Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

In what way is an idea or a series of ideas, such as a review, less open to scrutiny when it's presented without a name/pseudonym attached?

I agree with a lot of what stoplookingup says in this thread; it's an accountability issue. Yes, you can look at a statement and say "this is persuasive" and "this is not" - but at the same time, you don't know if a sock is taking advantage of shucking their name to perpetuate a personal grudge. Or if they want to game the fandom because they don't give a damn about what they say; they're going to pop up in another identity and prod in the other direction just to get everyone else to jump. (Via a good friend, I was front row for the Rat Patrol meltdown in which one very dedicated puppeteer created thousands of socks and swarmed it.)

Also, I notice that the people who feel free-est to be vilest in comments are the ones who are going anon, in any blog on the web.

Hang on - I've got a *lot* of reading to catch up on now!