I would (and have) argued that browsing a site like this (one heavily discussion oriented) without keeping track of with whom you are speaking (enough to read their history, maybe do a Google search or two) is overly dehumanizing: the people on this site, possibly only by pseudonyms if not actually by real names, have histories and interests and are generally real people.

Too often, then, people get into arguments that are really nothing more than "cultural crosstalk" (affecting everything from word/idiom choice to argument style); it also makes it more difficult to interpret things people say, as we normally smooth over common mistakes by way of the implied context of knowing who the other person is, and thereby can predict "what they meant".

(By the way, totally unrelated, but I can't reply there anymore, and no one else did at the time: yes, AFAIK had you implemented Amazon's one-click system, even without knowing it existed, you would have been liable; however, you would only have been subject to "damages" and not to "treble (triple) damages", which is designed to punish people who knowingly disrespect patents.)

I normally read through comments and only look at the username if it's a particularly good comment, sometimes I follow the person.

Better than 700 friends I barely know.

The 700 friends who aren't really friends. So true.