Anonymity

Question poser anonymity

Posing questions on Starmind is anonymous. The question API endpoints do not return any user object associated with a question object. Each user is only able to recognise the questions that he posed himself, by looking the is_mine flag on the response of the question complete endpoint.

When the question poser comments on his own question, these comments will also be anonymous. For such comments, the user field on the comment object will be null. A null value for the comment user always means that the comment author is the same as the question poser.

Solutions are never anonymous. Even when the question author posts a solution to his own question, the solution will be published under his actual name. In this case, the API does not reveal to other users that the question and the solution were written by the same user. When the solution author (who is also the question author) comments on his own solution, he also does so under his actual name. This is different from the question author posting a comment to someone else's solution, which he does anonymously, just as with question comments.

Example

• Question by Adam (anonymous)
  • Comment by Eve (as Eve)
  • Comment by Adam (anonymous / as "question poser")
  • Solution by Eve (as Eve)
    • Comment by Adam (anonymous / as "question poser")
    • Comment by Eve (as Eve)
  • Solution by Adam (as Adam)
    • Comment by Eve (as Eve)
    • Comment by Adam (as Adam)

Solution rater anonymity

Ratings are anonymous. The rating API endpoints do not give any information on which user has given which rating, except for the rating given by the current user for a particular solution.

The type of the notification received by the solution author when his solution is rated, depends on whether the rater is the question poser or not. However, since the question poser is anonymous, this does not allow the solution author to identify the rater either.