I agree. I think a sense of community is the main driver of quality comments: that's why news sites and YouTube have such poor comments, because most people followed a link to that specific article/video and have no long-term relationship with the site; whereas forums on a site devoted to a single topic do much less badly.
But I don't think real names are strongly causally connected to a sense of community.
Comments
Usenet, which had real names, was filled with non-quality interaction.
SA, which charges admission, is self-obsessed and psychotic.
If you have enough posters or your topic invites people who aren't motivated to debate rationally, your comments are going to be stupid.
EDIT: one thing that Usenet did have was the killfile. Now that's solving social problems with technology!
I agree. I think a sense of community is the main driver of quality comments: that's why news sites and YouTube have such poor comments, because most people followed a link to that specific article/video and have no long-term relationship with the site; whereas forums on a site devoted to a single topic do much less badly.
But I don't think real names are strongly causally connected to a sense of community.
For a good example, see advrider.com, which has free and (mostly) pseudonymous accounts but a great sense of community.