DtG;

As you can probably tell from varying reactions (mine as well as others), this is a problem that's been occuring for a while. It's been a regular cycle, in fact, kinda like the times that they recommend not swimming at local beaches because a winter storm busted a sewer line.

Your solution has been advanced before, along with similar ideas (members only, IP posting in any 'guest' message, etc.), but they've all been pretty much ruled out.

As much as I detest the way this particular 'GUEST' keeps re-abusing the loophole, I also unfortunately am in the position of wanting to defend the system that allows said annoyance to keep recurring.

The logic is (more or less) that a casual 'seeker of information' will very likely stop at the first signs of either having to provide personal information, or whenever something requires them to make a choice about something personal. For most people, this isn't an issue - they either don't really care about their 'personal data', or trust the website (as most of the members here do) not to misuse the pittance of information collected.

However, for those who DON'T trust the website (or don't wish to be identified for whatever legitimate reasons), putting a 'step' in as suggested would drive them off - and that would be a shame, as one thing the 'cat is good at is providing needed information about the music (and an astounding array of other topics).

It'd be a shame to lose those requests - I don't know about the rest of the 'catters, but some days those requests are about all that brings me back (lately is a fine example). The ability to share what I've learned with someone else, and hopefully to impart some of my enthusiasm in the process.

Of course, in addition to the above, there's also the matter of the programming involved, the added workload to keep the databases up and running and current, etc. etc. etc.

Who knows, though? One day, our pestilential "GUEST" may finally push one wrong button too many and bring this about. Another incident (I think it was a different 'GUEST', but there's no real way of knowing for certain) brought about the creation of the 'GUEST' label to begin with, due to a diseased individual thinking it was GREAT fun to sign other members' names to various trollery.

I'd be flip and say something like "Can't we all just get along?", but we're humans, and occasionally you get a damaged mind in with the normal folks.

M