there is ONE thing in the "cons" column for anons and that is the odious-yet-human ability to turn into a vile personality because you can hide behind anonymity. In the meat-space people simply can't become so vile because your physical person is undeniably linked to who you are...

Don't get me wrong, not advocating de-anonymising online chat, just pointing out the horrible effect it has had on the quality of discourse on the internet...