Quote from Josef K:
My belief is that anonymity is a double-edged sword. It does enable some people to engage in abuse and act like lunatics, but it also allows other people to speak with a degree of candor that they would not feel comfortable with otherwise. Remember, the internet is accessible to just about everyone. It is the most public forum in the world. When you make a statement about yourself on ET, you're not just making that statement to the other members of ET, you're making that statement to the entire world. When you post something on the internet under your real name, you should not post it unless you are comfortable with everyone - including your family, your boss, your coworkers, the police - being able to read it and judge you by it. Anonymity allows people to discuss certain things such as their unpopular political opinions, their sex lives, their heroin addictions, that they would not wish to talk about otherwise. It enables free expression in the face of popular prejudice as much as it enables false bravado on the part of trolls.
But even with safe anonymity, there is no reason that the trolls have to stay with us. If they wished to, the ET mods could practically eliminate all trolls by engaging in consistent and firm moderation and enforcement of the board's rules. As far as I can see, the problem we have with trolls and harrassers is not the result of anonymous membership, but the result of the ET administrators not being proactive enough in removing these people from this site.