Nothing will defer trolls. Doesn't bother me; I find 'em amusing.

A guest-numbering system would only need to be consistent within a given thread, as far as I can see. In other words, a given individual might be GUEST2 throughout Thread A, and elsewhere the same person could be GUEST1 every time he/she appears in Thread B.

This would be more desirable for members and for readers in general than a system of universal, permanently assigned guest-numbers, because, in the context of a thread, it would be easier to keep guests 1, 2 and 3 straight in one's mind than to remember and differentiate among guests 2354, 4267, and 672 if they were to appear scatttered throughout a thread. (Are there three of them? five? two?)