In 2008 a gossip site called JuicyCampus.com became popular among Princeton students. I was serving at Princeton as Associate Dean of the Chapel and Religious Life at the time, and from what I understood, the site was a vehicle for anonymous rumor and gossip on college campuses. The predictable results were damaged reputations and sense of worth of students, and an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust among the university community.
The then-president of the student body, Connor Diemand-Yauman, and Thomas Dunne, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students, developed an inspired response with a campaign called "Own What You Think" aimed at raising the level of interaction and conversation among the university community with t-shirts that read: "anonymity = cowardice."
Five years later, I still love this campaign and the crucial message of 'owning what we think.' The phrase has special resonance now as The Huffington Post is gradually moving away from anonymous comments.
Own What You Think: Why It's Great That HuffPost Is Getting Rid of Anonymous Comments | Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
I don't think this is a good idea and I fail to see how it will solve the trolling problem. Sounds to me like the mods there don't want to do their work.
I also think online bullying and harassing may rise because now people know who is really making the comments. They could also get their private information online and who knows what they'll do. This is another form of Big Brother to me.
I wonder if other websites will follow suit, and if so, then some people are going to be afraid of voicing their opinions online.