From: Matt Blaze <mab@crypto.com> - If it simply strips out all identifying information and calls you some generic anonymous name, this could lead to problems for people who expect a reply to their messages.
One option I was thinking about was to separate the namespace into "pseudonyms" and "anonyms". The former would be persistent, the equivalent of the present anXXXX addresses, and IMHO should have some sort of human-readable `handle', even if it has to be randomly generated from a dictionary. When a non-user replies to a pseudonymous post (or a user does not specify the pseudonym to use, if this is applicable), an anonym will be allocated, consisting mostly of a largish random number. To keep the database size under control, anonyms should probably be deleted after a certain period of disuse. If someone later decides to create a `real' pseudonym, this system ensures that they will not be unpleasantly surprised by finding that they already *had* one, and put their signature under it. Eli ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu