On world2ch.net, most users went around as anonymous and a large minority went tripped. I think the whole trip code thing was born out of the fact that it's hard to keep track of yourself without one and also we all came from the West where everyone at the very least has some identifier. On 2ch itself, trip codes are quite rare with nearly everyone posting anonymously. The feature, as far as I know, was first discovered by the West through w2ch's rules and how-tos. As I have said before, 2ch and Japanese boards like it are content-centric where those in the West tend to be user-centric. In the West, who you are is a big deal where in Japan, it's what you say (which is not to say that what is mostly said are insults and stupid meaningless shit).

On Something Awful, every user name is associated with a registration date. The earlier you register, clearly the more weight your opinion carries (or so they'd believe). The thing is, registration dates, names, avatars, and all the other paid add-ons are totally meaningless if you're a fucking idiot and have been since '00…

In the very early days of 4chan (like first weeks), people used their SA/RH name if they were from SA, their name/trip if they were from world2ch, then trip codes as they found out about them, or nothing at all if they were from Japan. The use of names/trips faded almost immediately and there are several good reasons for that. Firstly, SA admins were total dicks and would ban you for off-site comments/behavior at the time. Most of what the board got up to immediately was considered completely taboo at SA. Secondly, given what I just said, I don't think we really wanted to be associated with it. It was kind of the wild west back then. It was groundbreaking… we could be dicks and say whatever we wanted even about the operators of the site and get away with it. There was one rule and everything else was OK by them. Coming out from the cold of the despotic rule at SA, this was a great relief. As Anonymous, nothing could be tracked back to us. Being Anonymous would be the first step in taking the Internet out of the hands of the likes of SA…

Within the culture of Anonymous if you have a problem with any person, group, corporation, or government you're free to say whatever the hell you'd like with practically no way to be tracked. Well, that is unless of course you are an American citizen with a beef against someone specific in the US government, in which case they'll probably be all over you. That aside, it certainly takes a lot of control out of the hands of the mods of bullshit forums on the Internet.