Re: Anonymous Monk

[Corion]

To me, the existence of Anonymous Monk is important to lower the barrier of entry to the Monastery.

If I have something to contribute to a discussion, I don't want to have to register, wait for a confirmation email, click a link and set up a profile. By that time, I likely already have forgotten my train of thought. Being able to directly respond to a discussion is important - if I find a discussion good, and maybe find more discussions on the same site, then maybe I'll sign up. But that comes after participating, not before.

[tilly]

And I am an example of someone who followed that exact path. Without the existence of Anonymous Monk I would never have become a member of Perlmonks.

[Anonyrnous Monk]

Seconded.  It took me several years to go from Anonymous Monk to Anonyrnous Monk :) — and that was primarily motivated by minor benefits like custom CSS, being able to update your nodes, etc.

In case you wonder why... it's that I think that in places like PM, what is being said generally is (or ought to be) more important than who says it.  Of course, there are also instances when you'd want to have some "authority" info - in the sense that what a PM Pope or other long term member says is more likely to be correct than what someone without a traceable history says (in particular if truth is hard to verify independently) - but those instances are rather rare, IMHO.

(Actually, I once had an account here, but I switched back to posting anonymously, because I'm susceptible to such silly games, and as a result I found myself spending more time here than what is good for me. In the hopes of having matured a little in the meantime, I gave it another try... ;)

[Jim]

Thank you, Corion. This is an answer to the question I asked and a reasonable explanation of why one can post to PerlMonks without first registering.

[luis.roca]

Would it be beneficial then to create a mechanism similar to some news sites where a new user can simply post by signing their name and adding an email address? The post can go up without confirmation but a friendly email will still be sent inviting them to join.

It could even be made an option: "Would you like to sign your post" OR "Post Anonymously"

[Corion]

I would feel pestered by a forum that sends me nagging emails asking me to join.

[luis.roca]

I'm not suggesting to have an aggressive email campaign sent every other week: "Hey, we've noticed you STILL haven't signed up to PerlMonks. How come good buddy?" until people sign up or start sending angry replies. Simply one email when they post as a signed in guest. Again I think we could give posters a choice between signing in as a guest and still being able to post anonymously.

I believe there's something valuable about being able to say "Hello, I'm new here and just checking out the site. Here's my question:" Signing in as a guest could be that way. But maybe there are far more people like tilly that were very glad to have Anonymous Monk in it's current form before they decided to sign up and having a guest option would be more trouble than it's worth. I clearly don't know that answer. I just think it's worth exploring even if briefly. :)

[Anonymous Monk]

barrier to entry increases, and then some would put in bogus email to harass, increasing spam