[Sigia-l] The power of anonymity on forums

[Listera]

The vast majority of online forums require users to register, by providing
an email address and adopting a username+password combo. The principal
reason given for registration is that when users are anonymous they are more
apt to flame and troll, and otherwise disrupt the forum.

And yet the Internet's biggest forum, 2channel, with over 10 million daily
visitors in Japan is anonymous. Here's how Wikipedia describes 2ch:

2ch operates on innovative forum software which is a major departure from
1980s bulletin board systems or 1990s forums software such as vBulletin.
Most importantly, nearly everything is done anonymously, and voluntarily. A
posting in a thread will either "age" (bump) or "sage" (down) its position
in the thread list; "saged" posts have no effect on its position. Threads
may be "saged" if the thread is disliked, or to keep it from cluttering the
main thread list, or to prevent idle browsers from flooding in and trolling
the thread at the top of the list.

Each thread is limited to 1000 postings at maximum, and must be created
again (by some anonymous user, self-elected during discussion) to continue
discussion. This prevents the rottening of old threads and keeps active
topics refreshed. It also saves bandwidth, which is a major concern on a
forum as large as 2ch. Old threads are moved to a paid archive, then
eventually deleted.

With the huge popularity of this forum, the style of web forums with
anonymity, index, and sage features is now known as "2ch-style".

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2ch>

Hmm. How could registration be bad? How can you let anyone post? How can you
give up the sacred notion of username+email+password?

Shiichan Anonymous BBS points out issues with forum registration vs.
anonymity:

Registration keeps out good posters.
Registration lets in bad posters.
Registration attracts trolls.
Anonymity counters vanity.

<http://wakaba.c3.cx/shii/shiichan>

So (when not legally mandated) what's your argument for insisting on
registration with username+email+password?

----
Ziya

"Innovate as a last resort."