The "thanks" facility and name changes

[endofthelinefinally]

I have noticed that when I get an email telling me that I have been thanked on a thread, the email includes a list of names that does not necessarily match the names shown when I click on the icon on the thread.
It seems to me that MN is therefore outing MNers who have name changed for a particular thread.
IMO this is not acceptable.
Sometimes posters name change for personal/appropriate reasons, therefore, the fact that their other username will be revealed to the poster they thank should be made clear, so that they can choose not to use the facility.

That is what can be outing @MattTech . If someone habituates a thread, then goes to another thread and changes name to post, that becomes their active name. If they then read a post they have already posted on with a different name, and click 'thanks' it is the name changed name that will show as the thanks, not the name they previously posted on the thread as.

I am on a long running thread that doesn't appear in active conversions. I regularly see 'thanks' from people who haven't posted on the thread. They are posters who have posted on the thread under one name, changed name for another thread, then thanked a post back on the initial thread.

When you change your name directly on a thread (in either the "Create Thread" page or the reply box), it doesn't change the active username for your account.

The active username for your account only changes if you change it in your settings.

So does that mean that whatever name you are using on a thread is disregarded and thanks always appear under your logged-in name?

So it'll always look like a lurker is thanking, even for thanks given after you started posting in your thread-name?

Thanks are always given with the name that is currently active in your account settings - even if you've posted on the thread with a different username.

Hope that helps to clarify.

Thanks

And that is the problem. Posters are thinking that they have 'changed names' when they change their name for a particular thread, so then they thank on a different thread without posting and it thanks under a different name than they intended/realised.

This is really rubbish! You should be able to thank under the name you’re posting on on that thread. Is there any way to sort this out?

Hear hear. This is not good, Mumsnet. I use different usernames for different types of threads and the point of the "type your username here" box is that we don't have to go to account settings and manually faff about to change names before posting if we regularly swap between a handful of them. This thanks/username issue returns the faff for such a tiny feature.

The thread page remembers "who we are" somehow, so surely that cookie or whatever it is that makes that work can be applied to the thanks feature?

I've just discussed this internally and we agree that this isn't as obvious as it could be.

With that being said, here's what we're going to do:

1. Later today we'll add a tooltip to the Thanks button that shows which username a thanks will appear from.
2. Next week the thanks button will be changed so that it gives thanks from the username that you're using on the thread.

These changes should address the problems raised in this thread.

Thanks for the feedback on this - it's really helpful for us to address these things in the best way that we can.

I wasn't aware of this and I'm so glad to have read this thread and to see this response to it. I don't name change a lot but for privacy reasons it is important sometimes. Thank you MN but for taking this feedback on board and thanks to OP for highlighting it.

Thank you. Even better, would be the option to choose which username (of your already registered names) you can give thanks from, so you don't have to already have posted on a thread, or changed name specifically, to give thanks on a thread you haven't yet posted on.

Example:

I am logged in as 'TVchat'. I post on a thread in Childcare as 'Childcareuser'. Under your current proposals, if I was to navigate to a thread I hadn't yet posted on, I would thank as 'TVchat'. But I might see a thread on the relationships board and want to thank someone posting about domestic violence, and I might not want that linked to my light hearted 'TVchat' persona. I have a user name 'relationshipsthreads'. The only way to thank as that user, under your proposal, would be to either change name in account settings to 'relationshipsthreads', or to post on the thread as 'relationshipsthreads'.

It would be better to be able to press the thanks button, then choose from 'Tvchat', 'Childcareuser' or 'relationshipsthreads'.

Great that it's being made more obvious. I don't consider it "outing" because there's no Iink anywhere between the logged-in name, and the temporarily-posting name, but you might start to guess, I suppose.

I post under different names for different topics or as the mood takes me, but I rarely change it in settings - just overwrite the username in the box when posting. (I like that this is now set for each thread - makes name change fails less likely! )

Thanks for the swift update. Not as bad as feared, but not ideal. Great to see it being worked on.

