Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway2048 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway2048

Sorry, but the idea that real name policies are all about improving discourse is nothing but a load of self serving bullshit from the companies that push it. They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

View on HN

Tell me something - would you say the sentence exactly like that in person? (Not to close friends, but people you only sort-of know.)

Or would you tone it down a bit? I hope you get my point.

I'm not the person you addressed, but I would. And just a single glimpse at facebook (or twitter or a newspaper comment column) shows people will show horrible, socially absolutely unacceptable behavior on the internet, even if their real name is attaced. I think facebook has worse manners than reddit. The believe that real names would increase the quality of the content or the manners is IMO back up by nothing but wishful thinking.

I think what I was trying to say in my piece is that if you have anonymity AND a reputation you get the best of both worlds. Trolls will be modded down by other users (assuming a reasonable reputation system) and people will be free to speak BOTH respectably and openly. Note that you can always use your real name as your handle if you choose.

> They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

I agree that predatory advertisers are the scourge of the modern Internet, but one can profile a nickname as easily as a real name. On the other hand, it is certainly true that a person posts more carefully if his real name is attached to the result.

From the perspective of a website operator, a nickname has an associated IP, and a real name has an IP -- they're the same, both easily tracked. A nickname arises in a browser indexed with cookies, as does a real name.

> ... nothing but a load of self serving bullshit ...

And the tone of your reply proves my point.

> it is certainly true that a person posts more carefully if his real name is attached to the result

It's pretty easy to agree on this. What's up for debate is what carefully implies.

And there's no shortage of people who will still post stupid inane comments under their real name, so you've still got to rank them somehow.

> They (and their advertisers) stand to benefit massively the easier people are identified and profiled.

How? Surely people are just easily matched on a pseudonyms?

Not when they choose a different pseudonym for each site. You only have one real name (usually).

It's pretty easy to link psuedonyms together so I don't think you're right.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com