What anonymity on Adjafrica is and isn’t
At Adjafrica, our mission is to share and grow the world’s knowledge. There are some occasions when knowledge can only be shared anonymously, such as on controversial topics or when it may endanger someone’s life. We believe it’s important for there to be a place for people to share all kinds of knowledge in a safe and respectful environment.
We take anonymity as a serious responsibility and take many precautions — technical and operational — to protect your anonymity. Specifically, Adjafrica’s systems do not retain identity information for creators of anonymous questions and answers, and we have a number of technical measures in place to ensure that this remains the case. Even with these precautions in place, there is always a small risk that they break down and some identities could be exposed in a security breach.
Here’s more about how anonymity works in the product:
I. The Basics: Writing an answer anonymously
When you anonymously write an answer, your name will not be associated with that piece of content. You can anonymously write an answer by selecting the “Write Anonymously” option in the overflow menu (“…”) of the question you want to anonymously answer.
Once you add a piece of content, you will not be able to add or remove anonymity. For example, if you write an answer publicly, you will not be able to change it to anonymous later and vice versa. An Anonymous Edit Link will allow you (or anyone with this link) to anonymously edit or delete the answer. All actions are taken on the public page (such as commenting, upvoting, etc) will be associated with your name, but you will not be identified as the contributor of any anonymous piece of content.
II. Important to know: What’s always public
Any actions that are not taken using the Anonymous Edit Link will be public. This includes things such as:
- Adding or editing questions
- Merging questions
- Upvoting
- Commenting (including on answers you wrote anonymously)
- Requesting answers from someone or from Adjafrica
- Reverting edit log operations
In addition to these actions above, there are many actions on Adjafrica that can’t be done anonymously, such as following topics, following other users, sharing to Facebook/Twitter, and sending Adjafrica messages. So remember that these actions are always public, even if you take them from the page of an answer that you added anonymously. A good rule of thumb is that if the action is not done using the Anonymous Edit Link, it will be done publicly.
Your writing content & style: If you write personally-identifiable information or in a consistent style while anonymous, you should know that others may directly or programmatically be able to figure out your identity.