4 ms·

I use my real name as a way of keeping myself accountable as I've noticed that I'm much more inflammatory when under the guise of a pseudonym.

spitx 13y ago
I do not think HN frowns on inflammatory speech if worded deftly. If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory. Anything less will be intellectually dishonest.
- loteck 13y ago
  If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory. No. Being inflammatory is by definition an attempt to cause others to become inflamed. Should those others also then reply with inflammatory speech? Where does it end? Value of the thread drops to zero rapidly. I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo.
  - spitx 13y ago
    Malarkey. Jobs would breathe fire when hes incensed or inflamed. Furiousness is a skill that your kind cannot internalize. It brings out the best when rightly meant and rightly utilized. One has a right to be inflamed when his or her world view is called into question. The mediocre just acquiesce, the impassioned offer a caustic rebuttal. Not some happy medium rejoinder that pleases all.
  - Suitov 13y ago
    >I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo. I, too. It's almost like my IRL workplace, but with loads more techie clued-up people. And IRL, I very much enjoy working in a context in which there are very few alpha males, Insanity Wolves and Ayn Rand readers. Now, personally, I do my best to be avoidant or calmly assertive when someone I meet annoys me, and I mentally file people who throw chest-beating tantrums under "giant baby" and avoid them on the assumption that instability implies unreliability and they wouldn't be pleasant to work with. Fundamental attribution error be damned, one blow-up is one too many for me to feel at ease around someone. So that tells you something about my personal definition of unacceptable behaviour, I suppose.
Torgo 13y ago
I am not going to go so far as to say someday you will regret it, but in the end you can't control how other people use your words. A pseudonym is a defensive mechanism.
SeanLuke 13y ago
I specifically do this as well. And I've done a bit of a test. While I only occasionally post under my real name on reddit, I always post under my real name on HN. And over the last year or more, it's been clear, to me at any rate, that I am much less of a jerk on HN.
deleted 13y ago
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spitx 13y ago

I do not think HN frowns on inflammatory speech if worded deftly. If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory. Anything less will be intellectually dishonest.

loteck 13y ago
If you are inflamed, your speech should be inflammatory. No. Being inflammatory is by definition an attempt to cause others to become inflamed. Should those others also then reply with inflammatory speech? Where does it end? Value of the thread drops to zero rapidly. I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo.
- spitx 13y ago
  Malarkey. Jobs would breathe fire when hes incensed or inflamed. Furiousness is a skill that your kind cannot internalize. It brings out the best when rightly meant and rightly utilized. One has a right to be inflamed when his or her world view is called into question. The mediocre just acquiesce, the impassioned offer a caustic rebuttal. Not some happy medium rejoinder that pleases all.
- Suitov 13y ago
  >I've appreciated my time on HN specifically because I notice many replies to "inflamed" speech specifically eschew further inflammation and focus on the mindful discussion. Bravo. I, too. It's almost like my IRL workplace, but with loads more techie clued-up people. And IRL, I very much enjoy working in a context in which there are very few alpha males, Insanity Wolves and Ayn Rand readers. Now, personally, I do my best to be avoidant or calmly assertive when someone I meet annoys me, and I mentally file people who throw chest-beating tantrums under "giant baby" and avoid them on the assumption that instability implies unreliability and they wouldn't be pleasant to work with. Fundamental attribution error be damned, one blow-up is one too many for me to feel at ease around someone. So that tells you something about my personal definition of unacceptable behaviour, I suppose.

Torgo 13y ago

I am not going to go so far as to say someday you will regret it, but in the end you can't control how other people use your words. A pseudonym is a defensive mechanism.

SeanLuke 13y ago

I specifically do this as well. And I've done a bit of a test. While I only occasionally post under my real name on reddit, I always post under my real name on HN. And over the last year or more, it's been clear, to me at any rate, that I am much less of a jerk on HN.

deleted 13y ago

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