It's definitely not safe for work, but I'm afraid that, IMO, no one has summed up up the downside of internet "anonymity" better than Penny Arcade's illustration of the Greater Internet @#$%wad Theory. Sorry.
Hopefully that's changing a bit. A couple days ago, I was leaving a website comment, and noticed the option of signing up for a Disqus account. It's hardly a novel idea--Slashdot has had the notion of user "karma" for I don't even remember how long. You always have the option of posting as "Anonymous Coward," but at the price of forfeiting whatever "karma" you've accumulated under a habitual ID.
That's not a bad compromise, and I see that things like OpenID, Google ID, and so forth, are being enabled here and there. The mechanism allows you to carry the "karma" you've accumulated elsewhere to new forums. Yes, you give up your anonymity when you do so, and that's sort of a gear-shift from the way the internet's been running for the last decade-and-change. But I also see more than a little good coming from it, particularly if it's coupled with the appropriate forum software tweaks. Currently, I think that the opinion of the Anonymous Coward is given far, far too much weight. As people carrying their identities from forum to forum becomes more the norm, I think that the appropriate discounting of anonymous opinions will likewise become the norm.
Yeah, everyone needs to blow of steam from time to time. And smacking down "wrong-headedness" just feels goooooood. No question. Y'know, in the sense of Babylon 5's G'Kar: "That was great! No moral ambiguities! No hopeless battle against an ancient enemy! We were right; they were wrong...and they made a most agreeable 'Thump!' when they hit the ground!" That sort of thing.
But. A few moments of escapism aside, the internet would be pretty pointless without actual human interaction behind it. And human interaction has rules...or at least guidelines that evolve at a glacial pace. For that reason, it's important that the opinions of those who stand behind their words is given precedence over trolling. (As if comment-spam weren't lowering the value of forum discourse even further.) As long as people still have the option of anonymous commenting, I'm totally down with the notion of a voluntary Grand Unified Internet ID. After all, the game was always supposed to be about meritocracy. Sure, the classic Anonymous Coward might be as insightful as someone who puts their karma behind their comment. On one forum, maybe. But karma--meaning legacy--always means more than the proverbial flash in the pan.
