taking lauda and satoshi as examples

they both would not need to reveal real life into to the whole forum community to prove or disprove anything..

they were both considered "staff" by this forum and so i am sure it only takes 1-3 people (theymos mostly) that know enough about them behind the public posts to tell if they are the real deal or not. and a simple badge can be added to their avatar/ranking to show that theymos has verified them. then it becomes settled that its them.. should they want to reannounce their return..

as for wanting to participate without announcing their former involvement. they can freely do that.
its not rocket science. there are a few newbies here today that know more then average and its just obvious that they are what radio would call "long time listener first time caller".. and we just accept that idea and just talk to people at whatever level knowledge they appear to have.

the whole "forum newbie2 is not a big deal whereby if someone has adequate knowledge that they get slammed with a judgement of being a fake alt and requiring proving their old identity. in most cases its actually a simple thought that this persons account not seen before actually knows something

..
the only times i see the judgements of people saying that some newbie is an alt. is whereby they are repeating some shameful act/speach/script repeated on a previous account.

as for meaningful, insightful idea's and knowledge type of account users, no one is calling hem out as fake newbies who are just alt crawling to avoid bans