I posted once as a guest and have now become a member. I don't own a computer, though, so I am using a public computer and it might not allow me to keep a permanent cookie. If I have to reset the cookie each time, I think I will probably give up on that and be a guest whenever I submit anything. I imagine I will always use the same name, though. I don't know what people's (valid and sociable) reasons might be for sending completely anonymous postings but in cases other than troublemakers, I don't see any problem.

I think the issue is flames and trolls, not guests. Apart from anything else, membership does NOTHING to guarantee friendly and civil discussion unless Max were to start monitoring people's messages and reprimanding and ultimately removing people deemed flames or trolls. That would be a horrid path to go down. I don't think there is any reason we can't respond factually to slander and misrepresentation and ignore other inflammatory stuff (though it will always be one of those hurtful things in our day).