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We go to great effort to find the right balance between a user's need for privacy and the community/public benefit in keeping threads intact and coherent (movin

by tomhow 2mo ago

We go to great effort to find the right balance between a user's need for privacy and the community/public benefit in keeping threads intact and coherent (moving every one of a user's comments to a different username makes the threads incoherent). On a case-by-case basis we can move a selection of comments to a separate username. We of course don't want anyone to be in danger.

testing22321 2mo ago
It seems like you’re more concerned about keeping threads from years ago coherent than you are about my wishes and safety. Middle ground: on any given topic change all my comments to some random user I’d, then a different one for every topic. threads will stay coherent, but people won’t be able to follow my old user name around topics for 14 years. I’ll send an email in the morning. I have to sleep.
- tomhow 2mo ago
  > It seems like you’re more concerned about keeping threads from years ago coherent than you are about my wishes and safety. This is obviously not true. We care about thread persistence and coherence as a default, because some of HN's most historically significant threads are from the earliest years. We will take reasonable steps to protect people's identity and safety once we know the specifics of the situation. We routinely redact URLs, company names, project names and other identifying details from historical comments to prevent people's identity from being inferred.
  - testing22321 2mo ago
    It is impressive how you keep repeating that line while not addressing suggestions to fix the problem by myself and others. You’re saying “we do minimum effort” . I am telling you It is not enough, and you refuse to even acknowledge that. You are saying “tough luck” in fancier language.
    - tomhow 2mo ago
      Please stop attributing false quotes and sentiments to us. The approach we take is necessarily tailored to each case, because each case is different. We spend far more time, effort and care to address these requests than it would take to simply do what you've asked of us, and simply doing what you've asked of us would not address the concern you've expressed. Your case is unusual. We continue to be willing to help. A cooperative rather than belligerent approach will make it easier for everyone to get the best outcome.
  - BigTTYGothGF 2mo ago
    Without knowing (or wanting to know) any of the particulars beyond what's posted in this thread I think I have to agree with the other poster here.
    - tomhow 2mo ago
      The particulars matter a lot in this particular case.

by tomhow 2mo ago

testing22321 2mo ago

It seems like you’re more concerned about keeping threads from years ago coherent than you are about my wishes and safety. Middle ground: on any given topic change all my comments to some random user I’d, then a different one for every topic. threads will stay coherent, but people won’t be able to follow my old user name around topics for 14 years. I’ll send an email in the morning. I have to sleep.

tomhow 2mo ago
> It seems like you’re more concerned about keeping threads from years ago coherent than you are about my wishes and safety. This is obviously not true. We care about thread persistence and coherence as a default, because some of HN's most historically significant threads are from the earliest years. We will take reasonable steps to protect people's identity and safety once we know the specifics of the situation. We routinely redact URLs, company names, project names and other identifying details from historical comments to prevent people's identity from being inferred.
- testing22321 2mo ago
  It is impressive how you keep repeating that line while not addressing suggestions to fix the problem by myself and others. You’re saying “we do minimum effort” . I am telling you It is not enough, and you refuse to even acknowledge that. You are saying “tough luck” in fancier language.
  - tomhow 2mo ago
    Please stop attributing false quotes and sentiments to us. The approach we take is necessarily tailored to each case, because each case is different. We spend far more time, effort and care to address these requests than it would take to simply do what you've asked of us, and simply doing what you've asked of us would not address the concern you've expressed. Your case is unusual. We continue to be willing to help. A cooperative rather than belligerent approach will make it easier for everyone to get the best outcome.
- BigTTYGothGF 2mo ago
  Without knowing (or wanting to know) any of the particulars beyond what's posted in this thread I think I have to agree with the other poster here.
  - tomhow 2mo ago
    The particulars matter a lot in this particular case.