3 ms·

The difference is that changing your username creates a completely new identity. It's not just correcting a typo.

by cookiecaper 10y ago

brokenmachine 10y ago
The point is that it doesn't need to be that way. Why can't username be an editable field?
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  Because it creates a new identity. The only way anyone on HN can recognize you is your username. Changing it at will would allow anyone to shed their identity on HN at any time while keeping the karma and account privileges they've accumulated. Perhaps that is something that's worth allowing, and iirc dang et al have made some vague statements that they may be interested in allowing that at some point, but the ramifications would be substantial. This isn't something that should be taken lightly, nor should it be expected/implicit that a social site will accommodate new identities on-demand.
  - brokenmachine 10y ago
    > Because it creates a new identity. And? My anonymous (to everyone but the NSA) username will be a different anonymous username. The karma/privileges are entirely dependent on the quality of my posts, not some inherent value of the username. Also the posts that generated that karma would still be there under the new username. I'm not too concerned either way , but I don't see why that would be a big deal.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      Again, identity. You're not anonymous here, you're pseudonymous. Believe it or not, but I do actually recognize a lot of people here by their HN usernames, and I would mind if those were to randomly change all the time. Anyway, I suspect that if you e-mail HN mods, they could be able to correct your username in no time. But making it any easier than that would, IMO, be harmful to community.
    - raverbashing 10y ago
      > but I don't see why that would be a big deal. Yes, you don't. But forum managers have been aware of the issue for years It's a feature that's very easily abused.
      - brokenmachine 10y ago
        What is the abuse? Changing your meaningless identifier? Despite your explanation, I still don't see any actual damage. I made up the identifier in the first place. Why should anyone care if I change it? All my posts will remain my posts. The only thing is that maybe some people who remember my posts with the old username won't recognize the new name as the same poster, which I don't see as a significant issue. Is that a problem for forum managers? I would have thought they would have problems with people creating multiple new accounts and spamming, not changing the username of existing accounts. Please explain, I'm honestly curious. Maybe I'm missing something?
        raverbashing 10y ago
        > who remember my posts with the old username won't recognize the new name as the same poster, which I don't see as a significant issue. Is that a problem for forum managers? Yes, because people will abuse it. If you keep track of violations (especially in moderated forums) it's important to know who did what. And while your primary key on the DB might still be the same, people don't know it, they know your nickname. Some people would change it every time they comment just for the sake of it New account creations have some kind of gatekeeping/email verification so it's not as efficient, and admins have ways of checking if this was done with the purpose of evading a ban for example But if you want to change it because you made a typo or for a similar reason admins usually let you do it (they have to change it for you though)
  - Firadeoclus 10y ago
    That can be addressed within the UI. E.g. display the old name next to the new name for a few weeks. After that, just leave a symbol indicating that this username has a change history, which could be presented on click or hover.
kevingadd 10y ago
HN encourages people to pick their real names as usernames (or a variant of such) for 'real identities', but ignores the reality that people change their names when they get married. Is getting married a completely new identity? Now the username doesn't actually identify the poster by the name people might recognize, if they gained their rep after getting married.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  I don't know their policy, but I would guess that if someone has a reasonable explanation like this (or some other small change that doesn't materially affect the ability of readers to recognize the user), the HN team will try to be accommodating. They have always been responsive and gracious to me on the handful of occasions that I've contacted them, although I'm sure my questions were annoying.
  - kevingadd 10y ago
    I've asked before, they said no.
    - pluma 10y ago
      My guess: the underlying database uses usernames as a primary key and they don't want to update all the comments and submissions just to make a specific user happy. Especially because doing it once would set a precedent for others.
      - cookiecaper 10y ago
        I doubt they'd use the username as the primary key, but either way, I agree the precedent is the biggest concern. They'd get inundated with name change requests if they started making exceptions for people.
- grzm 10y ago
  HN encourages people to pick their real names as usernames From what I've observed, HN encourages people to use consistent identities, not necessarily real names. 'dang has mentioned a number of times that pseudonymity is fine.

