Oooops, so many words on such a topic.

Ms. Cuddles, please forgive me if I haven't studied your lengthy reply (but please put it in the board FAQ, to replace the unhelpful vanilla "why do I need to register" paragraph).

But back on topic. Despite the definitions you all tried to bring up, there is a very simple technical difference between forums and discussion boards. One is threaded, and the other isn't. (I'm sure this will yield another twenty replies of the we-don't-need-or-want-it and but-it's-easier-so sort). However there is no "fluffiness" in these terms - everybody can easily tell them appart. Any forum software can be made to look like a board, the other way round is not possible.

The real difference between these two incarnations of discussion software is however the way it is often made available to the public. Discussion boards appeal to 1996-weary webmasters, and are MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH more frequently locked down, because passwords and user accounts are still perceived as so uber cool.

But back on topic. Like most of you already concluded, the point behind user accounts is, that you can build a community and get to know each other. What nobody of you however considered, what eventually nobody of you knows(?) - you can have forum or discussion board software which provides user names without user accounts. Mind you, this is possible. It simply means that people can more easily post, choose their name freely, and register it eventually if they discovered that the forum or board brought some value to them, and they'd like to protect their user name therefore. It's about choice.

Since you all will try to refute this, I must probably give some "prove" here. Have a look at http://forum.de.selfhtml.org/ (use Babelfish) - user names may be choosen freely there, and people make use of it. Despite the concers Ms. Cuddles already expressed, people don't only use names like "Guest" or "Anonymous". They are given choice, and more often they use that choice to use their real names. Mind you.

So why didn't I choose my real name here, and used a useless and unwelcome guest account (with a password of "000000", btw)? Eventually because I don't care for <blink>free</blink> user accounts, like I already said?

I also run some open source projects. Besides that the software and site already is a Wiki (password-less freely editable sites, and yes it works), the sourceforge project _forums_ (no that aren't just boards) are also open post. You don't need a user account to post there. We try to be helpful, and that means not building any hurdles, support is free and doesn't require giving out an email address to strangers. And what again happens, people that do not have a SFnet account post notes and ask questions and undersign it. A phenomen?

The point I try to make is, you have choosen the wrong software, and I came to believe that this was intentional (many people seem to believe that a thousand user passwords make a site safer or so?). Closed post boards are no good advertisments for the OS community IMO.

Cheers,
mario