
Whether you are a regular poster, occasional poster or somebody who lurks in the background, please take a moment to cast your vote. Non-posting lurkers wanted - your opinions matter too!
This issue was just brought up again recently, and I'm curious to know how our current forum community members feel about it. Please be honest. This poll is unofficial and any results are intended to be informational only. It is not public - you need to be signed in to see it.
Here are a few optional discussion points. In your opinion, does being able to join the forum and post anonymously (or semi-anonymously) significantly encourage unacceptable behavior such as baiting, trolling, personal attacks, and other violations of our Terms of Service? Hypothetically, do you think introducing a requirement to provide each poster's real name and other details would be a positive force to encourage more NSS members to actively participate in the forum? Or do you feel it may have the opposite effect by discouraging more people from joining and participating, and/or by stifling some of the lively debate which goes on?
When judging the value of a person's opinion or comments on the forum, do you give more credence to his/her online record and personality, or to who the person is in the real-world and what his/her credentials are? How important to you is a person's online and real-world identities, versus the content and tone of their posts? Do you consider it disingenuous for anybody to post here without using their real name? Are you concerned that if positive identity measures were introduced, this may alienate some of our active and respected forum members who choose not to share their personal information?
Feel free to comment if you wish. Thanks!