Customer support forums are a place where, in addition to having their questions answered, users can act as supplementary product support in order to build a reputation in the community as an expert. Thus, answerers certainly want to have their identities known. But does the asker really need or want to be known? I notice that Quora doesn't emphasize the asker of a question if they even expose that information at all.
Should this information be exposed on a support forum?
I think Philtune's comment hit it right on the dot. I don't believe most people would want, or care, if their name was displayed. For product support, most of the time it's a "get in get out" type system. However, as pointed out, people do stay and build a reputation on the site. Why not let the user decide instead of you?
Default: user is anonymous
If the user chooses: they can have their information displayed.
User chooses what their user name is
If they want to build reputation, they should be in control of the name the rep is associated with.
