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. 

Considerations and Caveats

Who can enable anonymous commenting

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

• Workplace Administrators

Enabling anonymous commenting on a channel:

• Workplace Administrators
• Space Administrators (within their Space)
• Members with at least Edit Access

Channels that support anonymous commenting

• Blogs
• Calendars
• Folders (referred to as Anonymous Replies on the Settings page)
• Forums
• Wikis

Public Registration

You must set Public Registration to Open before anonymous commenting can be enabled.

Access to content

Non-members can only access content and locations that have an Anonymous Access rule set to View-Only. In addition to enabling 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 there is an anonymous comment that requires a review. Similar to 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, enable and configure comment moderation on the channel.

Recruitment

After posting a comment, the user receives an email notification thanking them for their post and encourages 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 contains a record of anonymous activity in the digital workplace. From this page, you can click the Send Invitation to invite a user to join your digital workplace.

How to enable anonymous commenting in a digital workplace

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

1. Click the Control Panel Cog located on the Userbar and select Public Activity from the Overview column.
2. Under Anonymous Commenting, check the option "Enable anonymous commenting throughout the entire website." to enable anonymous commenting. Uncheck this option to disable anonymous commenting.
3. Click Save to apply your changes.

How to enable anonymous commenting on a channel

After enabling anonymous commenting in your digital workplace, you can then enable it on specific channels.

1. Go to the channel.
2. Click the Actions button and select Settings.
3. Scroll down the Settings page until you reach the Anonymous Commenting section. On Forum Channels, this section is called Anonymous Replies.
4. Select Yes to enable anonymous commenting, or No to disable it.
5. (Optional) Check "Require anonymous comments to be approved by author" if you want anonymous comments to be reviewed and approved before they are posted.
6. Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page and click Save to apply your changes.

Note: Make sure that the Anonymous Access rule for this channel is set to View-Only; otherwise, non-members will not be able to view it.