I don't recall any significant disagreement with you pg, but I do completely agree that it's a disingenuous gesture for a named monk to post anonymously. At worst it can be inflamatory, and at best, makes it difficult to determine background, context, and to address the poster via /msg.

I have a slight variation on the issues pg raised. As a QandAEditor, I find myself dealing with one or more "junk" posts to Catagorized Questions and Answers every few days. Just tonight there was an "answer" posted that was nothing more than a bunch of profanity. And in the relatively short time I've been visiting the monastery I've seen all sorts of examples of blank Q&A answers, profane Q&A answers, intentionally inflamatory Q&A answers, and other sorts of drivel posted to Q&A under the guise of being an "answer." I'm not talking about incorrect or unclear answers. I'm talking about intentionally sabotaged answers, sabotaged with profanity or inflamatory statements.

In every case, these "answers" were posted anonymously.

I'm all for allowing for the continued existance of Anonymous Monk. We were all anon once. And we see good questions and even good responses from Anonymous Monk. However, I can tell you that in my limited time here, the Signal to Noise ratio of posts by Anonymous Monk to the Catagorized Questions and Answers section has been terribly poor.

The Q&A section was never intended to be a discussion section, or a dialogue section. Seekers of Perl Wisdom, Meditations, Discussion, Code, Obfu... those sections are all great places for discussion of one sort or another, and it's completely appropriate for anonymous monk to have the ability to post there. Q&A isn't that kind of place. Wouldn't it make sense to limit "Answer" posts to Q&A to only those monks who actually have identities?... especially in light of the fact that there is no "approval" process nor any "consideration" process available for the Q&A section. Any anonymous person could post any quantity of any degree of rubbish to Catagorized Q&A.

We already limit the posting of "Questions" in Q&A to Scribe level and above, to aleviate misuse of the Q&A section by those less experienced people who might at first think it to be synonymous with Seekers of Perl Wisdom. My thought is to limit Q&A "Answer" posts to those with identities, while leaving all other sections as they currently are.

Any thoughts???