I can see the value of the anonymous in some of the old posts just
because there are some things that people are just not societally
comfortable with discussing. I'm not saying this is a good
thing, just that it is true.<br>
<br>
Unfortunately, I think the best solution to this would require some
changes to the actual code which runs the forums, but it wouldn't
be a large one. I think the best option would be to require
people to log in to post, but to allow them to select to post with
their name or anonymous. This would be like in gmail or
outlook where you can chose which email to send a message from.
This way people would have to make a conscious decision to
post as anonymous. I think this would help prevent the
rude/mean/spam factor from posting as anonymous, but would still
allow people to use it when it could benefit them. <br>
<br>
This method wouldn't show any more information about a person
making an anonymous post, but it would help stop both accidental
anonymous posts and anonymous posts coming from something other
than good intentions. The users name would not show up, and
they would be providing no more information to the site managers
who already have ip addresses.<br>
<br>
If for some reason this can't be done, I think an interim step
would be to make you chose to be anonymous rather than it being the
default. While anonymous posts were banned, if you click post
or reply, a log-in screen popped up. Simply by adding a
button beneath the login which said "post as anonymous",
people would have to chose to post as anonymous. It seems
that a large part of the anonymous posts are just accidents, so
this would stop that. It also would be enough of a middle
step to prevent spam type posts, but it wouldn't serve to help
prevent what I'll call "mean-spirited" anonymous
posts.<br>
<br>
Just some ideas!<br>