Enabling anonymous commenting

Turn on anonymous commenting to allow non-members of your digital workplace to post comments. After enabling this option, you can toggle it on for specific channels. 

Sections in this article: 

• Considerations
• Who can do this?
• Turn anonymous commenting on in a digital workplace
• Turn anonymous commenting on for a channel

Considerations

• Channels that support anonymous commenting:

  • Blogs
  • Calendars
  • Folders 
  • Forums (referred to as Anonymous Replies on the Settings page)
  • Wikis
• Public Registration: You must set public registration to Open before anonymous commenting can be turned on.

• Access to content: Non-members can only access content and locations with an anonymous access rule set to View-Only. In addition to turning on anonymous commenting, you should verify that non-members can access the location.

• Moderation: To keep discussions relevant and appropriate, consider moderating comments. 

  • If you only want anonymous comments to require approval, use the optional Require anonymous comments to be approved by author when configuring anonymous commenting on a channel. Content authors receive an email notification when an anonymous comment requires a review. Like comment moderation, the author can access outstanding items from the channel's Manage page or the comment section itself.
  •  If you want all comments to require approval, turn on and configure comment moderation on the channel. 
• Recruitment: After posting a comment as an anonymous user, the user receives an email notification thanking them for their post and encouraging them to join the digital workplace by providing a link to create an account. Depending on your public registration settings, the user's join request may require approval or be auto-approved. The Public Activity page records anonymous activity in the digital workplace. From this page, you can select Send Invitation to invite a user to join your digital workplace.

Who can do this?

Turning anonymous commenting on in a digital workplace (a requirement for channels):

• Enterprise administrators
• Workplace administrators

Turning anonymous commenting on for a channel:

• Enterprise administrators
• Workplace administrators
• Space administrators (within their space)
• Members with at least Edit access

Turn anonymous commenting on in a digital workplace

Before you can turn anonymous commenting on for channels, you must turn anonymous commenting on throughout your digital workplace. 

1. On the Userbar, select  Control Panel.
2. Under Overview, select Public Activity.
3. Under Anonymous Commenting, toggle the option Enable anonymous commenting throughout the entire website to turn anonymous commenting on or off. 
4. Select Save.

Turn anonymous commenting on for a channel

After turning anonymous commenting on in your digital workplace, you can then turn it on for specific channels.

1. Go to the channel.
2. Select Actions button and choose Settings.
3. In the Anonymous Commenting section (in Forum channels, this section is called Anonymous Replies), select Yes to turn anonymous commenting on, or No to turn it off. 
4. (Optional) Select Require anonymous comments to be approved by author if you want anonymous comments to be reviewed and approved before they are posted.
5. Select Save.

After turning anonymous commenting on, update the anonymous access rule for this channel to View-Only; otherwise, non-members cannot view it.