[dudul]

Downvotes don't hurt, but I wonder how many people here would stick around if HN forced all users to use their real names. How many people would instantly self-censored or completely change the way they share opinion and respond.

[Symmetry]

A lot of us would. I figure that in 10 years clever AI systems will be pretty good at attaching pseudonymous accounts with lots of posts to real people. That's why I put my Github with my real name in my profile, to remind myself.

[erik_seaberg]

I use my real name and censor myself heavily. Pseudonymous speech is much more honest, but I'm not prepared to quietly defy a court order to protect a pseudonym from legal discovery if an employer gets sued. And now apparently journalists might attack your opsec…

[throwaway4666]

What's your point? 'Think before you speak' and 'speech has consequences' isn't exactly a new notion. Under a throwaway account on here I just write whatever pops up in my mind, when I co-author a paper under my and my colleague's real life names that's going to be read and cited, everyone triple checks everything so that as few innacurate or dumb things get published. How is this new or shocking in any way?

[dudul]

The thread of comments started with the mention of 2 papers discussing how people are reluctant to sharing their opinion because the "social cost" may be too high.

A reply comments on how HN is somewhat similar. People censoring themselves due to fear of being downvoted. I pointed out that IMO downvotes are a very mild sanction and truly, people don't need to censor themselves on HN, but the true cost would come if everyone had to comment with their real names.

Sorry it wasn't groundbreaking enough for you.

[artsyca]

Naw dude your point is not lost -- and all this discussion is happening on a zero-point comment mind you

[ncallaway]

I'd probably still be around!

[peroporque]

The way free speech in my country is being limited currently, I would not post anymore.

Maybe now it's still okay, but in ten years, who knows, I may be "cancelled".

Not that it hasn't already happened to others.