Asymmetrical Information

It is impossible to know whether a blog where posters do not identify themselves *at all* is a group blog or a single blog if the writing styles of the authors are similar

The only thing I can think of are e-mail strings from "anon." e-mail accts.

Though, to what end? Why would that be an "improvement"?

Personally, I think it should go in the other direction...

I've seen a few. Most prominent one that comes to mind is the now-defunct Diplomad, if memory serves.

The only one I know of is "Clearly Erroneous," an often weird and sometimes disturbing group blog for rants/confessions/other that the unnamed contributors don't want attached to their real names or other pseudonyms.

Dunno if it's a blog, and sometimes they use pseudonyms, but PostSecret.com comes very close.

Wikipedia?

Didn't TAPPED http://www.prospect.org/weblog/ used to do that? My memory is that they changed their policy after they hired Matthew Yglesias and fans of his personal blog became obsessed with guessing which entries he wrote.

Ah yes, here is the entry where the change was announced

http://www.prospect.org/archives/archives/2003/10/index.html#001617

It may be heresy to reveal it but we at http://www.crazyontap.com probably qualify. In as much as some of us are not anonymous, and some of us change our ids at the whim of the New England weather (and just to make it interesting, the first lot is often spoofed by the second).

It's somewhat IT-centric only because the original crew branched off from, or was rather unceremoniously abandoned by, discuss.joelonsoftware.com (in a rather gruesome way, I'm afraid - involving a colorfully crazy Canadian astronomer in Chile, who bequeathed us his nom de plume).

I think we have diversified. Technology and science and politics are common topics -- mainly because there is always something new in those under the sun (unlike economics, heh). But so are the daily lives and tribulations of the core group - this person's divorce, that person's carpenter ants, another person's race hang-ups.

There are a number of problems with an anonymous group blog as you describe (moderation, clique-ness and exclusivity, etc). You're welcome to come and ask us what they are. A shortage of opinions was prohibited in the by-laws.

BTW, your moveable type app (I'm assuming it's that) had some perl errors in this comment window.

I feel that anonymous blogging is pretty useless. Flame wars are inevitable. Also, it comes to mind that in a completely anonymous blog in which no one ever identifies themselves at all, then a robust, interested readership will never coalesce because most readers simply need to have a figment of their imagination that they can attach to the name under which a piece or article is posted or published. Otherwise, if that figment can't be attached to a name, or even a differentiating Nom de Plume, then there's simply one too many obstacles to the suspension of disbelief (in the idea that a writer is either not your own imagination, not the voice of God, or not a close friend -- note the double negatives in effect, that's a rather confusingly written parenthetical) for the average reader to put up with for very long. I mean, at least back in the days when IRC was the king of the Internet social scene you could end an all out flame war between people who didn't know each other by DDoSing their IP address. So like, that was fun. Like, not. :-P

Not quite the same thing, but on a BB (The Rebel Forum) I contribute to, there are "IDs" that are used by groups of people--many of whom also have individual IDs. Which IDs are individual and which aren't is a subject of much speculation.

oh man....!!!!

Hurricane John Upgraded to Category 4 Storm

Effect Measure is one such blog. From their "About" page:

The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and practitioners. Their names would be immediately recognizable to many in the public health community. They prefer to keep their online and public lives separate to allow maximum freedom of expression. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere" to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known for other things.

Here's One.