[georgeecollins]

Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account. You are using an account right now to post on Hacker News. So obviously accounts can be less restrictive and have less tracking than a typical Facebook account.

The question is, will a Meta account be different than an FB account? I would argue it has to be because its essentially a game/ media device and they will destroy their market if they try to keep up a policy of not letting people create fake accounts. No one wants to play video games with their real name and address. There had been a problem of Quest 2s getting bricked because kids were using them on a "fake" account. They need kids.

[CharlesW]

> Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account.

The problem isn’t that one needs an account.

> The question is, will a Meta account be different than an FB account?

This is a marketing rebrand of Facebook accounts. In the short term, Meta will position it as a separate identity system. In the long term, each person will have one Meta account for all Meta services.

> No one wants to play video games with their real name and address.

Meta may allow this, but in every case Meta will know who’s behind each Meta identity.

[bobkazamakis]

>Any digital store or forum requires you to have an account

Maybe I'm not a master of the internet like yourself, but I'm able to use crazy technology like "oidc" and "delegation" to prevent the same entity who runs the carnival to also own my identity.

[pengaru]

Plenty of forums don't require an account until you want to write a post, if all you wish to do is consume content you're free to read all you want.

Historically this was the default on the web, it's a relatively recent phenomenon for sites like instagram/fb to require login to even read anything.

YouTube manages to deliver plenty of entertainment value without a login to this day, until you try to look at "mature content".