Anonymity is for losers.

Daniel and I prefer to operate in a relatively easy-going manner about comment policies; we're not into moderation or any sort of censorship.  Folks can pretty much say anything around here and they're not going to offend us enough to reap any sort of administrative action.  One thing that does get unwieldy, though, is when there are tons and tons of anonymous posters.

While I think that posting under one's own name is usually best because of the restraint it puts upon a person to own up to their words, I know that sometimes this personal attention is troublesome, risky, or even dangerous.  So I get the reasons why people post anonymously (although our conversations have never struck me as heated enough to really worry about such protections).  But when we have long threads of conversation in the comment section, or regular return visitors offering their thoughts on a variety of topics, it can be incredibly confusing when half of them have the same non-name.

I'd encourage readers of this blog to post with their real name, at least their first name, unless there's a genuine reason not to do so.  By approaching blogging in this way, a real conversation is better fostered.  Even a pseudonym, if you aren't comfortable with a real first name, would make things a lot more straightforward.  This isn't going to be a rule or anything, but I thought it would be worth making the plea to people.  Perhaps in the future I will shamelessly conflate the arguments of multiple anonymities in a comment section.  As I see it, you're asking for that sort of misreading when you post namelessly.