the big names in FRC and ask for advice. Literally every time they would reply with essays. With them knowing my team, the situation, and the context of the problem, they were able to help more than random shots in the dark like most anonymous threads asking for help end up. Additionally, it creates an unfair bias because the person answering cannot know other sides of the issue. They can't reach out and really help the team itself

If people want real advice about their teams, just PM someone. I encourage students and mentors to PM me if you want, but there are much better people who can dish out advice and I've never met one who won't help.

-Akash

It's plausible that those in distress are also ignorant of this channel at the outset.

I do believe that moderators control the queue of new threads from new accounts, so those that fall into the center of the Venn Diagram of "CD Mods" and "wise mentors" in theory could keep those threads on ice and handle it in PMs themselves.

That's a hypothetical, however.

[efoote868]

My biggest problem with anonymous accounts is not that they are anonymous (most accounts are anonymous - you get to control what others know about you), it's that they're often used as "hit and run", which in my opinion is a form of trolling. "Hey everyone! Start Discussing This! I'm not going to contribute any further!" or, "Snide, unprofessional comment. Hahaha, you can't do anything to me!"


In the "A(nother) Sad Day For FIRST", the OP posted once and then went dark. They're not posting again, so the entire thread draws attention to something that was not meant to be public FRC knowledge; and there's no accountability or further discussion with the OP (are they apart of the team? how did they become aware of the tweet? do they know what they're posting would be frowned upon if it was true, or outrageous if false?).

There are other popular anonymous accounts (Does anyone know the mystery identity of Looking Forward?), but the crucial difference is that they respond to feedback and are active after the original post.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

I do believe that moderators control the queue of new threads from new accounts, so those that fall into the center of the Venn Diagram of "CD Mods" and "wise mentors" in theory could keep those threads on ice and handle it in PMs themselves.

There are some specific circumstances that will cause a post from a new account (or an account with few posts) to go directly into moderation. Most posts, however, do not need any approval from mods before showing up on the forums.