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I've given some thought to anonymity on reddit and I've come to the conclusion it is all but unobtainable. Every now and then you see it happen, posting similar

I've given some thought to anonymity on reddit and I've come to the conclusion it is all but unobtainable. Every now and then you see it happen, posting similarities or offhand comments are tied between accounts exposing what happened to so-in-so in the myriad of subreddit dramas. I change my account every so often, mostly because I tend to come across as a dick. Still I gain karma fairly steadily yet I prefer being blunt on reddit and that's not the person I wan't friends and family interacting with online, so I change it from time to time to keep my visibility low. So while I may not be 'strong' anonymous it still serves a purpose for me and allows me to engage in discussion whereas on other sites such as G+ or FB I completely abstain from conversation for fear of offending someone. At the end of the day that is useful even if I know full well those with the inclination could easily discern who I am.

bad_user 13y ago
I think you should try being less of a dick in general. It happens to me too, as I get easily offended, however what I noticed is that if you want to educate people, it is far better to do it with well reasoned and nicely phrased arguments. Few people get away with being dicks, like Linus or Jobs, but that only happens for people that earned respect and credibility. Incidentally this is why I prefer HN for the moment. The comments on Reddit tend to get too negative and full of insults. Anonymity is a doubly edged sword, sometimes bringing out the worst in people.
samstave 13y ago
I agree that it is unobtainable. I mode one of the top 50 /r/ on reddit, as well as some much much smaller ones. I have multiple accounts - but not in a gaming-the-system sense; I had a primary account and a novelty account... I wound up posting "primary" comments under my novelty account by mistake after leaving myself logged in with that account some time ago... now my novelty is my primary and my primary is dormant. In the smaller /r/ I mod - I post instructional vids, and google linked them back to my real name. Even though I have an anonymized account for youtube, I also have a real-name account. Once when posting, for reasons which are obfuscated by google, my uploads went to my real-name account which I posted to reddit... So... ultimately, its easy to tie all these together as strong-selectors back to me :( I have an idea on how to deal with tracking which may completely eliminate the ability to track a browser, but the issue is that even with 100% anonymity of an account on a site like reddit, ultimately you will post something that connects that account to your real-ID.

bad_user 13y ago

I think you should try being less of a dick in general. It happens to me too, as I get easily offended, however what I noticed is that if you want to educate people, it is far better to do it with well reasoned and nicely phrased arguments. Few people get away with being dicks, like Linus or Jobs, but that only happens for people that earned respect and credibility. Incidentally this is why I prefer HN for the moment. The comments on Reddit tend to get too negative and full of insults. Anonymity is a doubly edged sword, sometimes bringing out the worst in people.

samstave 13y ago

I agree that it is unobtainable. I mode one of the top 50 /r/ on reddit, as well as some much much smaller ones. I have multiple accounts - but not in a gaming-the-system sense; I had a primary account and a novelty account... I wound up posting "primary" comments under my novelty account by mistake after leaving myself logged in with that account some time ago... now my novelty is my primary and my primary is dormant. In the smaller /r/ I mod - I post instructional vids, and google linked them back to my real name. Even though I have an anonymized account for youtube, I also have a real-name account. Once when posting, for reasons which are obfuscated by google, my uploads went to my real-name account which I posted to reddit... So... ultimately, its easy to tie all these together as strong-selectors back to me :( I have an idea on how to deal with tracking which may completely eliminate the ability to track a browser, but the issue is that even with 100% anonymity of an account on a site like reddit, ultimately you will post something that connects that account to your real-ID.