Optional real names displayed

frediy commented 9 years ago

From Matthew.Fallshaw on May 30, 2013 05:40:54

Allow users to optionally declare their real names and if declared, display those real names alongside their user names.

Rationale:

having real names displayed gives the community more "Real World" legitimacy.
some people aren't ready to give real names when they sign up, but then change their minds.
there is currently no way to start displaying your real name without abandoning Karma, and this stops people from doing it (A few examples of this came up today at a CFAR meeting, myself included.)
this is particularly unfortunate since having Karma is one of the reasons to want to share one's real name.
In general, it'd be nice to give people a part of their name that they could update or change at will, which may as well be the "Real Name" part of their account data...

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/lesswrong/issues/detail?id=381

frediy commented 9 years ago

From robot...@gmail.com on June 15, 2013 10:06:52

Maybe use a "display name" instead that replaces username where it's included in the text (it doesn't have to be an actual "real name")? Displaying both a username and a real name will be bulky, and there is little point in keeping the username other than in URLs (for technical reasons).

frediy commented 9 years ago

From cri...@appliedrationality.org on June 16, 2013 16:51:37

Maybe. Someone like me who wants to display their real name along with their old username can write "Andrew Critch (Academian)" as their display name. But maybe some people would stop displaying their old username altogether and back-references would get a bit weird...

I'd be happy with either outcome.

frediy commented 9 years ago

From lukep...@gmail.com on July 09, 2013 15:40:26

I think this feature sound great. Proposed implementation:

IF [optional real name is provided] THEN display username as "Real Name"

URLs and so on could stay the same so as not to break links to user profiles.

Any complaints before I authorize this?

Cc: yudkow...@gmail.com robot...@gmail.com predicta...@gmail.com Matthew.Fallshaw

frediy commented 9 years ago

From cri...@appliedrationality.org on July 10, 2013 13:01:45

Your implementation sounds great! Thumbs up!

frediy commented 9 years ago

From predicta...@gmail.com on July 15, 2013 18:21:47

And we want the real name to a. require verification of some sort, going through a real human and b. be accompanied by some alternate visual style to distinguish between, say verified real name "Lucas Sloan" and username "lucassloan"?

frediy commented 9 years ago

From lukep...@gmail.com on July 15, 2013 19:06:12

Maybe this should be a two-stage thing. The first stage (this issue ticket) can just implement the method for unverified real names. The second stage (a later issue ticket) could implement a "Real Name Verification" feature, details TBD.

The major reasons to do verification are to prevent abuse and to give high-status people (verified) instant community status without them needing to build up LW karma. So I should probably poll some high-status people I wish were engaging more and learn from them what kind of implementation for them would be most likely to engage them.

So for this first stage, I think we can skip verification and just let people provide optional real names in a textbox, and let those real names be displayed with a slightly different formatting. A crisper font, or something? Black instead of grey?

But I'd definitely be curious to hear others' thoughts on this.

frediy commented 9 years ago

From wjmo...@gmail.com on July 15, 2013 20:00:30

If you only want to allow high-status people to be verified then a model like Twitter's where they invite you and somehow verify you might work. App.net took an alternate approach, where anyone can verify their account by proving they own a particular domain: http://support.app.net/customer/portal/articles/1121817

frediy commented 9 years ago

From yudkow...@gmail.com on July 15, 2013 20:20:59

I'd question whether this project should be a priority. A dashboard for tracking old posts seems like it should be more important for getting science done on LW; people can always register under their real names as a username and be confirmed by Luke in a comment, if we're going to require humans in the loop anyway.

frediy commented 9 years ago

From nick...@gmail.com on February 20, 2014 11:32:44

So long as the field remains optional, I think this is a great idea that might bring some trust among other community members.

I don't know if "verification" is necessary for this – just make it an optional field if people want it, and find some way to indicate that it's a person's real name v. their user name.

frediy commented 9 years ago

From predicta...@gmail.com on April 15, 2014 15:31:47

Labels: Estimate-2

frediy commented 9 years ago

From Matthew.Fallshaw on April 29, 2014 21:10:38

Status: Started

bellroy / lesswrong

Optional real names displayed #479