In a broader sense, though, is the AM really desirable in this forum?

This is a very supportive community. There is very little of the silliness that you would find on, say, slashdot. I would like to keep it that way. It seems, for some odd reason, a very human trait to be nastier when posting anonymously. Rather than asking people to resist temptation, why not remove the temptation? I value the closeness of the community ( not to mention the terrific signal/noise ) more than the ability to post anonymously.

Yes, we can go on at length about anonyminity. I think on forums like /., an honest argument can be made - people who are afraid their bosses, spouses, cow-orkers, whatever will read a post and serious repercusions will occur can post as an AC and still make their point. Is this really a concern of ours? Do we discuss this kind of topic? Are there people here who regularly post as AM so they cannot be recognized? I, obviously, do not have answers but we need to consider this and weigh it against our desire to protect the community.

What if we said AM could not reply to anything, but could start a new thread? This could still be abused - somebody could start a Monks Discussion entitled "mikfire is a real knee biter". But it would at least allow people to ask questions without joining the Monastery.

Mik
Mik Firestone ( perlus bigotus maximus )