What do you think about requiring posters to register? Basically this would eliminate the anonymous coward ability. I would probably add an option to flag a specific post "anonymous" with the restriction that if your post is just trolling or unneccessarily stupid moderators can change it to a normal post where people would see your name and sig etc.

Oh yea, and it would reduce the total posts by at least 10% because we'd miss all those "that was me, i forgot to log in" posts.

definitely sounds like a good idea to me. I personally don't like seeing an anonymous coward just posting something to flame something that somebody else had said, and I agree with the idea of allowing the poster to flag the post anonymous, although you would have to trust that the moderators would respect your privacy even if they don't like you.

Meh, as I've said once or twice before on here, I actually tried to register, something went wrong with the link, and I was too lazy to really care too much or whine about it. Not all AC's are just trolling. But it's your website, Ryan. Up to you.

Though while it'd cost me the ability to post, until and unless I got an account working, I'll admit most of the extra-retarded threads lately seem to have been started by AC's.....

Ohh please dear god yes. Actually reducing the number of worthless and stupid posts would be amazing. At least with the people that register and post too much and about stupid shit you can harbor some form of ill will towards them, AC's are just annoying and never really say anything enlightening.

Well, one of the things I like about being able to post anonymously is the fact that often it means what you say can be judged by your current arguments, not what you've said in the past. For example, if John Bono made a good point in a given discussion, plenty of people would still ignore it outright or use ad hominem attacks, regardless of how sane his just-made comment may have been. Harboring ill will towards someone can cloud your judgement in evaluating what they have to say. And hey, it's not like you need to read everything said on these forums. *shrug*
In it's purest form, debate should happen anonymously, I figure. Your view probably vary, and are no doubt colored by the fact that, most of the time, when someone wants to just say something idiotic to piss people off, they use an AC account to do it. Meh, I'm not on these forums enough to really form that much of an opinion on it, though.

How about letting AC's post, but when they do you show their IP address? Heh heh, just kidding (kinda).

I think it's a good idea... it's like a little online community in here, and it would be nice to know who's posting.

Plus, many (but not all) AC posts are negative or useless. If posters are identified, maybe they'll put more thought and effort into posts.

If you post as an AC, you dont get to build a rediculously high post count...I dont see why anyone does it.

Heh, which in turn means AC's have no reason to post-whore....

well if you dont have the balls to say it with at least a registered name... the post is most likely just trolling. People say some pretty fucking brainless things when they arent held accountable. i think this should be made into a poll.

Salvation!!!
Yeah, if you feel the need, do it. Especially with that "oops, that was me" thing going on all the time.

i think its a great idea to force registration, i think you should have to be registered to see forums as well...

having to be registered to post sounds good... it would stop most of the posts made just to start a fight.

having to be registered to browse would be annoying.

I wouldn't mind it at all if someone had to register to post in the current fourm structure. It would save accidental posts as well as other stupid-posts that just insite more worthless posting. With the ability to become anomyous, if your post is worth-while, there shouldn't be any problems with it remaining anyomous. As it is, almost any mod could identify you when you posted by looking at the IP and such. This just makes it easier for everyone.

there's kinda a reason that a majority of forums do not allow anonymous posting on their boards. get rid of them.

I think the only forum that AC's should be allowed to post in is the want to buy, and maybe the looking for a ride. There usually isn't a lot of flaming in there and well why make someone register if they might only be buying one thing or two things off of here.