Anonymous Advice

[Joe]

I was watching the news the other day when those guys in the freshwater bass boat went into the drink off Westerly because they forgot the plug and thought to myself, "I bet one of those guys doles out fishing advice someplace on the net under a fake name."

One of the founding tenets of internet culture is that it should be a diverse and democratic system - a medium where you do not need credentials to participate. In principle that's a good thing. But for a while, I've had serious reservations about the rise of message boards as a primary source, and the quality of, and the motivation behind, the answers to the various questions that are put forth.

Why do we need anonymity? What if there was a message board where you had to use your real name to participate?