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A comment on “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”. Parent comment

Re:“12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News” by asaph on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @09:32AM (#18184634)
It's a way to personalize your account and a way for people to easily recognize an online identity across comments, articles and communities. It helps you discover that @asaph on HN is the same person as @asaph on GitHub, Twitter, Stack Overflow, etc.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:“12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News” by thrower123 on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @09:54AM (#18184839)
One of the features of HN is that identity is downplayed. Personally, I think that this encourages engaging with the arguments that someone makes, rather than who they are.

It's also a throwback to the old internet where pseudonymity was normal. It's refreshing to see usernames like AdmiralAsshat and TooMuchToDo.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:“12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News” by huntie on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @09:45AM (#18184758)
Why does it matter if they're the same? Identity is vastly overrated in my opinion.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:“12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News” by java-man on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @10:48AM (#18185371)
it's a way to track you.
[ Parent | on HN ]