Anonymous

**Anonymous** was a function of the original TF2Tags where people could post tags, well, anonymously. Anonymous posters were a large presence on the site, accounting for just over 70% of all of the site's posts by the time they were disabled, and around 6% by the time TF2Tags shut down for good.

As time went on, Anonymous posting became a much-maligned presence on the site, more often getting negative scores than positive. Following the Racist Anon Incident of May 2015, a rocky month of disabling and enabling ensued before being disabled forever on June 12th, 2015.

## How does it work?

If someone did not log in to TF2Tags with their Steam account, they could still post a tag, but instead of the tag being linked to a Steam profile, it would be linked to the Anonymous account under the display name of a random TF2 character (such as Radigan Conagher, Silas Mann, or Scout's Mom) or buddy cosmetic (such as Teddy Roosebelt, Archimedes, or Triboniophorus Tyrannus). These names would not be hyperlinked to the Anonymous account, and one would have to manually type the link to it in the search bar of their browser in order to see the Anonymous profile.

Functionally, there is no difference in making a tag anonymously and with a profile. Anonymous users follow the exact same steps that are typical in the item creation process. However, anonymous users would receive a warning that they were not signed in, and thus no points would be counted towards any profile.

Anonymous users, however, had certain restrictions placed upon them. Firstly, they had the lowest individual submission limit of any user. A new user who signs in to TF2Tags via Steam will start with the ability to post 5 tags a day. An Anonymous user can only post 3 tags a day per IP. However, all one simply had to do to post more tags was use a VPN. Second, they could not comment on tags. While one originally could anonymously vote as many times as they pleased, following the Endiome incident Dr. Dos changed it to only being able to Anonymously vote on 5 items per day.

## History

### From the Beginning of Time

When TF2Tags was originally founded all the way back in January of 2011, Steam profile integration was not yet a feature. As such, anonymous posting was the only option anyone had for the first year of tagging (technically eight months, as the site went down for heavy maintenance and updates and reopened in December). In this period of time, tags of legendary caliber were made, including many of the Top Tags of the original site.

On December 1st, 2011, the site reopened with a new feature: the ability to log in via Steam. This update came with a host of incentives to get many taggers to abandon anonymous posting, such as profiles and profile rankings, the ability to comment, and an easy way to organize every tag one made. You would also need to log in to take part in contests. This caused many of the authors behind the great anonymous tags to abandon Anonymous posting and tag under their own profiles. Because of this, the anonymous tags began to take a dip in quality, and it would only further decrease with time. However, at this point Anonymous posting was largely seen as an entry level to the site, where hopeful taggers would test the water with their first couple of tags before attaching their names to their posts. In later years, it would also be used as a way for users to air their grievances against the site or certain users without fear of backlash.

### The Racist Anon

*Main Article: Racist Anon Incident*

Anonymous posting would continue to be an option for the following few years, with increasing restrictions to combat the rise of anonymous shitposters. Problems with anonymous boiled over in May of 2015. During that month, an unknown anonymous user discovered a method to circumvent the daily three tags a user was allowed to submit anonymously. He or she simply used a VPN. Using this method, they spammed the site with successive posts of purposefully provocative tags of a racist nature, which threw the site into a frenzy, with the minor tagger Timberwoof getting caught in the crossfire.

Ultimately, the Racist Anon was defeated when Dr. Dos temporary disabled Anonymous posting. However, the damage to the anonymous feature had been done. Over the next month, Dos would keep re-enabling anonymous posting and then disabling it again when it became abused by Anons trying to follow in the Racist Anon's footsteps. On June 12th, 2015, Dr. Dos decided he had enough, and disabled Anonymous posting for good, never re-enabling it again for the remaining three and a half years of TF2Tags. Anonymous voting would still be a feature, but would become increasingly restricted and eventually removed as well almost a year following the Racist Anon Incident in response to the Endiome incident.

## Gallery

These are all the Anonymous tags taken from the top 100 tags of the original TF2Tags.

The profile for Anonymous. Note the unique submission limit, which is shared by Dr. Dos.Anon's best tag, as well as the best tag in all of TF2Tags, as well as its ever-increasingly cursed comment section.The author of this tag later came back to it after Steam profile integration was added to the site.The first tag ever made. It is concluded that Dr. Dos was the one who authored this tag, though it technically has not been proven.
## Trivia

* Although Anonymous isn't technically a "user", it still has a profile where its point records are stored.
* The first non-anonymous tag was made by Dr. Dos, which was a Dr. Whoa named / described "I know you are, but what am I?" / "I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT WHAT AM I? I KNOW YOU ARE, BUT WHAT AM I? I KNOW YOU ARE..." It was both crit and missed 14 times.
	+ The first non-anonymous tag not to be posted by Dos was a Sniper Rifle by a user named Eaglebird, named / described "Skyward Scream 2.0" / "Now it tracks screams toward the sky!". It received a score of -6.
* Anonymous has the most crits and total tags by a *landslide* (albeit with a mediocre C/T ratio); however, this is usually not included when ranking the taggers.
* It was possible, through a bug, to make the site appear as though you were logged in as Anonymous if you interrupted the logout process by rapidly clicking "Logout", "View Profile", and "Latest" in quick succession. This bug would not allow you to post anonymously if it the function was disabled, however. Another way to do it was to relog into your account, but with a different profile picture on another device. Your other device (i.e. smartphone) will see you as being logged in as Anon.
* According to Relk, over half of the anonymous submissions were made under the name "Teddy Roosebelt". This is unverified.