Ask HN: Is using your real name at HN a noob behaviour? - pedrodelfino
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brianclements
I vote no (clearly). Here's how I break down the reasoning:

In the HN community, non-constructive commenting is pretty strongly
discouraged and moderated, so the urge to say things that normally would make
someone want to hide their comments behind an anonymous name is pretty limited
already.

So if nefarious activity is already not your goal, it simply becomes a
personal preference. Why hide honest questions and discussion?

The only exception I can think of is if you're not well versed in the various
knowledge domains that are popular here and don't want to give that fact away.
I don't think that's a good reason at all though to be honest. I've felt this
community be pretty accepting of honest questions and thoughtful input as long
as you are honest _with yourself_ as to what you're area of expertise is and
you've done _due diligence_ to the topic. If you're guessing something, you
are going to be called out pretty quick. Don't ask for easily searchable
facts, it's a waste of everyones time. Ask for opinions, experiences, etc.

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nostrademons
Not really, or at least not using some abbreviation thereof. Just going off
/leaders, look at tptacek, jaquesm, ColinWright, jgrahamc, ChuckMcM, jrockway,
cperciva, DanielRibeiro, DanielBMarkham, steveklabnik, and mikeash.

A number of us have screen names because much of the early population of HN
came from Reddit, which is almost all pseudonymous (the founders started off
with pseudonyms).

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prodigal_erik
I took
[http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html) very
much to heart. I'm always surprised that people attach their True Name to
controversial viewpoints, not knowing which ones will become career-ending
thoughtcrimes. Look what happened to Eich for siding with a majority.

Even on a more mundane level, what happens to you when the industry embraces
yet another terrible idea and finds a sourced comment from you criticizing it?

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brudgers
No, because:

1\. There are many well known people whose Hacker News user name clearly
identifies them.

2\. There are many not well known members with similar names.

3\. Many people with cryptic user names have identifying information in their
profiles.

4\. Hacker News is not a community with a meaningful cultural distinction
between old timers and new users. The green names seem mostly there to assist
in orientation to community norms and spam recognition.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
I learned my lesson about using real names back in the usenet days, I'm not
about to do the same thing twice.

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apryldelancey
I've used my real name on every online forum since I've been online. I never
like to hide behind a screen name and don't trust others that try to hide
their true identities.

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jordsmi
Only if you are a troll. If you are a normal user, then I prefer real name.

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kingmikhael
No.

