In the past past we have allowed anonymous postings because we believed that you didn't have to register in order to take part in any discussions here. Unfortunately over the past few weeks we have been besieged by spam postings advertising everything from porn sites to dental insurance companies. Between Charlie and I, we have been deleting and banning upto 40 of these a day. This situation cannot continue. From now on you have to register in order to contribute a posting.
In case you didn't know, you can be logged in by default if you check the "Log me on automatically each visit" box in the Login Panel.
In case you don't like your name to be visible in the Who is Online panel you can set this option in your Profile (which is on the menu bar) by selecting the appropriate radio button to "Hide your online status" in the Preferences section.