what is the difference between a Guest and a person who uses a made up name?" said kendall up there.

"Unnamed Guest" was what I said.   Right now I'm posting as a GUEST because I had to come in through a Mudcat backdoor, because the front door wouldn't open, as sometimes happens.

When people come in as an unnamed GUEST, without any kind of label, they are in effect using the same name that has been used by some really very nasty posters indeed at one time and another - just click on the GUEST at the head of a post and have a look. Nasty enough that I personally have decided that I'm ignoring them, the way I would a tiny handful of other names. In the process no doubt I miss posts by people who aren't like that, but have some reason of their own for doing it. That's a shame.

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"any other message board worth its salt out here in the world wide waste is moderated... Why not mudcat?" - Clinton Hammond.

I've never come across a message board which is a patch of the Mudcat, and I've looked. The decision to do without "moderating" - or rather, to have as little as can be managed (even if the Shambles might dispute that) is, I am sure, one of the crucial reasons for this.

And if there really are these message boards out there which manange to be as good as the Mudcat can be at its best, but with moderating that doesn't mess with that, let's be having them.