My office appreciates your cooperation this past few days. We are glad you were able to understand the necessity of putting this program in place quickly.

I will be recommending you to Tumbler and Angler.

I haven't been able to post on Salon lately...i was banned by my job (neo-con Nazis) but when I posted regularly, i found the whole idea of anonynimity (sp?) vaguely compelling. Why? when I had a perfectly good screen name? because i could say things i knew were politically incorrect. I could make personal comments that wouldn't be assigned to the pristine (at least in my mind) reputation of ms. stackey-ackey. I was allowed to be devils advocate, the foil, etc., etc. Since every letter we write is archived under our name, our fellow posters can go back and use inconsistencies against us. But I, like some people, feel differently every day of the week. To use my past words against me (when i've moved so far past them by the time I finished typing my post) seems cruel. So anonymous appealed, as a way to give vent to those feelings roiling beneath the surface of rational discourse.

Having said that, I must say, get rid of it. It's become the refuge of assholes. How can we tell which anonymous we debate? The sneaky troll abuses it like a teenage boy "abuses" his body. So, everyone, when I have the time to post at home, please take every word I say with a grain of salt. I have no agenda. I get distracted by the play of the ideas and words.

Can I have multiple poster names on my single computer? So that I can post with a different name when I do not want people to know who I usually am? Even if they do not know who I really am? (equivalent of Anonymous)

Or do I just have to hold it in cases such as that? Do I just have to find a different venue from Salon?

I told a story that was entertaining, but that story should not be associated with me. (If any posters on Salon know me in real life, they easily could figure out who "timbuktom" really is.) No big deal, nothing life-altering, but good stories sometimes require anonymity.

If you do change to disallowing anonymous, I'd love to be able to change my handle so that it doesn't include my real name. I wasn't thinking it all through when I registered, but now I can't find a way to change my profile/username.

Let's suppose that Dick Cheney realized the error of his ways (tm), and wanted to post on Salon. Maybe he would want anonymity. But he still could give us great info!

And then, later maybe, Dick might take a step toward the light, and post under a poster name such as SatanIncarnate or some such. And then, eventually, maybe he would post under his own name.

For cryin out loud! Salon knows the e-mail addresses of every anonymous poster. You can regulate, you can block, or restrict, or whatever. Please stop your bogus vendetta.

And then it is fun to say that i will not respond to (or even consider) remarks made by someone without the courage to put a name to his or her postings.

Postings by Anonymous are without merit.

We have a mildly-mentally-challeged person with the poster name of Thrasher. He or she posts recently on the King Kaufman thread. This person is preposterous, but this person is NOT anonymous.

Anonymity is not the problem. Human Nature is your problem, and you just need to deal with it. You never will solve it.

hmmm

well you make a good point.

A person can adopt any screen

name... so in a way I suppose

that makes all of anonymous

in which case how much difference

does this make at all?

I think I have only

posted twice anyone, and only

once anonymously.

But when I think about it, the

only difference is that while

someone can access all my letters

using my screen name, the person would

not pick up my anonymous letters

this way.

... I'm still chewing on it..

Sign me

Puzzled

I'm having trouble understanding the fuss about anonymity. If the nasty letters are also coming from people with screennames, well, I don't get the difference between posting with a username that doesn't identify the poster and posting anonymously. I've written letters in the past using my own name. What was wrong with that system?

I think a more serious issue is that this site is no longer what it used to be. There was lots of important political stuff, of course, but there were also writers like Anne Lamott, Ariel Gore, etc. who wrote interestingly and compellingly about motherhood and Just Life.

The film reviewers sparked my interest much more than they do now. I don't remember if there was a TV reviewer back in that day, before the self-fascinated and oh-so-biting-and-clever HH, but it sure would be lovely to have someone good covering that beat now. I'd love to read analyses of everything from Glenn Close on Damages to the Democratic debate on Monday night. I used to be a screenwriter in L.A. and there is an amazingly amount of film quality material on television these days. Yes, you have Video Dog, but I'm 55 and not a YouTuber like the Youngsters.

Please consider having regular Life columnists again. The politics are relentlessly depressing, as fascinating as all the outrages are. Some of us need a break and some creativity to get us through the day.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Theodora L'Engle Knight

I have it on confirmed authority that a few of your commentors are either quite well known and highly respected and need privacy or are well known and want their comments to be read without preconception of any other views the commentor may have on other objects.

Posts should not be a matter of ego (non-anonymous) where gamesmanship rather than reasoned discourse prevails. I know that if posters no longer remain anonymous, you will lose some of the more imporatant voices in contemporary American Life. It should be the content tha drives the discussion not identities which more often than not (see virtually all political sites) invite ad hominem exchanges and seriously erodes critical thought.