I do, because this is one of the few Internet forums on which I really take the conversation seriously. I've met interesting people here, and had conversations

I do, because this is one of the few Internet forums on which I really take the conversation seriously. I've met interesting people here, and had conversations which have helped me in "real life". HN would be substantially less valuable to me without that real-world connection. Elsewhere I use a name which would be trivially identified by close friends (nickname from my fencing club) but which is opaque otherwise. The system works.