Reviewer Names Converted to ANON in posted stories

[Guest T-W-O]

In a number of my long-time posted stories, reviewer names I've responded to in my AN's have now been changed to ANON - even though the accounts continue to be active on AFF (as in they are still posting chapters themselves).

Additionally, NO review since July 1 has ANY name other than ANON.

Any assistance with why this is happening would be enlightening. And remediation of this to return the reviewer subsystem to proper functioning would be appreciated.

[Guest t-w-o]

Additional info: The following reviewers have disappeared from one of my stories:

Pinster:

Lovey_reader:

Ariana:

Ravie-snake:

Apple:

ilariasantaniello91:

Aqua_Star:

Anna:

Meldz:

Dolly:

tsita:

eJs:

Ice Empress:

Victoria:

Nfc:

Vicki:

Lexiatel:

JaxPendragon:

[BronxWench]

Previously, reviewers who were not logged in could set a temporary name for the reviews, which in most cases was the same as their pen name used in the archive. This is no longer possible, and anyone who left a review, or leaves a review in future while not logged in will appear as ANON.

[BronxWench]

It would be helpful if you could provide links to the story where reviewers have disappeared. Has there been an actual diminution in the number of reviews, or is it the pen names that have vanished?

[Guest t-w-o]

The pen names have vanished - as in they were in the reviews, I responded in the AN's in the story to their pen names - and then they were gone once the new Story Manager interface went live.

[Guest t-w-o]

It would be helpful if you could provide links to the story where reviewers have disappeared. Has there been an actual diminution in the number of reviews, or is it the pen names that have vanished?

The links are:

Story: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600099094

Review: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/review.php?set=read&no=600099094

Story: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600098880

Review: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/review.php?set=read&no=600098880

[DemonGoddess]

Before, when reviewing while not logged in, one was required to input a name and email address. The email address was visible, including ot search engines. The users disliked that about the unlogged in/anon reviews. We received many, many complaints over the years about that, so the new code makes unlogged in reviews anon by default, without any identifiers asked for.

So, the new code simply allows an unlogged in user to leave a review. Yes, they should still identify themselves to you, but when adding the review when not logged in, it is OBVIOUS that there is nowhere to add who you are, unless you put it in the body of the review.

[Guest t-w-o]

But that doesn't explain how reviews left months ago in a story that's been completed for months would suddenly have the pen name disappear from the review itself. It's as if the system went in and rewrote old information about the review despite there being no changes to the story or the review.

I could understand if either (a) I'd substantially re-edited a chapter or (b) the user(s) tried to change/edit a review, but I didn't do the first and the second is virtually impossible on this site. The list I sent establishes that most of my lost users were logged in. The pen names deleted - as you can see from my list - were (for the most part) NEVER just email addresses. They were members of AFF with pen names of their own and many were/are published. Why would the system arbitrarily rewrite those pen names in reviews as ANON? It makes little to no sense. I've cross checked the dates with the AFF notification emails.

The original reviews were NOT anon and NOT email addresses - they were registered AFF users. The story was complete and stable for MONTHS. Some function within the upgrade is overwriting settled data that it shouldn't, in the same manner reader counts got demolished months ago when these major upgrades started. Why would old data change unless scrubbed by the updated system????

What I'm finding is the upgrades make this site increasingly unpredictable for those of us who really check the delta between old operations and new ones. I consider this a glitch (particularly since it didn't wipe ALL the pen names consistently) somewhere in the database processing subsystem.

I'm willing to listen to why I'm misinterpreting the root cause based on the symptoms.

[DemonGoddess]

The users were not logged in. That means when the coding changed the way the data was pulled from the review table, the ones that had user names in the OLD review boards, would now say ANON, where reviews were left while not being logged in.

[Guest t-w-o]

As I have the emails and have correlated the specific reviews with specific "names" (because the notification emails identify "who" sent them), how can that data (the "who") be re-entered into the database?

[BronxWench]

It can't be re-entered into the database. The database no longer allows for pen names to be associated with reviews left by users who are not logged in. Readers will either need to log in, so that the review will show their archive pen name, or the reviews will be labelled ANON.

If a user left a review with their AFF archive pen name, under the old code, it displayed that pen name whether or not the user was logged in so long as the user input that pen name into the field. If the user was not logged in, it would also display the email address of the reviewer. This is something that many users found problematic, as a Google search by a prospective employer would turn up AFF reviews, for example. Removing those email addresses needed to be done directly in the database, and only DemonGoddess061 has direct database access, for obvious reasons of preserving integrity of the database. When real life keeps her busy, it could take weeks for those email addresses to be redacted. In the meantime, those reviews would pop up in Google, and cause issues for the person who'd left the review.

Under the updated code, anyone not logged in need not worry about an email address being displayed, and therefore becoming searchable. Logged-in reviewers have never had an issue with their email being made searchable. We believe this serves the best interests of the majority of our members.

Edited July 16, 2016 by BronxWench

[manta2g]

*sighs* if a user was logged in the review board logs their uid and links their review to their account showing their proper pen name, if they were not logged in the uid is default 0 and will display as ANON, people who are not logged in can sign their reviews but many simply never think to do so.