I dont like it.
Defeats the purpose of a 'close-nit' community, IMO.
I don't share OP's opinion of people not being able to remember their password, as being the hindrance to people joining online communities.
Srs.. ?
Who doesn't use Chrome?
Who, with a Android phone doesn't use Chrome?
Who doesn't have a Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn account?
Why would anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account NOT want to share their post to the 3 people they do know and the 5000 followers they dont?
What SEO crazed mod wouldn't want their community members advertising their forum across the multitude of social media platforms?
Its 2017, users do not create accounts the same way they had to in the early 2000's.
Just log in with your social media account.
People should post with confidence and fear no rebuke or worry about being singled out by the community.
Its the community that prospers that puts effort into making the members feel comfortable sharing.
Anyone wanting a degree of separation between their offline identity from their online persona is capable of inventing a handle and giving it a @gmail.com account. (..like 0E800. ? )
Want to post a one line comment or embarrassing real life story and bounce from the community with the intent to never return? Use a throw away email service like:
https://temp-mail.org/en/
Maybe I am the only one that groks how mediocre this flarum community would be, had there been an anonymous extension built into core out the gate.
The only thing people do not put their names on these days are the crimes they commit in the shadows and the little blue/green baggies neatly tied with dog feces inside; left in their neighbors garden.
Like some proof they were there, and no one is the wiser.
Humor me this somewhat parallel analogy.
Let go back to 1982.
In 1982 people went to the Library.
It was the Google and the Internet all categorized and searchable through the Dewey Decimal System.
To really impress upon how far back we are, here is the headline of the Time:
TIME magazine alters its annual tradition of naming a "Man of the Year," choosing instead to name the personal computer its "Machine of the Year." In introducing the theme, TIME publisher John A. Meyers wrote, "Several human candidates might have represented 1982, but none symbolized the past year more richly, or will be viewed by history as more significant, than a machine: the computer." His magazine, he explained, has chronicled the change in public opinion with regard to computers. A senior writer contributed: "computers were once regarded as distant, ominous abstractions, like Big Brother. In 1982, they truly became personalized, brought down to scale, so that people could hold, prod and play with them." At TIME, the main writer on the project completed his work on a typewriter, but Meyers noted that the magazine's newsroom would upgrade to word processors within a year.
Crazy huh?
So what does the Library have to teach us about the potential danger to an establishment by allowing anonymity?
In 1982, in order to 'check-out' (rent) a book, you had to have a Library card.
The Library card helped the librarians keep record of what books were available and also more importantly who to call when a book was overdue.
On the flip-side, anyone could enter the Library regardless if they were a member / had a library card.
Here comes the conflict:
Joe, a 2nd year academy student and long time member of the local Library is going to check out a anatomy book he needs in order to study for his exam.
Medical doctrines in 1982 were huge expensive books, so like all poor students, Joe relied on the Library to help him with his studies.
When Joe gets back to his dorm-room he is going to discover that the one book he had been waiting to check out for weeks has important pages missing, whole chapters covered with graffiti and lewd comments.
Hopefully Joe is fortunate and attending the academy in a city with more than one Library.
Worse still, when Jenny checks-out the same book a week after and notices the obvious destruction of property. If she complains to the librarian about the pages sticking together and offensive language covering the pages in permanent ink; the librarian will check to see who the last person to check out the book was and might decide to charge Joe to replace it.
So the people who want to be in the library to learn and succeed ultimately become circumstantial victims to the lames that just want to draw penis's on presidents, or don't want to be hassled to sign up for a library card. The anonymity adds to the feeling of entitlement, they can get away with ripping pages out of books instead of checking them out like the registered members do. Eventually the members of the Library find another Library that requires a library card in order to enter.
Flarum has always been (again, in my opinion) a forum platform that exudes Quality / Quantity.
This extension would be a blasphemy and a nightmare to moderate.
If you want to encourage conversations without the need for signing up, I think an encrypted chat box / shout box on the publicly accessible front page would be a better idea.
Anyone with a crytodog chrome plugin would be able to join the room thats posted on the forum.
Example:
A post is created and open to the public. Its a story and the OP is having trouble coming up with a satisfactory ending. OP ends the post requesting any ideas and leaves a cryptodog room name.
Anyone with cyptodog plugin could comment to the OP by joining the room under any-name without having to sign up to the forum. OP might like what some random stranger says and decide to update his post with what was posted in the encrypted chat. The random stranger, after seeing the positive feedback from the many members, decides to join the community.
What would be cooler is if every post had an optional pop up chat window that allowed for anonymous random comments / blurbs.
Anyone could leave a comment in the box, and the box is only seen if clicked on.
I spent like a hour trying to put into words why I feel anonymity is a wasted effort to a respectable community. I dont smoke crack.
Heres some more food for thought from more educated peers:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/11/internet_trolls_pose_a_threat_internet_commentators_shouldn_t_be_anonymous.html
http://blog.higherlogic.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-allowing-anonymous-posts-in-online-communities
