I have to agree with Fionn, here: "Putting a fence around will kill off at least half the value, and expose more of the trivial natter that goes on between people who know each other"

As far as I understand the measures suggested, any determined GUEST could easily circumvent them.

Setting up a 'valid' but false email address is very simple, and using a proxy to hide your IP address is hardly rocket science.

A lot of guests post here. 95% are genuine, decent people. Most of the 5% who want to be nasty will find a way to get through anyhow.

To say, as Max does; that GUESTS never provide "contributions of knowledge" is totally inaccurate.

However, I think the biggest potential loss is those members who cannot have cookies at work or wherever. It would be a great shame to lose their often useful contributions.

It's a shame it's come to this

However, it's Max's party, and he's heard all he wants, so I'll shut up

Paul