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I am not happy with people making an anonymous username, asking a question, getting the answer and then deleting that user name withing 24-48 hours. It has been happening for sometime now. I do not think it is right. I would like to know what other people think about this.

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    $\begingroup$ Can you give some links? $\endgroup$
    – Aryabhata
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 18:48
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    $\begingroup$ I'm honestly confused. Why does this bother you? Why don't you think it's "right"? $\endgroup$
    – Jeffε
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 17:05

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The comment you left on the question was for an unregistered user. A person doesn't need to create an account to post questions/answers.

Note also that a user cannot delete their account by themselves (if they have interacted with the site, have cast votes or have posted questions/answers). To delete a user account you have to involve an SE or a community moderator. Please see this for further information and the process through which a user can ask SE for deletion of their account. In short, what you have described cannot happen.

I personally haven't seen any request for deletion recently (can't remember when was the last time).

Regarding asking questions anonymously, by default, asking questions or answering questions using pseudo-names or anonymously is completely fine. People have various reasons to remain anonymous or to use pseudo-names. I don't see any reason to be annoyed about this. If you don't like such users don't interact with them. Whether to remain anonymous or to reveal identity is that user choice, not yours nor ours. If there is a problem about a question posted by an anonymous user (e.g. it is a homework questions) then we can discuss that particular case separately. By itself remaining anonymous on the site is completely fine.

Please don't write comments like "And we we would love to know who you are!". This is not constructive. A user doesn't need to reveal their identity to ask questions. People are welcome to post questions and answer anonymously. Also, IMO, down-voting questions just because they are posted anonymously is a very bad behavior.

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  • $\begingroup$ You can easily maintain anonymity and establish an identity others can connect with you. That is, regular visitors should, imho, use one account. $\endgroup$
    – Raphael
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 21:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Raphael, we already have an attitude of encouraging using real names and this is also included in our faq. I think that is what you mean by "should". But it is not a "must", it is not problematic if a user decides not to do so. $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 21:09
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    $\begingroup$ I think Raphael is drawing the distinction between anonymous and pseudonymous - he's referring to the latter when he talks about having a single identity (that might still be anonymous) $\endgroup$
    – Suresh Venkat Mod
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 22:51
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    $\begingroup$ @Suresh, I think even that should not be required. I can think of situations where some users may not want others to keep track of their questions. In any case, the system doesn't require registration and based on the discussion I have seen on MSO it seems to be intentional: answers/questions should be voted mainly based on their quality and correctness, not on the name of their author. $\endgroup$
    – Kaveh Mod
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 6:13
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I haven't noticed this, but it would be annoying. Not sure we can do anything about it though. I don't understand the motivation of the user though.

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