I'll show my ignornace when I start with this, but - when I first started using the Mudcat forum, I was under the impression that you had to register to post. I only registered because I wanted to find out about a song that was not in the DT, and one which I thought someone might know about (and I was right). I did register under a pseudonym, because I didn't know much about internet interpersonal communications in general, nor about Mudcat in particular. So I am not sure that forcing people to register would scare many off.

I must admit, I have not seen why the 'flaming' and the bad language is worth worrying about, but I have not seen too much of it, and accept that it can be disturbing to those involved. I am not even sure that categorizing threads is al that important either, since I choose to participate or not, each thread based upon its interest to me, and I look through most based upon their title and length of time on the board.

If you are registered, and 'own' your name on the forum (as many of us are/do) then it is clear who is posting. If you are a guest and have a 'temp' handle then all reading your posts understand your situation. That seems to be an adequate protection for identities - but again; I haven't seen much of the bad stuff goin' on here, so maybe a higher level of security is required.

The long and short of it is; for me, I am registered, so I have no objection to Mudcat making that some level of requirement for participation. And as far as prefixes for threads; I use them already (I presume) correctly, so again, I'm not bothered about enforcing them or even dividing the forum in multiple categories.