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Attributable Contributions

Problem

Without knowing the source of individual contributions it can be harder to monitor, converse with and recognise the work of the community

Context

A project with Anonymous Contributions might suffer from spam or malicious edits.

Solution

Only allow signed-in contributors to contribute to the project so that each contribution is attributed to a specific person. Minimise the information collected about users to respect their privacy.

The ability to tie contributions to individual user profiles can help to:

Making it clear to users that their contributions are not anonymous might also encourage them to contribute in a more productive and considerate manner.

One downside of requiring users to register to contribute to a project is that it adds friction. But this might be lessened by providing a good Onboarding Process.

The other major downside of relating contributions to individual user accounts is that there are increased privacy risks. For example contributors might be incidentally giving away personal information, e.g. home or work location, as a side effect of contributing to the project or Submitting Evidence.

Ensure you are minimising the amount of data collected from contributors and that sensitive information is only shared as required. Ensure that you are complying with appropriate data protection laws and regulation, e.g the GDPR.

Your Onboarding Process should ensure that you have explained to a user why signing up is necessary and that you have clearly displayed your privacy policy.

Freesound

All contributions for a given contributor



Related patterns

Anonymous Contributions

Making users register and login adds friction to the process of contributing

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