You could have anonymity without losing data. Assign everybody a random id. Do whatever data mining you need to, based on id number, to see how credible this

You could have anonymity without losing data. Assign everybody a random id. Do whatever data mining you need to, based on id number, to see how credible this person's opinion is. I think this system can work ... if it's not abused. Intelligent analysis of the data will keep it from being abused. You may actually be able to find inverse correlations among some of your more aggressive aspiring manipulators, where a down-vote from them actually ends up being a vote of support. Let them do their worst. Statistics will out them, eventually. As for the ethics of it. If the system is smart enough to avoid abuse, I think it has merit. When is ignorance ever the right answer? If there's data to be had as to whether you have, as an old boss of mine used to say "a leak in your payroll", why is it evil to attempt to determine that?