[Joe G.]

Originally Posted by EricH

A proposal: Allow authors to request anonymity (or publicity). Default is to make the author's name public, but author can request to be anonymous. "Sensitive topic" articles can be flagged as such, maybe, to indicate that it's a topic "about which honest persons can disagree" and hopefully keep the flames down, or even invite a counter-article from someone on the other side.

Or simply allow for people to write under pseudonyms or anonymous usernames, if they are kept consistent. This allows a reputation to develop around the name, provides greater context to individual articles, and will hopefully give flamers some pause before attacking a name that they generally find insightful, while protecting the identity of those who wish to do so. See Looking Forward for an example.