Your reading is correct...unfortunately, my early posts actually did better than expected, and I seem to have become the mask, so to speak.

I agree there is nothing wrong whatsoever with his actual comments.

That's the nicest thing anybody's said about me all week. :)

well, I've seen a lot of great posts where I wished 'angersock' would change his name. I am sure they will get visibility under a more neutral name as well, and you can always put in your profile that you had posted under angersock.

Honest question: when you read a comment, do you read the comment first, or the username? Because - and I realise it's difficult to judge 100% accurately - I think I always read the comment first, and often don't even glance at the username. And the styling seems to encourage that too.

Would it really be as crazy as it sounds, in the interest of promoting discussion above all else, to just hide usernames altogether?

I don't think they'll get more visibility at all. A name is but a sequence of letters, angersock to me does not mean more or less than logicallee and I'll read both of you with equal interest. Of course other people might have a different set of criteria but the reputation of a person should be the sum of their output and interactions, not <= 10 alpha characters picked from a limited set. And what better story than someone who enters a forum under a moniker like that and decides to change his ways. Beats the alternative!