How to make comments anonymous

[Victor Lee]

I wish to have a survey on my Wiki page using the Vote macro and would also like Users to make comments at the bottom of the page for their opinions on the survey. However I fear that users will not comment on a survey if they cannot make the comment anonymous. We do not allow anonymous users to access any content in confluence. Is there something I can do to make the comments anonymous?

Thank you,

[TomC · Accepted solution]

Hi Victor,

Something we have done before and it works great - use your favorite online survey tool, create the survey and then embed the survey form on your wiki page using the iframe macro. Your users are logged in to Confluence, but when they are taking the embedded survey, they are anonymous.

You can state that the survey form is being supplied by a third-party survey tool and thus any responses will be anonymous. To further that that's the case, we sometimes offer the option for folks to type in their name or email address if they wouldn't mind a possible followup, but that's totally your call and depends on the need and subject matter. Or, just include a link on the wiki page after explaining the purpose (that might augment the information on the email that sends them to the page - that sends them to the survey form if you think they need the assurance that they really aren't in the wiki anymore.

There are many online survey options to choose from, and many have free options that might serve your needs.  We utilize one with a subscription model that has higher-end features we use for the many standalone surveys we do (it's really awesome and I'll share more if you're interested, but it doesn't sound like you would need that level of survey feature/functionality). 

And as a final comment, anonymity and confidentiality are two important - but different - things survey takers generally like to be aware of so they feel 'safe' responding to the questions. There are times the surveys are not anonymous and in those cases we pledge confidentiality and hope they feel comfortable enough with that to take the particular survey.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Tom

[John Corwith]

I tried to use the iFrame macro with a web based survey tool I have access to but while I could type in the feedback text box, I the submit action failed.

The more I think about this, the more I think it is impossible to submit anything truly anonymously. Companies deploy monitoring software on workstations, browsers track where you've been. Everything gets timestamped. Doesn't take much to correlate data. You can't slide a note under your bosses door or put it on his desk since there are cameras everywhere. The only thing you can do is write a (computer printed) letter, snap on rubber gloves, moisten the envelope and stamp with a sponge and drop it in the mail.

[Paula Silveira]

Hi Victor,

There's a feature request for it, as you can see on CONF-4596. However, this request was closed as won't fix.

Thanks and regards,
Paula Silveira 

[SoumyaM]

You can create a generic user for the purpose and share the credentials with the intented population and instruct them to use that user credentials to attend the survey. You can maintain the user account for similar puprose. I excersie this successfully in my organization.

[Victor Lee]

Our intended population numbers in the thousands. Is there a concern from intended population that a user could alter previous user's content?

[SoumyaM]

I did not receive any such concerns till the date. If you are the one who created the survey, you should get alerts on whenever someone comment on your page. It is the same for the edit as well. You can disable " edit" for the user if required.

[John Corwith]

The original post stated "We do not allow anonymous users to access any content in confluence" so this (fairly obvious) solution is a non starter. I have the same issue, our security policy doesn't allow anonymous or shared logins,

In SharePoint we used <input type="submit" id="anonymousSubmit" value="Send">

I find it hard to believe that it would be that difficult for Atlassian to add an admin config and optional button on the comments to be able to post anonymously. Obviously this could be misused in flame wars, but being to tie it to specific pages (as those with a macro) would limit misuse.

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

I recommend you to comment in the feature request that Paula stated below and request this feature to be reviewed again if this is a showstopper to you. Cheers! Rodrigo

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

Hi Victor,

I believe this is not possible at the moment. It may be necessary to use some third party plugin or develop a code that would allow this.

I'll create a feature request for you and paste here soon.

Cheers,

Rodrigo

[Rodrigo Girardi Adami]

Ops, It seems that my colleague Paula nailed it. Thanks Paula! :D