Yea, I have 3 type of accounts (and the HN mods know this and they tell me I'm not the only one).
1. This account, an account where I'm fully myself, honest and is a pseudonym as to who I really am. I do not want this to be linked to my actual real identity but if it happens to be linked to my real identity, it's fine. Well... fine-ish... fine enough anyway.
That leads me to account type 2.
2. Some takes I have are simply too spicy. I know this, but I still have those takes [1]. In very rare situations, I find it important to share these takes as they are actually relevant. For this, I either create a throwaway account or access whatever throwaway account is available because my browser auto logs in on them (certain browsers I use so little that my throwaway account auto logs in on it).
But then we have the flipside of this, which is account type 3.
3. An account with a username that is actually traceable to me if you know how to search. On this account I am still myself, but I do ask myself if my take is a "clean take" that under any circumstance or reality is still a nice clean take. I don't put anything on here that is even remotely controversial.
[1] Here's a simple "spicy take" that I daresay on this account, so the actual spicy takes I have are a little more wild than this. Here it is: in 10 years from now we'll have so much cybersex you can't even fathom it. We'll have 3D models that will look almost indistinguishable, those 3D models will be more intelligent than you are on many things. You get the idea, a spicy take.
Maybe, if you're to ashamed to risk your real name being linked to something you say, you shouldn't say it?
No every opinion needs to be heard, not every thought needs sharing. If you are embarrassed by what you type, then why do you think other people need to read it?
Absolutely not, you should say it if it makes sense, anonymity is very important for free speech, it has nothing to do with being embarrassed, sometimes there is legal consequences possible as well in what you say, or potentially doxxing and such.
Not ashamed, aware that small, petty people will retaliate over honest criticism. Remember when a famous billionaire showed up at the Thai cave to rescue a soccer team with a submarine that wouldn’t fit in the hole? He tried to take charge and needed to be informed that he was out of his depth. That story was told in reporting about the event.
He retaliated by baselessly accusing the actual heroes (who were risking their lives) of a terrible crime. Refused to back down, refused to apologize, said “if it’s not true sue me” got sued, hid behind his lawyers (his defense was “I didn’t actually say his name)
“). Yeah that guy and guys like him can’t handle criticism and have the wealth and power to retaliate.
An honest discussion space utilizes anonymity to shield normal people from retaliation by sensitive man-child retribution. I’m not embarrassed to say it, it needs to be said. It needs to be heard.
Well, sometimes I say things about my work here - enough that a determined person might be able to figure out who my (past) employer was. So I have, a time or two, made a comment here that was about my employer, but I did not want it to be linkable to my actual employer. So I used a new throwaway account, just because I didn't want my employer to be tarred by peoples' reactions to that particular post.
Now, if you make a waiting period or whatever, then that becomes impossible unless you had the foresight to create a throwaway two weeks ago (or whatever time frame).
There are so many posts here by those who ought to be mortally ashamed of what they wrote but apparently aren't that one more poster will hardly be noticed.
I get it. Every social medium has mobs, even HN. There are still subjects that I would like to respond to on HN, but do not, because doing so will incur merciless downvoting by a vocal minority.
The AI techno-luddite crowd is an example that comes to mind.
For the meantime, I use forbearance. But it is a shame that one cannot steer conversations in interesting directions because of the tyranny (such as it is) of the few . I rather like the idea of a sacrificial account, to be honest.
On Reddit, you just can't participate with different ideology with your main account, you'll literally get banned of subreddits for the SOLE reason of joining other subreddits, this is a direct proof of the necessity of multiple accounts (and anonymity).
1. This account, an account where I'm fully myself, honest and is a pseudonym as to who I really am. I do not want this to be linked to my actual real identity but if it happens to be linked to my real identity, it's fine. Well... fine-ish... fine enough anyway.
That leads me to account type 2.
2. Some takes I have are simply too spicy. I know this, but I still have those takes [1]. In very rare situations, I find it important to share these takes as they are actually relevant. For this, I either create a throwaway account or access whatever throwaway account is available because my browser auto logs in on them (certain browsers I use so little that my throwaway account auto logs in on it).
But then we have the flipside of this, which is account type 3.
3. An account with a username that is actually traceable to me if you know how to search. On this account I am still myself, but I do ask myself if my take is a "clean take" that under any circumstance or reality is still a nice clean take. I don't put anything on here that is even remotely controversial.
[1] Here's a simple "spicy take" that I daresay on this account, so the actual spicy takes I have are a little more wild than this. Here it is: in 10 years from now we'll have so much cybersex you can't even fathom it. We'll have 3D models that will look almost indistinguishable, those 3D models will be more intelligent than you are on many things. You get the idea, a spicy take.