Steve,

There are people who have a legitimate reason to keep their identity confidential. I think the boards would see more people from institutions like NASA, and people with some name-recognition in science, if they could participate anonymously. Too often membership in an institution can inhibit a person's willingness to speak freely. Another reason is that all too often we've seen stalkers and other ill-intentioned people use the IP address to harrass or try to embarrass a poster with whom they have an issue.

What I propose is to split the difference. The system would record IP addresses privately, and provide moderators with secured access to them in event of a problem, but would not divulge them on the public pages. Moderators have a legitimate interest in knowing who's using a board, but that doesn't (have to) extend to the posters. If a poster has a problem requiring an identity check, he/she can ask the moderator to do it.

How's that sound?

--Robert