Robert Graham Merkel wrote:
Is it time to make it wikipedia policy that you should sign your posts on talk pages?
Other than a very tiny handful of things, we run more under social norms than policies, I think. I mean, NPOV is policy, in the sense that I'm willing to defend it by banning people, if it ever came to that. (Like, if a large group of ideologically minded people swooped in on us to put forward their version of the world, at the expense of NPOV, then I'd be willing to fight it with software, bans, etc.)
But most other things are "merely" social norms. Like: be bold in updating encyclopedia articles. Like: don't edit other people's signed comments during an ongoing discussion on a talk page.
The only way to enforce the social norm you're proposing is if most people "sign on" to it. Larry used to write these things on a page, and people could "sign on" as agreeing -- a sort of unenforceable but powerful social commitment. I guess we'd just ignore people who don't sign posts? Or, we could make it "fair game" to just delete comments that are unsigned?
I see some drawbacks to either.
Maybe the best thing to do is to "sign" the comments _for them_. I.E., add an identifier to what people have written, primarily to keep the comments straight.
Anonymity isn't the problem, right? I mean, anyone can make up any name and use it. The problem is more one of _continuity_. If I'm /Talk ing with LDC or AxelBoldt, then I know something of their history, and they of mine, so we can talk more efficiently.
--Jimbo