Hi Abigail-II,
So far, this entire thread has only brought up one name, tilly, who might have disappeared if there was no anonymous monk. He might even have disappeared if he wasn't able to post anonymously in some threads (which is being proposed). But perhaps there are 3 people who would post here if they could prevent anonymous replies. You wouldn't know. Of, if the potential loss of 1 person is so important to you, if 2 people whould threat to leave perlmonks if they can't block anonymous replies, would your opinion change?
Actually, I hate the XP system entirely, and wish it wasn't here. But my only point is this: the claim that removing anonymous posting would increase the signal-to-noise ratio isn't backed up by a whole lot of facts. I have given some reasonable ways in which it could have the exact opposite effect, in fact.
That's pure speculation.
As is the claim that removing anonymous posting would improve matters. And since this is all speculation, I want to point out that there is no a priori reason to believe things will go only in one direction.
-Tats
