[mirkules]

"I'm actually worried that disagreeing with you will result in me getting hellbanned"

Why do people worry about getting banned? It's just a screen name, it's not like you can't just make another one. Even if it's based on IP address, hacker news should be full of people that know how to get around that.

Just sayin' - if you've got something smart, constructive to say, say it. Who cares about banning if it's what you really believe in?

My personal rule about posting is simple: if a future employer links my HN profile to the "real" me, would that be grounds for not getting the job (or losing a job with my current employer)? If yes, then it's probably neither smart nor constructive, so doesn't belong on HN.

[tomkarlo]

It's not about the difficulty of making a replacement account. It's about the loss of profile / reputation / recognition. The longer a user has been contributing, the more painful losing all of that becomes.

[mirkules]

I guess I never saw it that way. Personally, I don't really care for reputation / reputation. Case in point, I've been on HN for almost 2 years, and I only recognize a handful of names: patio11, edw(somenumber), tptacek and pg. Usually, I read comments without even looking at the name, unless the comment is so profound that I have to know who said it This is why those 4 stick in my mind - they have said incredibly insightful things many times - I'm sure that a) they always say what they want and b) they have enough karma to burn anyway (e.g. patio's post about SEO for which he got absolutely blasted).

[tomkarlo]

I'm sure they'll be really bummed if they had to give up their name and start from scratch. It's not an issue of numeric karma. It's brand value.