7 ms·

Is it not allowed to have an anonymous HN account?

dang 7y ago
Of course it is. We don't ask for names. We don't even have a way for users to give us their name, unless they choose to publish it via their username or the About field of their profile.
- smudgymcscmudge 7y ago
  Thank you for keeping it this way.
- dontbenebby 7y ago
  Thanks! I thought maybe "HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to." meant our nyms should point to a real person, and that the account mentioned in the article was terminated for being registered via Tor. I try to find the middle ground with this account. You can probably find out who I am, but I hope people will respect it's important to have nyms where we can have informal convos. (Also luckily most snoopers are lazy so simply not tying my legal name to this is sufficient considering I'm not expressing anything particularly controversial...) Kind of like how half of Gotham seems to know who Batman is, but they pretend not to ;)
  - meruru 7y ago
    I have several completely anonymous accounts on HN all registered and used through Tor. It has never been a problem.
    - mirimir 7y ago
      Did you need to request that accounts created via Tor be un-shadow-banned?
      - meruru 7y ago
        No, I'm not aware of ever being shadowbanned and I think I would realize if I were since I often browse logged out.
  - dang 7y ago
    > I thought maybe "HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to." meant our nyms should point to a real person Your HN username should represent you as a person in the sense of providing an identity over time, because that's necessary for a community. But it's totally fine not to use your real name. I've posted a bunch about this over the years if anyone wants more: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20identity%20relate https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme....
dredmorbius 7y ago
Yes. Both long-term pseudonymous accounts (such as this) and short-lived throwaways.
boapnuaput 7y ago
There are several rings of anonymous HN accounts which are guarded such that anybody (who knows a bit of a trick) can use them to post whatever they like. These accounts aren't official, but grey; officially, there's not really a way to prevent such a thing.

dang 7y ago

Of course it is. We don't ask for names. We don't even have a way for users to give us their name, unless they choose to publish it via their username or the About field of their profile.

smudgymcscmudge 7y ago
Thank you for keeping it this way.
dontbenebby 7y ago
Thanks! I thought maybe "HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to." meant our nyms should point to a real person, and that the account mentioned in the article was terminated for being registered via Tor. I try to find the middle ground with this account. You can probably find out who I am, but I hope people will respect it's important to have nyms where we can have informal convos. (Also luckily most snoopers are lazy so simply not tying my legal name to this is sufficient considering I'm not expressing anything particularly controversial...) Kind of like how half of Gotham seems to know who Batman is, but they pretend not to ;)
- meruru 7y ago
  I have several completely anonymous accounts on HN all registered and used through Tor. It has never been a problem.
  - mirimir 7y ago
    Did you need to request that accounts created via Tor be un-shadow-banned?
    - meruru 7y ago
      No, I'm not aware of ever being shadowbanned and I think I would realize if I were since I often browse logged out.
- dang 7y ago
  > I thought maybe "HN is a community—users should have an identity that others can relate to." meant our nyms should point to a real person Your HN username should represent you as a person in the sense of providing an identity over time, because that's necessary for a community. But it's totally fine not to use your real name. I've posted a bunch about this over the years if anyone wants more: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20identity%20relate https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme....

dredmorbius 7y ago

Yes. Both long-term pseudonymous accounts (such as this) and short-lived throwaways.

boapnuaput 7y ago

There are several rings of anonymous HN accounts which are guarded such that anybody (who knows a bit of a trick) can use them to post whatever they like. These accounts aren't official, but grey; officially, there's not really a way to prevent such a thing.