I have been avoiding responding, but the premise of this thread really bothers me.

There are online forums where I have shown up and participated anonymously for some time before getting a login. I didn't do that here, but my first post was anonymous. And the majority of online forums which require me to get a permanent login before expressing an opinion, I won't go to. I have enough ways to spend m time already. Before I decide that I will create and remember a login, I want to see what the community is like. If it is too arrogant and stuck up to allow me to do that, well why bother?

Therefore every step I see PerlMonks taking towards saying that anonymous people are persona non grata is another step towards saying that I would have given it a pass. That may not be totally fair, but that is how it is. Now for me it is a strange thought to be part of a group that I wouldn't join again!

Knowing that that is how I feel, how many others out there feel like I do and won't consider being involved? As long as Anonymous Monk isn't being abused, I think that it has real value as a transitional step in getting people involved.

And so far I have not seen it abused. In fact the problems I have seen have generally been from people who were willing to create logins. So why the hostility that I sense in this thread? If we develop the problems that /. has, well that would be different. But until we do?

Going further, I believe in voting the node, not the person. If you think of things in terms of voting up people (and I know that many do) then it is a small step from there to PM becoming an in-clique. Well here is news. I hate cliques. I cannot recall a single pleasant experience involving cliques, and I can think of plenty of miserable ones. (Including one right here on PerlMonks.) If the natural tendancy towards cliques reaches a point where I see constant complaints about it (it is nowhere near that point now, luckily) then I won't want to be here. And if I don't want to be, then I won't be.

But feeling that way - knowing that I feel that way - I do not like changes that I think promote cliques developing. Again it is a change towards saying this is a place I would never have gotten started at. A change towards driving off people I want to see around. A change towards a situation where I would leave.

In reply to Re (tilly) 1: Voting on Anonymous users? by tilly
in thread Voting on Anonymous users? by strredwolf

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