.... difficult on the stand point of privacy. I can see what you're talking about and was about to suggest forcing email but ... using email from hotmail/etc ... is easy enough (I have several, I can't remember the passwords to some anymore) and don't even to bother to check.
Which leads me to ask, what is that "necessary?"
An unruly poster ... ???
What can you do?
The only answer is inform their IP ... banning has it's pro's/con's ... deleting threads ??? somebody would be busy ???
Even if you did over ride that function, the person will probably just ignore it OR take it straight to the forums.
About 2 weeks ago, I was following a debated issue on copyright and GPL/GNU ... people (the person ??) were still able to post ...
I guess, diplomacy / courtesy / turn the other check / ignore that person / ... I'm sure there are many other solutions too.
Paul, You do bring up valid points but I really believe that invasion of privacy is really a sticky issue.
Ahhhh ... unless you mean to have this on your own personal site, then I guess YES we should have this ability, then the owner of G-Forums could do what ever they want.
Hmmm ... which are you referring to? Sorry If I misunderstood!
openoffice + gimp + sketch ...