Category:PenName

You can write after you assign yourself an informal user name or pen name. This is a special case of Category:OpenEdit. Please put OpenEdit as Edit Mode in the template and then type

[[Category:PenName]]

at the end of the article.

Discussion[edit]

Question is, why is this automatically OpenEdit? It seems that any forced login would fundamentaly be opposite of OpenEdit. Curious, MarkDilley

In my opinion, it's OpenEdit because you don't have to give them any information. Not a password, not an email. Nothing. You just have to give a name, any name. It can be different every time. It's not logging in, it's simply giving a name for your edits. Anyone can edit, just have to have an identifier, no different from the automatic one we use here (IP). TedErnst | talk 11:31, 12 Apr 2006 (EDT)

I understand OpenEdit in terms of having the extremely important option available to be completely anonymous via IP address. (Moved back to front page as I am of the opinion that we don't need to have such limited material on two pages. I appreciate the discussion page, but it seems to me it is much more useful when we have long volumnous conversations. The discussion is really just as valuable as the "content" on the primary page. I discovered last night that we could have turned off the discussion tab in MediaWiki. That would have been fab.) MarkDilley

I'm learning a lot from you, my friend. This mixing of content and discussion is going to take me getting used to it, since my view until now has been that we're producing a "product" and the meta stuff doesn't need to be visible. I can learn!

As for anon, I believe that a throw-away PenName is much more anon than an IP, as an IP is traceable. I think this brings us back to the point about soft security and openness and OpenEdit being the best, and all that stuff. Big questions all. If you don't think these are OpenEdit, I'm okay with them being changed. TedErnst | talk 16:46, 12 Apr 2006 (EDT)

Can you give me an example or two wiki to check out and think about? MarkDilley

I've never actually seen one. Presumably the ones below are the ones to look at. I have no idea who introduced this concept to WikiIndex. TedErnst | talk 23:32, 20 May 2006 (EDT)

Concept is new to me also and I don't have a strong opinion --Raymond King | talk 03:54, 21 May 2006 (EDT)

I think it was Helmut... trying to grasp this concept. MarkDilley

I have a vague recollection of having encountered this login mode somewhere. I agree that it *is* a kind of OpenEdit, perhaps even "more open" due to the IP-anon aspect. Note that if there really is no password, just a freely-chosen alias, that not only can a user choose a new alias each time, but any other person can freely re-use any of those aliases -- potentially, one is creating shared personas. *** But perhaps my memories are just getting mixed up with sites where you do choose a password, but email is optional, so there is no enforcement mechanism at all from one "login" to the next. A rather meaningless form of registration, if there is really no pressure at all not to invent a new username each time.--69.87.200.20 04:15, 30 January 2007 (PST)