I was recently involved in a discussion here that was started by an anonymous guest. At first everything went along as normal, and no one seemed to mind that the person who started the thread and took a large part in the discussion was anonymous. As the conversation progressed, however, the guest became increasingly strange, leveling personal attacks against those who disagreed with it, not responding to reasonable points made against its arguments, and just saying the same thing over and over again in progessively strident and unpleasant terms. At that point, the anonymous nature of the guest became an issue for several of us, and we expressed that. It wasn't the fact that the guest was anonymous that caused everyone else to walk away from the discussion, or the fact that it was rude (although rudeness never works to get your message across), but the combination of anonyminity and rudeness. The guest decided that we were reduced to flaming anonymous guests instead of continuing the discussion. It apparently didn't get the message (even though it was spelled out clearly) that folks were walking away not because of its anonyminity, but because it was rude, and its anonyminity raised its rudeness to the point of indicating the presence of a wierdo.

John Peekstok