We've just added the tooltip that shows the username that will be used for thanking when you hover over the Thanks icon.

At the moment it's only on Desktop but we wanted to make sure that we got it released today as promised.

I'll update this thread as we make progress on the other changes next week.

Thanks

@MattTech I've just seen you've been incredibly responsive on this thread. Are you aware of this other one? Banner advert in the app www.mumsnet.com/Talk/site_stuff/5031542-banner-advert-in-the-app

Those of us on it have been largely ignored for over four weeks, and I wonder if you can help?

Sorry, not wishing to derail this thread but completely out of ideas.

I'm on desktop and it has indeed appeared.

My tuppence worth of caution is that when you're working on this, you don't inadvertently do something that could could compromise a NC. Changes to how and where names appear always leave me feeling a little nervous!

It would be better to be able to press the thanks button, then choose from 'Tvchat', 'Childcareuser' or 'relationshipsthreads'.
@Lougle has a brilliant suggestion for this. I stay logged in on one name but use the chat box to change it for posting depending on the board. I would like to give thanks to posters without having to make a post (or name change in settings).

That sounds helpful. I suggest that everyone on this thread has a go at hovering over the icon on various threads.

I have a question which I hope you or @LilyMumsnet can answer.

If my username within the settings area is currently, ‘ButterflyKu’ does that mean if I like a post on a thread that I’ve commented on already under a DIFFERENT username, ButterflyKu is what will come up in the person’s notifications?

So for example, let’s say my current username is ButterflyKu. I change my name to ‘Namechangeblahblah’ to comment on a particular thread. If I like a post on that same thread, which username will show up in that poster’s notifications? Will it be ButterflyKu or Namechangeblahblah? If it’ll show up to be ButterflyKu then I really think that needs to be explained clearly

Oops sorry @MattTech I can see this has been talked about on page 2. Thank God for the changes because that is really bad! I’ve thanked people on the SN board under one name but that doesn’t matter because this username is the one that comes up! That’s awful

I've just tried thanking a few people here and it just thanks them without showing any name before it does it?

I usually use the app so it's not a feature I use because it doesn't exist on there.

I can’t hover on my iPhone?
does it default to mobile site if using a phone rather than laptop?

Im not sure I understand the problem, if you receive a thank you from a name that hasn't posted on the thread why would that risk outing someone

If my usual name is ABC but I have a name change of xyz how would anyone link the two simply by which one I've thanked with particularly if I haven't posted on the thread and even if I've posted as ABC how is anyone going to know that a thank you from xyz is the same person

I must be missing something but I don't know what it is

Another question. Sometimes I press thanks by accident and press it again to unthank. Does a thanks notification go to the poster?

I like that idea too

For example, say I had an alter ego RubbishAndRubbish, and I used that as threadname for all my posts in the "DH Obsessive Hobbies" topic, and I know a lot of posters in their as we're a friendly bunch, always chatting about saddle sores, collections of toenail clipping and morris dancing. And there's a new thread, which I'm reading and enjoying, and think I might want to add to idc. But as I'm reading, there's a post I want to thank someone for. It would be great to be able to do this as RubbishAndRubbish, as I want the poster to recognise who it's come from.

Or another example - you want to thank a poster who you know (either in the MN sense or in RL), and you want to choose the name that poster knows you under, that doesn't match your logged in name, and may or may not match a future threadname

And that would be need a drop-down of all user name history, as I don't think the system can possibly know in advance which name you want for a thread before you've posted on it.

@Rummikub I was also wondering the same thing. It doesn’t seem to work for me but maybe it will only work on a laptop/computer?

@shoppingshamed some of us have regular threads that we post on daily. If I post under one of my regular threads with the name ‘abc’ I’d expect ‘abc’ to show up in a posters notifications if I’ve thanked their comment. I don’t expect them to get a notification from ‘xyz’ just because that’s the username that I’m signed in with