@Sebastian Schreiner -

I think this is a great idea, but the Mironeers might feel it would (further) cannibalize paid subscriptions for these occasional participants  .

I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

Kiron

Mural is planning to have this feature out by the end of Q2 according to my conversation with them. If Miro truly says they won’t do it to not impact paid subscriptions I may have to go the Mural route. I’m currently testing both and I feel that the “bones” of Miro are better but if we can’t make critical pieces of the user experience for our (largely non-tech) users work I may have to swing to Mural.

Coordinating larger groups is really difficult with everyone being anonymous and there is no way we can afford dozens of users for all our nonprofit partners (besides increasing friction in participation further with another log in).

@Sebastian Schreiner -

The current workaround is to have a simple mapping list in the Notes panel or somewhere on the board itself mapping the anonymous names to the “real names”. That way, folks can consult it whenever they want to know who someone is…

Kiron

Thanks, I’m aware of this workaround but it simply doesn’t work when you have 50-60 people on a board simultaneously.

It works in small groups but we routinely work with large groups of nonprofit staff (often with low levels of tech affinity) and this increases their need to navigate around and look up names unnecessarily.

Ideally a facilitator should also be able to rename an anonymous user if needed. Same approach as in Zoom.

I think thats a great idea as well.   I’d be disappointed if they don’t do something because they think it might stop a sale!  You do something and it can create many sales - I’m brand new to Miro as a client has adopted it.  So reading the community has been very insightful - thank you!

Just ran into an issue related to this today as well. When collaborators are not logged in to Miro they see a very intrusive blue bar at the top of the whiteboard asking them to sign up or sign in. That bar cannot be removed and is visually VERY prominent. And its visible to an anonymous collaborator for the ENTIRE duration of a whiteboarding session. Can that at least be changed so collaborators can close that bar?

My thoughts exactly, but maybe one can have a “randomize name” feature?
Not every designer wants to be “Guest Scientist” and vice versa :)

Apart from that you can be seen with your true name by the cursor without any additional fee.
If someone invites you by a editor link, you just have to be logged in (free account will do).

Of course it always takes some time to be logged in, but for the larger groups it is worth it. If im not mistaken, the blue bar will also disappear for logged-in users.

Perhaps Miro can prompt users at the end to complete their registration?

I have several ideas for how this could happen..

1. initially require designers provide a name + email to change from being Anonymous. This is usually referred to as a ‘soft’ registration, and they would get an email to make a password+complete registration at their convenience. 
2. Let participants put only a name, and have a prompt/popup when someone closes Miro to make a free/paid account then. 

Other aspects..

1. Could the cookies feature save the name they enter for future use? So if one participant attends events over several days their name is already saved. 

Customizable Names for Guest Editors

It would be great for Guest Editors to change their name, so that you can quickly work collaboratively AND recognize the other participants by their names.

This is especially helpful for quick educational settings with changing participants that don´t have the time to sign-in or create a profile.

Not sure how successfull you’ll be with this one as you can already do this by signing up for a consultant plan and then adding day pass users. We do this from time to time if we need the additional features that anonymous access doesn’t give us. But I believe they called the ability to collaborate on a board “anonymous access” for a reason. 

I like @Julia Hoovers idea. 

Given that people can already sign up for a free account and not be anonymous when invited onto a shared board and given it’s in Miros best interest to get more people to create accounts as these will more likely be converted into paid accounts in the future - it should be fairly easy to give users the option to either stay anonymous - or soft-register with the option to then add a password. The registration step could even be a prompt via email to not distract from the primary task of just getting on the board as quickly and easily as possible.

Personally I find that the option of being Anonymous should stay for participants as I have had groups that are more open on the Miro board than in Zoom or Teams conversations as they know I can’t tell who is who. 

I also would like to have the option of allowing the participants to rename themselves. I don’t think this is going to dissuade my participants from paying for an account if they want one. Given that the difference between Guest (named or anonymous) is so significant from a member account, if they want paid features they will simply pay for it. Renaming won’t really be that much of a deciding factor.

As a consultant one simply needs this feature. So I hope it will come soon. It would be really great to have an overview of who is who and who wrote what even … at least for workshops!

This is important for consulting firms who regularly run workshops with people who will only participate once and shouldn't have their own account.

Its actually already built. You can require people make a comment as the first activity, and in doing so they will be asked to enter their name by Miro. Then Miro replaces everything they do for the rest of the session with their real name. 

So they already built this. They just need to allow it outside of comments.

In conceptboard, unregistered guest users can choose a name.
I would like to have this feature in Miro before I sign up for a paid plan!

Hi Charlie,

you’re sure about this? Because I tried it and it didn’t work. With “comment” I guess you mean “comment” what is the little bubble icon. Right? Well, as I said, doesn’t work for me. Are you on a consultant plan? I am on a team plan, maybe there is a difference.

I am really keen on having at least a workaround for this annoyance. Since Mural offers such a feature (as a guest name yourself before entering) it is something that makes me considering a switch. 

Hey, Miro people, wake up!

Cheers,

Stefan

Sorry, I should’ve clarified. The board needs to be in “comment only” mode in order for it to ask for your name. If it’s in full edit mode it won’t ask and just say “guest” as the commenter. (Unclear why this distinction exists.)

Once everyone has commented, adjust the sharing setting to be full edit. Their windows will instantly show the editing tools and keep their names.

Just tested it - still works. 

https://community.miro.com/best-practices-discussions-48/trick-show-the-real-name-of-an-anonymous-guest-editor-2515

Charlie,

thanks a lot for the clarification and the link. Now I get it! Unfortunately although following the instruction very carefully I haven’t been able to get it working . But will keep trying. 

Cheers,

Stefan

I like the idea, however, if this feature would be introduced I would like to encourage Miro to create a way to turn such a naming-feature off if necessary or to allow the author to change the names of the board members directly. I’m a teacher using Miro with teenagers and in my experience not every teen would use such a feature wisely (i.e. he/she might give him- or herself an inappropriate name), which would create additional work for the teacher.

Thanks to all of you for explaining the hacks to get to guests having names.

So do I get this right: if I need my guests to not only comment but also collaborate and move/write stickies, take part in votings etc. it will not work?

I only could work if all participants come in time (not realistic unfortunately) and I then change to board setting to “can comment”.

If so it is sad as miro is so great but this missing feature (which is offered by competitors as e.g. conceptboard) kicks back quite a bit…

Btw I also have to say that I even couldn’t manage to get guests names with the described way on having them comment on the “only comment” board … 

It would be very helpful in workshops and sessions with “one-time” participants to identify who’s who. Another whiteboard platform e.g. changed it this year from anonymous users to “give yourself a name”, too.

@Robert Johnson provided a good trick for working around this here: https://community.miro.com/best-practices-discussions-48/trick-show-the-real-name-of-an-anonymous-guest-editor-2515

Kiron

That's such a shame. We use both Miro and Mural in the company. I personally like Miro so much better and bravely promote it internally. Unfortunately, essential features like names for guest users or a private mode similar to Murals are still missing. I can't and don't want to impose any workarounds on my participants, because my colleagues simply ask why I don't just use Mural?

This is really important.

The trick no longer works unfortunately.