Attention All Users
I have had a chance to reflect on all of the input I've received from you guys about the "hidden feature," and you have all made excellent and articulate arguments. I have been very impressed with several points that you guys made I had not thought of, and I valued your input considerably.
I must confess I am very swayed by the points raised by those who feel that the option of being hidden has many valuable uses. Impish raised the point that for those closeted and browsing forums, some level of anonymity might be more inviting and comforting for that kind of user. Others have raised the very real point that we do not live in a police state, and at the risk of getting political, as a person who believes civil liberties in the United States are certainly under siege, I am very sensitive to that argument!
I also have to confess the only reason I opted for my original decision is to stem the flow of messages from users afraid this place was about to be overrun by trolls. In a few days, we will have been together for a week and we are still 100% troll-free.
I want to assure every user I have a lot of tools at my disposal to deal with trolls. I will use any/all of them necessary. In my 20 years of administering message forums, I have dealt with troll-type situations using anything from private messages to account suspensions, to IP blocks, all the way to contact the abuse department at their ISP and having their Internet accounts terminated if they failed to stop. The moderators here are working with me to have contingency plans to deal with any incursions. If things were to get bad, I'll voice validate every new user by phone before they get access here. I've done that kind of thing back during my BBS days, and I can do it again.
I suspect a lot of users aren't aware of my commitment to keep this place friendly, supportive, and troll free, and the fear of further victimization is likely the primary reason people are worried about the hidden option. All I can do to assure you that is not going to happen is to just let time pass and see.
With all this in mind, I have changed my mind and will leave the hidden user option available. While users may not be aware of those using this option, rest assured I, as administrator, do see every handle - even the hidden ones.
Again, I really appreciated the intelligent and thoughtful contributions to this discussion on all sides.