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Poll: Do you use your real identity on HN?

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

#291

Post by r00fus »

josephlord wrote: post #255
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #165

Yes but I somewhat regret it because Paul Graham won't allow us to delete old comments. Your HN identity is permanent. I personally think this is backwards and unfair to the content creators. The words I type I are mine. Let me delete them if I so choose to at a later date. Otherwise I'll stop contributing out of fear that I might say something I regret at a later date. "Doesn't that prevent uncivil arguments?" NO. A…

Once you have submitted the words they become part of the thread and not purely your own. However it might be good to allow them to be anonymised later.

I'd prefer allowing them to become pseudonymous later. I still think it's useful to be able to take a comment in context of other things that individual/account has said.

Of course, I guess this could be easily done if you could change your userid (on the backend, it's proabably a GUID or sequence number anyway).

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

#292

Post by cupcake-unicorn »

edh649 wrote: post #272
michael_h wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: What about facebook do you find useful? I hate that I have to preface a question as being sincere to ensure that it isn't read as an insult, but here we are.

The most useful thing I find is just to contact friends. If I need to chat to someone then I know that if I send them a facebook message they'll most likely read it and reply within the day.

I had too many friends who "weren't reachable" other than Facebook. I'm not sure how they were getting the Facebook notifications - apparently over email, or on their phone, which also has SMS, but I could never get in touch with them unless I sent them a Facebook message.

I don't have those friends anymore. I deserve better. If someone can't take the time to reply to a simple email or text unless it's through Facebook, they're not worth having as friends. Yes, you may lose some friends, but the ones you keep you know are going to be there for you.

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

#293

Post by diminoten »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #292
edh649 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most useful thing I find is just to contact friends. If I need to chat to someone then I know that if I send them a facebook message they'll most likely read it and reply within the day.

I had too many friends who "weren't reachable" other than Facebook. I'm not sure how they were getting the Facebook notifications - apparently over email, or on their phone, which also has SMS, but I could never get in touch with them unless I sent them a Facebook message. I don't have those friends anymore. I deserve better. If someone can't take the time to reply to a simple email or text unless it's through Facebo…

Why does having a communication preference make a person a good or bad friend? That seems incredibly small of you.

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

#294

Post by mcovey »

I avoid associating my real identity with anything on the internet, even if it's a private account. I only do it where I have to, like for banking. I don't take many steps to be untraceable (just Ghostery and a variety of usernames), but my reasons are twofold: I have read too many stories about people getting screwed for something they did or said online. Jobs losts, relationships destroyed, and often due to misunderstandings. I sometimes forget that The Internet is Serious Business, and say things that I would normally only say around close friends, things I might not want everyone to know. Secondly, I am a private person and I don't take much pleasure in being congratulated or showered with attention, so in cases where I do make valuable contributions, I am happy to do so pseudonymously or anonymously.

Then again, I've met people from the internet in real life, in both friendly and professional contexts, with no issues thus far. When I want to chat with someone, I send them an email or IM username, which both have my actual name and location on. I'm much more comfortable with it 1-on-1 than in the open crowd of 3 billion internet users.

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

#296

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

josephlord wrote: post #255
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #165

Yes but I somewhat regret it because Paul Graham won't allow us to delete old comments. Your HN identity is permanent. I personally think this is backwards and unfair to the content creators. The words I type I are mine. Let me delete them if I so choose to at a later date. Otherwise I'll stop contributing out of fear that I might say something I regret at a later date. "Doesn't that prevent uncivil arguments?" NO. A…

Once you have submitted the words they become part of the thread and not purely your own. However it might be good to allow them to be anonymised later.

When was the last time you went back to a thread on HN that was made 2 months ago? 6 months ago? 1 year ago?

Building a mountain of conversations that will never be read again is utterly pointless.

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

#297

Post by onedev »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #292
edh649 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most useful thing I find is just to contact friends. If I need to chat to someone then I know that if I send them a facebook message they'll most likely read it and reply within the day.

I had too many friends who "weren't reachable" other than Facebook. I'm not sure how they were getting the Facebook notifications - apparently over email, or on their phone, which also has SMS, but I could never get in touch with them unless I sent them a Facebook message. I don't have those friends anymore. I deserve better. If someone can't take the time to reply to a simple email or text unless it's through Facebo…

So you're choosing friends based on the messaging service they use?

I would not want to be your friend.

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

#299

Post by exodust »

gradstudent wrote: post #247
exodust wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Anonymity doesn't bring out the worst in people. The attitudes and opinions and intelligence of the person behind the comment is what brings out the worst in their expression, or style of expression online. Don't blame the presence or absence of a number on the letterbox of the house for the behavior of the occupants inside the house.

Strongly disagree. Anonymity comes with the promise of zero responsibility. You don't need to be a natural dickhead to find that tempting. Anonymity means you don't have to think too much because even if you're wrong nobody will know it's you

It's cool you disagree. When it comes to publishing our credentials, I hope it's okay to have variety in the community.

Your handle is another name for you in this moment. Relative to this discussion, to this forum, one's username is the cornerstone of each post. Perhaps forgotten easily between threads. But in $this thread is often where it counts.

In the beer garden, should all chatter be recorded and archived? Sure, why not. But then authored, as does a professional writer and editor? The skills needed not to say things that could result in noisy, inaccurate, too long, not long enough, or any number of other things that would make an unsubscribable Flipboard. Skills of few.

The username I gave myself, is more truthful of my state of mind, and point of view relative to this forum. The name means more here than the first name given to me by my parents, and my last name on loan from past generations. I'm proud of my real name, but I'm going for relevance and fun online.

Contextual, in the moment, not "published by Paul, all rights reserved". It's a casual comment only. And I don't know who you are anyway, even if you tell me your real name and Twitter feed.

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

#300

Post by cupcake-unicorn »

cupcake-unicorn wrote: post #292
edh649 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most useful thing I find is just to contact friends. If I need to chat to someone then I know that if I send them a facebook message they'll most likely read it and reply within the day.

I had too many friends who "weren't reachable" other than Facebook. I'm not sure how they were getting the Facebook notifications - apparently over email, or on their phone, which also has SMS, but I could never get in touch with them unless I sent them a Facebook message. I don't have those friends anymore. I deserve better. If someone can't take the time to reply to a simple email or text unless it's through Facebo…

Choosing friends on their refusal to communicate with me via anything other than Facebook is somehow wrong of me? I don't care what you use to communicate with, but if I don't have access to that, I do expect someone to "go out of their way" to send an email/text. I was saying that I had friends who I couldn't ever contact once I left Facebook, despite them apparently having a phone and email address.
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