Name: taking over, there is no hope 2012-03-23 19:00
This is hard to believe. (2006)
Problems with 2ch-type forums often come along the lines of "people will be more likely to insult, flame, and troll if they're anonymous". This may be true... but people are already pseudonymous on most forums. The drama and hatred you see on pseudonymous forums is as bad as it gets; with anonymity, you'll probably be better off because of the convenience. Either way you will need a dedicated team of moderators to police the board for trolling and nonsense.
A preliminary study done by... me in March 2005 found that there was no noticeable difference between 2channel and forums.gentoo.org in terms of useful posts, off-topic posts, and nonsense in a long thread about technical issues. On the American forum 4-ch.net where posts can be either anonymous or pseudonymous, most of the actual helpful contributions to technical discussions came from anonymous users, whereas pseudonymous users tended to offer their personal experiences. But this was totally unscientific. Do a blind study yourself.
Spam is another issue. Since 2004 when this essay was written, message board spam has become increasingly prevalent on all anonymous forums. However, on old-style forums spammers often register fake accounts and happily suck in users to their profile websites without posting. If you are experiencing spam that gets around your local filters, I have found that extremely simple tests, such as a drop-down box asking whether you are a human (Yes? No? Maybe?) often cut it off entirely.
If you can't or don't want to force people to pay or use their real names, at least give a swing at bucking the establishment and trying out a totally anonymous forum.
Problems with 2ch-type forums often come along the lines of "people will be more likely to insult, flame, and troll if they're anonymous". This may be true... but people are already pseudonymous on most forums. The drama and hatred you see on pseudonymous forums is as bad as it gets; with anonymity, you'll probably be better off because of the convenience. Either way you will need a dedicated team of moderators to police the board for trolling and nonsense.
A preliminary study done by... me in March 2005 found that there was no noticeable difference between 2channel and forums.gentoo.org in terms of useful posts, off-topic posts, and nonsense in a long thread about technical issues. On the American forum 4-ch.net where posts can be either anonymous or pseudonymous, most of the actual helpful contributions to technical discussions came from anonymous users, whereas pseudonymous users tended to offer their personal experiences. But this was totally unscientific. Do a blind study yourself.
Spam is another issue. Since 2004 when this essay was written, message board spam has become increasingly prevalent on all anonymous forums. However, on old-style forums spammers often register fake accounts and happily suck in users to their profile websites without posting. If you are experiencing spam that gets around your local filters, I have found that extremely simple tests, such as a drop-down box asking whether you are a human (Yes? No? Maybe?) often cut it off entirely.
If you can't or don't want to force people to pay or use their real names, at least give a swing at bucking the establishment and trying out a totally anonymous forum.