The following is for anyone observing/analyzing writing in a private online discourse community.
If you are observing a private community, such as a Facebook group or Discord server, you should plan on keeping the members of that group anonymous.
To keep members anonymous, do the following:
Blur out/black out the names on posts/screenshots for anything shared with me or the class. The screenshots should still show the posting information, but blur out or black out the names.
Blur out/black out members' profile pictures for anything shared with me or the class.
Create pseudonyms (i.e. fake names) to refer to members of your community.
Keep a separate document for yourself only that keeps track of which pseudonym is used for which member.
To use pseudonyms in your paper:
Choose names for each member who you will be referring to (for example, anyone who you are referring to their post or comment in your writing).
I recommend that you keep the first initial the same to help you keep track while you're writing. The generator linked below has the ability to choose the starting letters of the random name.
Use a name generator to help come up with random names, such as this pen name generator.
Leave a footnote at the bottom of the first page to explain that pseudonyms have been used in your paper/assignment.
Include the pseudonym as a caption at the bottom of any screenshot used in Project 1 and 2.
See the example document below for a better illustration of how to do the above.
Link to Example Paper (opens in Google Docs)