Because there were a number of 'retalitory ratings' early on with the rep system, I decided that displaying names caused more trouble than not displaying names.

As to deductive determinations based on who posts in a thread, I'd be cautious with that. This forum, like the others I oversee, has a huge number of lurkers that would rate, but not post (people like myself in many cases). I'd guess that the number of lurkers is well over 90%.

Brad