I can understand how there can be some consternation, when attempting to have an online discussion, in not knowing whether one is addressing the same person in each exchange of a multi-post discussion. If there are five GUEST postings to a thread in a half-hour, say, is the same person posting each of those times? The uncertainty should be lived with; otherwise, the alternative is to take a gatekeeper approach by requiring registration and logging in.

Generalizations made against anonymity will never, in the Internet age, be well received by the majority of web users. Reasons for being careful with one's identity have been well written about by many information technology experts, privacy rights experts, and others. Pen names have been used for artistic and other purposes for centuries. And, in fact, few who post to Mudcat call for online disclosure of legal names or of information traceable to legal names.

For the online world, those of us who identify ourselves only by names that we have authored are functionally anonymous. That applies to all, members included, except for the relative few who have posted using legal names.

Generalizations against anonymity are uncivil.