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Comment by witty_username | Hacker News Reader

I'm not self-censoring because my account is pseudonymous.

That does not make much difference to CIA or NSA to my knowledge. There are many ways to correlate pseudonymous with your real identity: IP address, usage pattern, speech pattern, or even patterns in the photos that you posted.

That's way I never used pseudonyms, they are practically useless in hiding your real identity. Additionally they give you a false sense of anonymity.

Your parents gave you the name "paradite", then?

I think it is a social norm in the English speaking countries to not use real name on Internet forums. So I wouldn't call the use of nicknames or Internet handles examples of pseudonyms.

Also, I have no intention of using this nickname to hide my identity. You can Google it to find everything you need to know about me.

I'm not worried about state-level attacks (unless I become famous). My opinions are not that scandalous (maybe 0.1% are; but that isn't on HN ;). Many (a small percentage, but a large number) people have similar ideas. If my real identity were released, people may disapprove of some ideas; but I'll be fine.

It's kind of like pictures of naked me. I don't want it to be public but it's not that severe either.

I kind of envy that. But years ago I cared a whole lot about HN and tied my personal self to it. I owe a lot to the community, too. For better or for worse, I'm stuck. I don't know of a community I'd rather be part of. It just is what it is.

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