Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 307 posts

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#101

Post by SoftwareMaven »

flatline wrote: post #25

For some reason I'm extremely hesitant to post things under my real name. I don't really care if people know my name on an individual basis (and it's not like I'm a high profile poster anyway), but I am squeamish about it generally, and feel too self-conscious to post anything if my name is associated directly with it. I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me to…

I understand where the feelings come from, but I'm not that way. On the other hand, there are times that I feel like I have to limit what I say. There are some details that are too personal or that impact people I care deeply about that I don't want to have tied that closely to my real identity.

For those cases, I consider how valuable what I have to say might be and, if it is truly worth it (not very often), I'll create a throw-away. Of course, it isn't going to stop anybody truly determined, but it makes it harder.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#102

Post by graue »

mnicole wrote: post #54
flatline wrote: post #25

For some reason I'm extremely hesitant to post things under my real name. I don't really care if people know my name on an individual basis (and it's not like I'm a high profile poster anyway), but I am squeamish about it generally, and feel too self-conscious to post anything if my name is associated directly with it. I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me to…

Ditto. Deciding to use a variant of my name here was something I went back and forth on (partly because I didn't want it associated with me at all, partly because I didn't want it to be gendered [1]). Ultimately I decided that I wanted to be able to take credit for posts where I write about usability/design/anything else I feel qualified to speak to, even at the expense of potential employers reading the rest of what…

> One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion

That sucks. I hope they were downvoted into oblivion, but either way, I know that kind of thing happens on HN and I wish HN were better than that. I'm sorry that happened to you.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#104

Post by hosay123 »

I tend to recycle accounts every so often, and make a reasonable effort to keep each account anonymous (although a determined creeper could likely identify me). I've also got a "real world" account, but generally prefer the freedom of posting anonymously, to avoid any potential Google-sleuthing later on.

It's a double-edged sword, though. Not associating opinions with my real world identity encourages me to post a lot more nonsense.. the freedom to be anonymous is also the freedom to communicate with no discipline, which couldn't be beneficial in the long term

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#105

Post by bigiain »

bobsy wrote: post #40
flatline wrote: post #25

For some reason I'm extremely hesitant to post things under my real name. I don't really care if people know my name on an individual basis (and it's not like I'm a high profile poster anyway), but I am squeamish about it generally, and feel too self-conscious to post anything if my name is associated directly with it. I've tried blogging under my real name and always went back and deleted everything, it caused me to…

My opinions change regularly, I am sometimes enlightened, I sometimes have a change of heart. I don't post with my actual identity because of this. I don't want a situation where someone stumbles onto an old post or where I played devil's advocate and I lose out as a result.

I kinda miss the old days of usenet, where I'd often post sarcasm or devil's advocate type comments with an

x-planation: Yes, this is sarcasm

type header.

Web forums generally don't have a way to attach metadata like that in a way that's not _normally_ seen, but is easily discoverable or demonstratable on a per-post basis.

The "Ha ha! I was only joking" defense is much more credible if you explicitly (but initially in a non-visible way) declared that up-front.

Re: Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

#106

Post by Falkon1313 »

No, not my real name. Just a 'nym that I've been using for over 17 years, which is very much a real part of my identity. Parts of it date back 21 years, although I used several different pseudonyms back then, depending on the community.

Why a pseudonym? Back in the WWIV vs Wildcat BBS days, I noticed that, contrary to popular belief, the pseudonymous communities were actually much friendlier, more honest and open, and less hostile. There was no age, gender, race, class discrimination or bullying, which were common on the real-name-only communities. People were judged on the merits of what they said and how they acted, rather than factors not under their control.

I may have little to worry about discrimination, but still I value the freedom, honesty, and integrity of pseudonymity.

Post reply on HN