Agreed that posting as GUEST saves us from being associated with the crass things we might have said. But posting in our own names might perhaps save us from saying them in the first place, and other people from reading them. For my part, I value that.

People are always saying that it's cowardly, posting as plain GUEST. In one sense that's nonsense, because posting with a label doesn't in any way interfere with being as anonynous as you like. But in another way, it does make sense, because it means you don't have to accept the things you have said on previous occasions as your responsibility, and that is a kind of cowardice.