> Anonymity counters vanity. On a forum where registration is required, or even where people give themselves names, a clique is developed of the elite users, and posts deal as much with who you are as what you are posting. On an anonymous forum, if you can't tell who posts what, logic will overrule vanity. As Hiroyuki, the administrator of 2ch, writes:
> If there is a user ID attached to a user, a discussion tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under the anonymous system, even though your opinion/information is criticized, you don't know with whom to be upset. [...] Under a perfectly anonymous system, you can say, "it's boring," if it is actually boring. All information is treated equally; only an accurate argument will work.
(from http://wakaba.c3.cx/shii/shiichan; emphasis mine)
I'll be damned if that doesn't apply on IRC -- a hundred times as much. Think about this: 4-ch is a board for discussion. A productive IRC meeting involves discussion. Hence, my reason for wanting to be anonymous on IRC is exactly why I like 4-ch in the first place: I agree with Hiroyuki that discussion works better anonymously. Is this a hard idea?