After a great deal of deliberation and review of comments, both good and bad (my goodness I sound like the USFS or something), we’ve eliminated the ability to post anonymously.
The privilege was abused, it detracted from the quality of the content posted, and in general, it provided a relational barrier between forum posters that is unnecessary.
If you want to post under a screen name, that’s up to you. You will have to either change your BPL Member account name (which could result in delays in order processing due to credit card validation issues), or create a new non-member account.
However, if we find that non-member accounts begin to abuse the privelege of posting here, then we’ll have no choice but to limit postings to BPL member accounts only.
This is a different forum policy, yes. But I’d rather reinforce and support people’s integrity that clutter the forums with a bunch of garbage postings. As for people’s concern for privacy, the choice is entirely up to you whether or not to post here. If disclosing your name is a consideration, then you don’t have to post. There are plenty of public backpacking forums elsewhere where you can post under a screen name.
