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As an early HN user I secured the username "amanda" before promptly ditching it after 2 weeks. While I don't hide that I am female in my bio, I have also found

As an early HN user I secured the username "amanda" before promptly ditching it after 2 weeks. While I don't hide that I am female in my bio, I have also found that the style of interactions changed significantly when I changed my username. Figuring out how to leave the kid-gloves off in real life has been a bigger challenge.

usaphp 13y ago
Weird, I wonder what percent of HN users are actually looking at a user name when posting a reply, I personally don't even read a username of a person who I reply to, never mind looking for any male/female meanings in it. But because you posted this sort of comment I actually read your username for the first time :)
- rhizome 13y ago
  Of what possible use would a percentage of that be?
  - jaredsohn 13y ago
    It is relevant to the subject of the post. (If nobody looks at usernames, then the issue cited in the post doesn't matter.) Personally, I at least look at who I am responding to (especially when I disagree with them; sometimes the person you're responding to has readily-apparent expertise that you'd feel foolish disagreeing with.)
    - lstamour 13y ago
      True. I also tend to look at usernames when a commenter annoys me, just to see if it's a troll who is camping out on a thread waiting to say the same things again. But... By then I've made up my mind what I'm going to say, and whether the troll's name is Jack or Jane isn't going to change that.
  - YokoZar 13y ago
    It would put some useful bounds on the behavior. If only 1% of people look at usernames when posting replies, she could conclude it's a very small subset of people generating this nonsense. If everyone does, we don't learn much at all.
- anaphor 13y ago
  sounds like it's time for an eye tracking experiment
- GhotiFish 13y ago
  what kind of name is usaphp ?! :P
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
lstamour 13y ago
Yeah. If I could get people to see me differently in real life without actually having to change anything about myself to do it, that'd be the real Jedi mind trick. ;-) As to the original topic, I worry everything I say is going to be taken the wrong way on HN: gender or otherwise -- HN's mods have touchy trigger fingers. :)

usaphp 13y ago

Weird, I wonder what percent of HN users are actually looking at a user name when posting a reply, I personally don't even read a username of a person who I reply to, never mind looking for any male/female meanings in it. But because you posted this sort of comment I actually read your username for the first time :)

rhizome 13y ago
Of what possible use would a percentage of that be?
- jaredsohn 13y ago
  It is relevant to the subject of the post. (If nobody looks at usernames, then the issue cited in the post doesn't matter.) Personally, I at least look at who I am responding to (especially when I disagree with them; sometimes the person you're responding to has readily-apparent expertise that you'd feel foolish disagreeing with.)
  - lstamour 13y ago
    True. I also tend to look at usernames when a commenter annoys me, just to see if it's a troll who is camping out on a thread waiting to say the same things again. But... By then I've made up my mind what I'm going to say, and whether the troll's name is Jack or Jane isn't going to change that.
- YokoZar 13y ago
  It would put some useful bounds on the behavior. If only 1% of people look at usernames when posting replies, she could conclude it's a very small subset of people generating this nonsense. If everyone does, we don't learn much at all.
anaphor 13y ago
sounds like it's time for an eye tracking experiment
GhotiFish 13y ago
what kind of name is usaphp ?! :P

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

lstamour 13y ago

Yeah. If I could get people to see me differently in real life without actually having to change anything about myself to do it, that'd be the real Jedi mind trick. ;-) As to the original topic, I worry everything I say is going to be taken the wrong way on HN: gender or otherwise -- HN's mods have touchy trigger fingers. :)