No-one has let anyone else down badly. The baleful fact is that the internet is full of poisonous eejits spilling their testosterone over the planet in poisonous threads on poisonous forums, all because they can do so from behind a protective curtain of anonymity. Force every poster to reveal their true identity and, believe me, you would fix 99% of the internet social scene's problems. I haven't half heard some arrant bullshit about this. "I can't reveal my identity for professional reasons." "If everyone knew who I was, I'd be hounded and intimidated." Well I've posted tens of thousands of controversial posts over the last dozen years on umpteen forums on religion, sex, Israel, abortion, lousy bodhran players (which is all of 'em by the way) and God knows what else. I was in voluntary exile from one forum for years and I got kicked off another. I'm well known in my own little musical circle and I've written over forty articles in a music magazine over the last eight years. Yet not once have I had a poison pen letter or a threat or been subjected to offline hassle. NOT ONCE. The one forum I'm on that allows controversy that forbids anonymity is the one forum I'm on where the manners are always good. This forum has many good points, but it allows regulars such as gnu, goofus, akenaton and other such toerags to post their unthinking bile anonymously. It allows people who are not even signed up to post their bile as "guests" (what a bloody farce - really!). I could post here under several names and I doubt whether anyone would actually care. And you wonder why we get moans and groans about bad behaviour. We have moderators, so-called, who bollock people they happen to disagree with/make them uncomfortable, yet who allow sexists, racists, homophobes and Islamophobes to run riot, untrammelled, unchallenged.

The answer is simple. No anonymity. OK, have a pseudonym on the board if you must (Christ knows why you'd want to, though), but every other member has access to your real name. If you have some bullshit reason for not wanting us to know your real name, then just bugger off! No guests. You don't get to post unless you're a signed-up member. If your cookie's dead, you're dead as well until you fix it. That way you get a forum full of sweetness and light. If you don't agree with me, then stop bloody moaning about the "bad behaviour" of people you happen to not agree with. You're just asking for it!