Idea: Groups of 3 to 50 people where all first messages don’t show name and all replies show name to encourage candid messages among people who probably know each other quite well on Chitter or Yik Yak 4.1.2016 (#97)

Purpose is to inspire candor in messages with people saying things willing to show their name in all replies. Alternatively, provide a user ID for each person posting so even with no name then still indicates how many posts by that person have been made, such as in case most or almost all posts are by one person or just a few people.

Start on message with group where some names already voted to be shown, long press on the message not yet voted to be shown to see the voting up or down option, tap to vote to show name, then tap to type a message that starts with your name showing as “Person 3” and tap “Don’t show name to see that if you post a message then no name is shown. Then tap “Show name” to show your name “Person 3” is shown again. Designed by D.J. Sherrets.

Chitter and Yik Yak today:

• Chitter enables to post anonymously and get comments back from people showing their first name and first letter of last name. All people login using Facebook.
• Chitter communities focus on universities as well as particular topic areas.
• Some Chitter content is about things such as at universities that people who are at those universities can actually notice and appreciate because the info is not widely known. So a post may be about a particular class at the university or an activity that happens at a particular place on campus.
• Yik Yak at first was anonymous and has now added requirements to confirm phone number and select usernames. So identity is still not used, but activity is tied to usernames so that information can be seen more easily.

Proposed idea:

1. Start on a group message conversation. Note that one message doesn’t show the name, another message says that the person’s name was shown to another person and you’re told because you voted up to show name, and another message shows the name of someone because you were selected for that.
2. Long press on the person where there are people still voting on whether to show the name, which shows ability to upvote to show name or downvote to not show name.
3. Tap to upvote to show name, and note the upvote go up.
4. Tap on the message to type something. Note that your name is being used.
5. Tap to not show your name.
6. Tap to go back to show your name.

Comments:

• Opportunity is to enable people in groups to be candid while also having an ability to determine who the person was who said something. Perhaps sharing without showing name may encourage more sharing.
• Reasoning to focus on providing some anonymous feature in a group setting where people may know each other is about anonymous comments can be particularly interesting because there are shared, common experiences and there may otherwise be a social cost to not sharing something.
• Name is shown to one of the people who voted to show the name and only shard to one and shared privately. So up to that person to then decide whether to share the name of the person posting more widely. Try this and adapt, such as the same person may not win ability to see the person posting more than a few times before some delay. In general may not want someone to feel incentive to vote down every post.
• Perhaps indicate as in the design who knows who the person was if you were the person who voted to know the person’s name.
• Alternatively, name is shown to the person who originally posted or was being responded to by the anonymous person if there are enough votes. Reasoning for limiting the sharing of the name is to let the person who sees who the person is decide whether to share that name or not, or perhaps to choose to keep that private.
• Alternatively, name could be shared more widely such as to the whole group depending on particular voting.
• Reason for providing an ability for people in a group to help decide whether to show someone’s name is about trying to use the benefit of not showing a person’s name to encourage candor, but also having some idea of a possibility of showing the name so hopefully to avoid problems that can happen when someone does not show their name such as mean posts.
• Assumption is that voting to show the person’s name may not be especially typical, and may apply more in particular notable cases.
• Voting to show name is if 80% of people vote up.
• Alternatively, voting is show name is based on having a ratio of up vote to down vote of 3 to 1. Down vote means a vote to not share the person’s name.

Designed by D.J. Sherrets.

© 2016 D.J. Sherrets