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There are a few of them, example: Click on the 'Users' tab and sort by name, they show as "unknown (Google), however they don't show up when you filter the user results.

Some of them even post replies, which read very human and sane.

Are these just normal users going through a Google service? Also I did try look for this answer before posting. Thanks for any explanations.

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  • > Some of them even post replies, which read very human and sane. Only some of them sound sane? ;-D
    – Synetech
    Commented Aug 30, 2011 at 23:23

2 Answers 2

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A name of "unknown" indicates that they have signed in using an OpenId, but have not filled out their profile - the bit in brackets (Google, in this case) is the OpenId provider where they don't provide a nickname.

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    Some providers will send back a nick or profile name to auto-populate the DisplayName on SO. Some providers, like Google and Yahoo, don't.
    – random
    Commented Oct 22, 2009 at 16:20
  • updated to paraphrase (thanks I learn something new!)
    – Rowland Shaw
    Commented Oct 22, 2009 at 16:32
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When I first signed into meta (using my gmail openID), it listed my name as "unknown (google)" until I changed it in my profile. It is other people signing in using an openID, then never editing their profile.

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