[mnicole]

Ditto. Deciding to use a variant of my name here was something I went back and forth on (partly because I didn't want it associated with me at all, partly because I didn't want it to be gendered [1]). Ultimately I decided that I wanted to be able to take credit for posts where I write about usability/design/anything else I feel qualified to speak to, even at the expense of potential employers reading the rest of what I write here. On the other side of the same coin, I don't put any personal information in my profile.

[1] One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion, which had me trying to figure out if I should start fresh again. For the most part this only happens in gender issues threads (where sockpuppets and new accounts run rampant), but this particular one wasn't. I wasn't sure if that attitude was going to follow me throughout my time here, but I've found most people don't even look at my username (as evidenced by being referred to as "he" in child comments).

[graue]

> One of, if not my very first, comment's first comment was someone using my gender to denounce my opinion

That sucks. I hope they were downvoted into oblivion, but either way, I know that kind of thing happens on HN and I wish HN were better than that. I'm sorry that happened to you.

[mnicole]

Thanks. I'd spent a good chunk of time on the initial post itself, so I opted to just see what the community did instead of responding to it. Thankfully, it was downvoted quickly and two people responded to him directly about it.

In another post when I said I didn't want kids, I had about 5 replies insinuating I was risking my future happiness/purpose and I'd regret it in my later years. So.. there's still room to grow.