[fb13]

True until you look at gambling and other products engineered to maximize addiction.

[dang]

Could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...

[fb13]

So, it puts me at risk to participate like that even under a pseudonym. But, if you really think people like me are why HN isn't what it used to be then I'll step aside. I wish this place had the community it used to have, too.

[Blikkentrekker]

Do people really do that?

Personally, I do not read usernames and have never had the experience on H.N. of recognizing a username as I have on some other fora that have signatures, avatars, profile pages, and other such facilities to create an identity.

The culture of H.N. also favors giving technical, impersonal comments, which consequently leave out even more of a personal identity.

I have really never felt on H.N. that I was responded to in a way that connected me to anything I said prior; no one brought such a thing up.

[dang]

Are you asking whether people relate to each other on HN? Of course they do. It's a key aspect of the community here.

Users who undermine that system, in the way that I described above, are in a sense freeloading off the community established by others.

[Blikkentrekker]

> Are you asking whether people relate to each other on HN? Of course they do. It's a key aspect of the community here.

I'm asking whether people actually pay attention to usernames to any significant degree and recognize them.

[grzm]

For another point of reference, I do. Reading comments, I also see people refer to and recognize community members such as 'tptacek, 'rayiner, 'dragonwriter, 'DoreenMichele, and many others. For what it's worth, I also recognize your username. Given the number of people on HN, I'm sure there are others that really don't pay much attention, but I know for a fact that there are also those that do.

[Blikkentrekker]

I suppose.

The reason I wondered was because I never had anyone reference anything I said prior to me, whereas I've had this happen on 4chan to me, a forum sans usernames because someone recognized my writing style or opinions.

[ummonk]

There are quite a few nicknames I recognize, along with the associated personalities.