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Many of the people that chime in here are either/or founders, paid staff, paid advisers and members of the IOTA Evangelist Network group on Discord.

As a service to the public and to new members, should these users not specify their affiliation in their user profile?

I won't list them all here. They know who they are and if required I would have no problem submitting a list if required.

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Should? Hell No.

They do not have to disclose that affiliation in their profile. What people write in their profile is their own business. Of course, they're free to disclose such affiliations in their profile.

However, they do have to disclose their affiliation when answering and the affiliation has an impact on way people will read the answer. It's actually in the help pages already.

However, you must disclose your affiliation in your answers.

Stack Exchange & IOTA help pages, here and here.

So I would expect an IOTA foundation member answering a question about potential security flaws to disclose the membership in that answer. On the other hand, it's not necessary when answering about DAGs in general or other answers which are basically public knowledge or the current state of science or technology.

What is totally out of the question is you providing any list about people!

You may comment on single answers where you feel the affiliation would be necessary and where it is missing and you think that person is an IOTA foundation member or other person who should disclose it there. Start with asking if the person is who you think they are. Never forget, that an internet handle used in two places must not necessarily mean there is the same person behind the screen.

If you feel that someone is generally misrepresenting themselves as non-affiliated party and often answering questions where the affiliation according to official guidelines should be part of the answer and commenting doesn't change that you may flag one of the answers for moderator attention. In that case use moderators and if need be in contact with SE staff will look into that matter.

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  • "What is totally out of the question is you providing any list about people!" I don't see a problem with that. They are PUBLICLY members of the organization, paid advisors (also public) and/or members of the Evangelist Network (with credence attributed in Discord). So that is PUBLIC knowledge. Just not public to new members and people unaware.
    – user1543
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:24
  • @TheCoordinator unless they told you, you don't know if any screen handle is any of the people of the foundation. If they did it's not public but private knowledge and if they didn't it's an educated guess. To aggravate that it is bad practice to copy public knowledge into SE since it's not up to date as soon as the source changes.
    – Helmar Mod
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:29
  • Several HAVE told me and they have not (and do not) mention that affiliation in their answers. They have even answered affirmative in comments and answers when asked. Yet they do not voluntarily offer that information in advance.
    – user1543
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:30
  • @TheCoordinator as I said if you think that their affiliation is relevant to a specific answer drop a comment there. If there's no reaction in a reasonable time (that means a few weeks) involve the moderators.
    – Helmar Mod
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:34
  • @TheCoordinator I just deleted the Newton side-track, including my comments; as well as mentions of uninvolved parties since they convey the impression they were involved.
    – Helmar Mod
    Commented Nov 26, 2018 at 18:43

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