How would Mahalo change if all users were anonymous?

B-O-R-I-N-G! I think we'd all collapse from tedium at the sight of the anonymous autobots farming this site. The beauty of this site is its personality, and that you can really earn trust and respect around here.

I know when @robbrown gives advice on business, I'd better damn well follow it! And if @bunnyphuphu posts a joke or video, I'd better take the time to check it out, because it's going to be damn funny! And there's the issue of heart.

When you can call another user by a name, and associate them with an image, then you can connect with them and put heart into your answers. It's the difference between talking to a person and talking to a brick wall. I can console the brick wall all day and night, but something gets lost in the delivery.

Plus, do you know the nightmares I would have from this faceless site? When I have no images to associate with people, you know how I'd picture all of you?

Try asking the void to fix a page or correct a bug. And then see how fast the nameless void answers. I can tell you how fast!

Just picture the Cable Company. Or the Unemployment Agency. Same effect.

And then I'd personally start to get paranoid that it's the same administrator asking all the questions, voting every time, answering everything. How do I know this isn't a giant conspiracy? A giant mind-controlling cyborg trying to burrow into my brain by subliminally hypnotizing me into a Mahalo addiction.So I put on my tin foil hat and hide under the bed.

No more Mahaloing. You can see how a similar scenario would play out for the rest of the Mahaloites too!

One of @robbrown's favorite points is the importance of trust. Trust cuts both ways... I know an answer from certain people will be high quality. But equally important the way Mahalo works people can get to know me, and trust me, and I get to feel valued.

When people talk about what motivates them in their work, "recognition" is usually pretty high on that list. Well, there ain't no recognition if your work is all anonymous! :).

I think I would get bored rather quickly... and here's why. Having been here for the staggeringly long time of 3 weeks, I'm just starting to get an idea about some of the personalities here. There are certain questioners who ask interesting questions.

Likewise there are some people who give really good answers. If I know, something about the past asking/answering history of a user, I'm able to form opinions about how good an answer they've given to me. Without naming names, I know if I read an answer from certain posters about Beer, that they really know their stuff.

Mahalo is Human powered search, and if everything was anonymous we'd all look like bots. I also know that if someone is answering a question about Mobile Phone coverage in Hawaii and they are from there, I'm likely to get a better answer than someone who's in England.

Anarchy. My job would become much more difficult. Users would not be accountable for their actions, users would become more greedy I believe, they would vote unhelpful on good answers.

When voting was hidden shortly after the 2.0 transition I was shocked at how many regular users started voting down helpful answers (we could still see the votes on our end. ) This type of action naturally upsets honest users...and so, the Flame Wars would begin. flickr.com/photos/33749589@N07/3862267737/ Believe me, Mahalo is not the environment for a Flame War.

I would like to think that I have some clout in the Mahalo community, but even if I don't, I still feel the same way. Trust and sharing are both important elements of this community, which I feel is sort of a fusion between Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers. Shortly after arriving on the scene here at Mahalo, It occurred to me: I was addicted.

Another thing occurred to me about an hour later: I didn't care. I was having a great time. Now, I am (I think) 50 or so most involved people in the community and- though I have never been nominated for answer of the day- I tend to focus on a question like this to write a nice, long, high quality response to.

I run the Mahalo Digital Design Competition, a bi-weekly graphic arts and photography contest, and I regularly complete tasks and barnraisings. It may seem like I got off topic in the last paragraph, but I didn't. Why not?

My name is very important to me. It is who I am, and anonymity would ruin that part of the experience. I have a personality on Mahalo and a certain writing voice, and I would not want to be lost in a sea of other answers, struggling to find the one that is mine.

Others would argue that this loss of identity would be a good thing. It would certainly force us to vote based on the merit of the answers, not the answerer, but that is already the case. We cannot see the user names when voting.

I look forward to answers by @robbrown, @bunnyphuphu and @smartweb, but I don't have a predisposition towards them. If they are the best, I will mark them as such. If they aren't, I will choose another.

This would be a bad change for Mahalo, and as such, a bad change for all of us on the service. Image Credit: No Enserio.

The reason that I am drawn to this site and stay on mahalo is because I have come to trust certain people. I like getting to know the members and conversing with them. It would get pretty messy and I think even ugly if it was anonymous.

If people know that they will not be held accountable for their answers and their actions then they are more likely to be rude and insult other members which would then drive away members.

I totally agree with GNO. One of the most appealing factors of this site is the personality. There are too many sites out there that are devoid of spirit.

I was thinking about that the other day - it entered my head because sometimes, when I'm voting on undecided questions, there can be a very vague and undetailed answer with a comment below it that contains a perfect answer to the original question. This confuses me as I don't know if it's a comment from the person who answered and they've realised they need to give more in their response, or if it's just another user who is trying to be helpful. That, I think, shows how confusing it may get if EVERYTHING was anonymous on here... However, there are positives as well.

Already there is one Mahalo user who I've had a slight confrontation with - that has blown over quickly and I don't harbour any bad feelings for this person, but it really does affect the way I write when I'm answering his questions. I don't come across as friendly, just polite and civil, which I think is enough when two people know they don't get on. The thing is, if I didn't know it was his question that I was answering, I would be much nicer to him and he would be nice to me (maybe) and neither of us would know any different!

So, I conclude that it would be a bad idea AND a good idea if we were all anonymous Mahaloians ;).

I like the idea that the whole mahalo community is a bit like a family. For example I recognise names on here and so trust there advice more or less.

It would allow people to say anything they want. It would be like when you see the yahoo comments where it is just name calling, when there is a question involving politics the people that disagree with you would almost always vote your answer unhelpful after responding with name calling. Not a good idea simply because there are too many people that think they can say and do anything as long as they are anonymous.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.