Not so easy is it brucie? You start the thread saying don't respond to the nameless GUESTs, and a few posts in, and you are doing just that.

It'd be much better if we could resolve to leave them alone, because one way another they do damage the place, largely by the way the issue can throw a thread off it's tracks. But I can't see it happening consistently, because once anyone starts getting drawn in to respond to a nameless Guest, others get drawn into the conversation too. What makes it more complicated is that in among the ,ass of wasters, every now and then a nameless GUEST makes a post that seems constructive, or raises a point that no one else has.

But one thing - when discussing this it's a mistake to use the tern GUEST for short, when what you mean is "nameless Guest" - posting as a GUEST with a handle is no problems to anyone, and no one ever objects to it. It's not a question of anonymity - in fact most Mudcatters are anonymous. The problem is one of confusion and lack of continuity, so if we get drawn into discussing with a nameless GUEST we don't know if it's the same person two posts running. (And if people start talking about GUESTs in this context you can be sure someone is launch the canard that there is something against GUESTs as such, and newcomers can even be taken in by that one for a bit.)

I suppose there must be some kind of reason underlying this practice - when it's come up, the answers always seem to be in terms of anonymity, which are cleanly nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Which rather implies that the reason people do it is because they get a kick out of the notion that it might annoy other people. I'd have thought knocking on doors and running away would be more fun, but maybe they do that as well.