Anonymous is pure noise.

Indeed. These, for example:here, here, here, and here. All of which (and many more) have good content and are rated more highly than your highest rated node.

why could he not post as bluebell?

I'm sure he could. And, he could post his next node as redbell, and a followup as tinkerbell. The following day he could post as libertybell, bellcurve, and bigben (well, that last one might be a little close to home for tilly, and best avoided.)

In other words, when someone uses a registered account, he is doing so for his own convenience, not yours.

Having an Anonymous Monk account is also a convenience. It is convenient for people that want to post anonymously. It is convenient for people that just stop by and don't want to register an account. It's also a convenient way to reduce the number of orphaned accounts.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

It's also a convenient way to reduce the number of orphaned accounts

Then how do you explain

5068 - Users Never Logged in

12846 - Logged In Once, No Write Ups

out of a possible 25763 total users. (i.e. more than half of the total users seem to be orphaned users..? In fact only 7849 users who have contributed..?)

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Of all the things I've lost in my life, its my mind I miss the most.

i.e. more than half of the total users seem to be orphaned users..?

I said it was a convenient way to reduce the number of orphaned users, not eliminate them. I suspect that ratio would be much worse if Anonymonk didn't exist.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

if you don't want to play the XP game, go to your preferences and turn off the damn nodelet. presto!

do people actully believe that tilly had to post as Anonymous? why could he not post as bluebell?

I believed (still do in fact) that my posting style is distinctive enough that any alternate account would have quickly been recognized to be me. In fact a couple of people made a game of figuring out which anonymous posts were me, and would email me as they spotted them. (They caught a surprising portion and weren't often wrong.)

Identity in an online forum is more complex than you would think.