"I see no need for "personas""
If you work for a company X and you are posting with your real name, you will somehow represent the company X. Whatever you say on YC is public. Be careful to not damage your company image.
How to Participate in Hacker News
21–30 of 126 posts
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#221.) Most of the time I just tell stories. I am only 20 and have relatively little experience. The only thing I can really add is a well written comment that asks a question or explains something neat. 2.)The best way to participate is to go out and do something awesome. Take something you saw on the front page and mess around with it. Maybe something will happen and you make the front page. Probably it won't, but the…
That's pretty dumb. Your account could be compromised for spam purposes, or someone could easily start posting things as you.
Because your full name, personal domain (which includes your last name), college, and interests are all part of your profile, it would be fairly trivial to post some pretty embarrassing comments or links as you. Then if someone (potential employer/girlfriend/family member/etc) does a google search for Zachary Maril, and a bunch of links to racist or pornographic sites come up... "my password is public" is a pretty lousy excuse.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#23- Don't be discouraged at first to post if you don't think you're "following the guidelines". We all get downvoted from time to time. Especially when people first get active.
- Discussions are almost always value add. Even if you adamantly oppose someone else's position. Gaining perspective is a huge value add for me personally.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#24I never understood why people lurked so long.
As a long-time lurker, I mainly visit HN to get exposed to new ideas that I know little about. This is why I don't (and shouldn't) comment very often.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#25I think a good point is to avoid jokes, especially weak ones. They're easy and distract from the original topic(s).
You're full of shit.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#261.) Most of the time I just tell stories. I am only 20 and have relatively little experience. The only thing I can really add is a well written comment that asks a question or explains something neat. 2.)The best way to participate is to go out and do something awesome. Take something you saw on the front page and mess around with it. Maybe something will happen and you make the front page. Probably it won't, but the…
That's pretty dumb. Your account could be compromised for spam purposes, or someone could easily start posting things as you. Because your full name, personal domain (which includes your last name), college, and interests are all part of your profile, it would be fairly trivial to post some pretty embarrassing comments or links as you. Then if someone (potential employer/girlfriend/family member/etc) does a google se…
What is preventing somebody from copying your profile and creating zcohn, the malicious hacker from Seattle who likes parkour, technology, and doing bad things? Your identity is comparably open as mine is as far as details.
At some point people are going to do bad things to this profile. No doubt. With that in mind though, I can post here because I want to say something and contribute, not because of Karma. If I had a few thousand points and a reputation, I would have something to protect. But now I can just say what I think is useful, not what I think will be upvoted.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#271.) Most of the time I just tell stories. I am only 20 and have relatively little experience. The only thing I can really add is a well written comment that asks a question or explains something neat. 2.)The best way to participate is to go out and do something awesome. Take something you saw on the front page and mess around with it. Maybe something will happen and you make the front page. Probably it won't, but the…
Security of user accounts is no joking matter. It may be hijacked for spam bots. Someone may pose as you telling stories.
Spam bots are a legitimate concern to me. I'll probably start rotating passwords if I sense that something like that is happening. I don't want to hurt hacker news.
And somebody could already pose as me, or you, or anybody else on here who isn't way famous (nobody could pose as pg). Anybody can be anybody else on the internet.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this got me until somebody found my email some other way and mentioned it was difficult. The real issue is that I basically never see my profile as somebody else would see it.
PG might want to add the text "(not shown)" to the user profile template.
I think a "make email visible" checkbox would clear up any confusion here.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#29I never understood why people lurked so long. As a long-time lurker, I mainly visit HN to get exposed to new ideas that I know little about. This is why I don't (and shouldn't) comment very often.
I also was a long time lurker. I participated in a few comments - and then saw my karma drop for no reason I could discern. Perhaps a much more clear rules and a response when something is down voted.
Re: How to Participate in Hacker News
#301.) Most of the time I just tell stories. I am only 20 and have relatively little experience. The only thing I can really add is a well written comment that asks a question or explains something neat. 2.)The best way to participate is to go out and do something awesome. Take something you saw on the front page and mess around with it. Maybe something will happen and you make the front page. Probably it won't, but the…
PG likes to see your HN handle in YC applications. your HN handle is part of your online identity and reputation.