Should Mumsnet Follow X By Revealing Basic Information About Posters?

[EsmaCannonball]

I was thinking about posting this in Site Stuff but thought it would gain more responses here.

In the last few days X has introduced a feature where users can see more information about posters, namely country/region where the account was created, date of creation, type of device the account was created on, number of name changes made by account and whether the account is using a VPN. It's early days but already suspicious or bot accounts have panicked and shut down, accounts claiming to be right-wing Americans have been found to be coming from eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, journalists purporting to be Palestinians reporting from inside Gaza have accounts based in places as far away as Poland, Indonesia and Pakistan, and I am sure there are more trends being revealed.

Of course, for most of Mumsnet this would be a redundant move - we don't need to know if someone is posting from Russia or Iran on threads about Sudocrem, MasterChef or parking wars - but on those threads that do get politically charged or the forums that do attract trolls it could introduce a level of transparency while retaining the fundamentally important anonymity of posters. However, I realise it is always possible there are unintended consequences that I haven't thought through. Would it be a good move or a bad move?

Impossible to name change if your info remains the same.

A bad move. A huge part of being on MN is that we are anonymous.

Back in the day, posters used to be able to create profiles of themselves, including photographs. Massively naive! Thankfully MNHQ realised that, and the profile feature was removed.

No I would hate that.

Imagine if you read a thread and suspected it could be someone you know, you could just go and have a look and see the region and confirm it.

Plus lots of us have multiple names to post on multiple topics, there's nothing suspicious about that.

Maybe posters should just stop engaging with people who are pissing them off.

On X the location is not too specific. It is the country or wider geographical region, e.g., North Africa. It wouldn't be city or county. It would just be a case of verifying if a poster is based in the UK if they are claiming to be, not a bad faith actor.

I’d be worried that it might cause problems for posters living in more repressive countries. Given how easy people on here find it to dig out information about posters from previous posts, I think that’s a realistic worry.

Jigsaw identification

I suppose very VERY basic information like this person lives in the UK/America would be acceptable especially on threads where people are being told to go to urgent care or asking if they are on universal credit

But honestly nothing further than that

And what about the rest of it?

where the account was created, date of creation, type of device the account was created on, number of name changes made by account and whether the account is using a VPN.

No that would stop a lot of people posting.
Anonymity is important when sharing personal experiences and limiting this would make people more guarded and therefore less helpful to OP’s.
The trolls and AI would find a way around it and it would be the genuine posters who are affected.

But that's on the poster to say where they are on the thread itself, as they're the one asking for advice.

Well, I wouldn’t use it any more.
I like the fact that it’s anonymous and you can change name.

You could still name change. It would just show that you have name-changed. It has stopped people posting on X but many of those people seem to be bots and bad faith actors.

Why do we have to see people have name changed?

If you think a poster isn't genuine, report, and MNHQ can look.

It doesn’t really make much difference to a lot of posters.
For example, I’m in ROI and sometimes go on the mh board for advice. Even after making it clear that I’m not from the UK, I have still gotten a lot of specific advice about NHS services. We don’t have NHS here, and even once I’ve thanked posters for the advice but explained that, they will often say “well, whatever the equivalent is then”. It doesn’t work like that. The healthcare system is completely different and we don’t have anywhere near the same range of services.

But 'Mumsnetter1' will change to 'Mumsnetter2' and have exactly the same information.

So some people will go digging and say 'Aha! You're obviously Mumsnetter1 as well' 😳

I think it's one of those things that sounds a good idea for everyone else to have, but I wouldn't like it for myself. 😁

Region, might work. Think of the threads that go "MY dc at school yesterday..." followed by 5 paged going "troll, schools are on holiday" then it turns out they're in a different region. So no narrower than "UK".

It might, stop the Russian bots who clearly post from time to time trying to cause division. Normally about something obvious like what a wonderful chap Trump is. I'd have thought they'd get discouraged by the responses, but they clearly don't. A spate of them is normally echoed by similar sentiments posted on the local FB chats under anonymous365 type names at the same time. No I don't think it's just the same people. However I suspect they're powerful enough to work out a way round that and look like they're from the UK.

I think fundamental anonymity is important on social media and especially on sites like Mumsnet. There are politicians who would like to remove it completely. I just wonder if this is a good compromise. Allow people to keep their identity hidden but provide anyone reading their posts with the information that might suggest they are not who they are pretending to be, a bot, a sock-puppet, a bad faith actor. You could still use a VPN, for example, but readers will be able to see that you use a VPN.

Fuck that.

All a nefarious person would need to do would be to do a search on all those terms, and it would bring up all the pp's previous username history. People change name a lot on here, and for some women, it would be absolutely essential that they are safe and can preserve their anonymity. If someone has left a dangerously abusive relationship, the potential consequences could be truly awful.

How would that prove you’re posting in good faith though?

On X it isn't showing username history, it is just showing the amount of times a poster has changed username.

It wouldn't, but it could suggest someone is posting in bad faith. Not 'gotcha' evidence but an indicator.

No. I hate the idea. The less online info you have about yourself, the better.

I think date joined and country the account is based in would be a good idea. No more than that, though.

And what then?

You report to MNHQ and tell them you don't think the poster is posting in good faith?

How is that different to what we already do?

And 'date joined' is a very bad idea.

I joined 15 years ago, but that doesn't give me any more 'rights' than someone who joins up today because someone has recommended Mumsnet to help them with a problem.

I take everything on here with a large pinch of salt anyway as I’m sure most regular users do. I just don’t feel the need for that kind of information.
I can usually tell if someone is from America for example anyway, because of the way they write and the time they’re posting.