The difference is that changing your username creates a completely new identity. It's not just correcting a typo.

brokenmachine 10y ago

The point is that it doesn't need to be that way. Why can't username be an editable field?

cookiecaper 10y ago
Because it creates a new identity. The only way anyone on HN can recognize you is your username. Changing it at will would allow anyone to shed their identity on HN at any time while keeping the karma and account privileges they've accumulated. Perhaps that is something that's worth allowing, and iirc dang et al have made some vague statements that they may be interested in allowing that at some point, but the ramifications would be substantial. This isn't something that should be taken lightly, nor should it be expected/implicit that a social site will accommodate new identities on-demand.
- brokenmachine 10y ago
  > Because it creates a new identity. And? My anonymous (to everyone but the NSA) username will be a different anonymous username. The karma/privileges are entirely dependent on the quality of my posts, not some inherent value of the username. Also the posts that generated that karma would still be there under the new username. I'm not too concerned either way , but I don't see why that would be a big deal.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Again, identity. You're not anonymous here, you're pseudonymous. Believe it or not, but I do actually recognize a lot of people here by their HN usernames, and I would mind if those were to randomly change all the time. Anyway, I suspect that if you e-mail HN mods, they could be able to correct your username in no time. But making it any easier than that would, IMO, be harmful to community.
  - raverbashing 10y ago
    > but I don't see why that would be a big deal. Yes, you don't. But forum managers have been aware of the issue for years It's a feature that's very easily abused.
    - brokenmachine 10y ago
      What is the abuse? Changing your meaningless identifier? Despite your explanation, I still don't see any actual damage. I made up the identifier in the first place. Why should anyone care if I change it? All my posts will remain my posts. The only thing is that maybe some people who remember my posts with the old username won't recognize the new name as the same poster, which I don't see as a significant issue. Is that a problem for forum managers? I would have thought they would have problems with people creating multiple new accounts and spamming, not changing the username of existing accounts. Please explain, I'm honestly curious. Maybe I'm missing something?
      - raverbashing 10y ago
        > who remember my posts with the old username won't recognize the new name as the same poster, which I don't see as a significant issue. Is that a problem for forum managers? Yes, because people will abuse it. If you keep track of violations (especially in moderated forums) it's important to know who did what. And while your primary key on the DB might still be the same, people don't know it, they know your nickname. Some people would change it every time they comment just for the sake of it New account creations have some kind of gatekeeping/email verification so it's not as efficient, and admins have ways of checking if this was done with the purpose of evading a ban for example But if you want to change it because you made a typo or for a similar reason admins usually let you do it (they have to change it for you though)
- Firadeoclus 10y ago
  That can be addressed within the UI. E.g. display the old name next to the new name for a few weeks. After that, just leave a symbol indicating that this username has a change history, which could be presented on click or hover.

kevingadd 10y ago

HN encourages people to pick their real names as usernames (or a variant of such) for 'real identities', but ignores the reality that people change their names when they get married. Is getting married a completely new identity? Now the username doesn't actually identify the poster by the name people might recognize, if they gained their rep after getting married.

cookiecaper 10y ago
I don't know their policy, but I would guess that if someone has a reasonable explanation like this (or some other small change that doesn't materially affect the ability of readers to recognize the user), the HN team will try to be accommodating. They have always been responsive and gracious to me on the handful of occasions that I've contacted them, although I'm sure my questions were annoying.
- kevingadd 10y ago
  I've asked before, they said no.
  - pluma 10y ago
    My guess: the underlying database uses usernames as a primary key and they don't want to update all the comments and submissions just to make a specific user happy. Especially because doing it once would set a precedent for others.
    - cookiecaper 10y ago
      I doubt they'd use the username as the primary key, but either way, I agree the precedent is the biggest concern. They'd get inundated with name change requests if they started making exceptions for people.
grzm 10y ago
HN encourages people to pick their real names as usernames From what I've observed, HN encourages people to use consistent identities, not necessarily real names. 'dang has mentioned a number of times that pseudonymity is fine.