I think a short waiting period before being able to post might solve a lot of problems at once. If you had to wait 24 hours after registering an account before your could post a comment, how many spam, joke posts, and throwaway accounts wouldn't happen?
Yeah, but a lot of really interesting posts wouldn't happen either.
I once had this conversation via email with one of the slashdot guys. He was considering banning AnnoymousCoward back then, and asked if I could point to any worthy posts that might have been posted by a signed account, and I pointed him to a thread in which an AC who claimed to be ex-FBI had some pretty insightful and thoughtful comments on police corruption and warrantless searches and such. He acknowledged it was a good example but said it was the only one he had seen thus far.
in spite of all the trolling some of the very best stuff on /. is by ac posters. It's the one reason I still read it at -1 but I make sure I don't read it while I'm eating.
