There are low-bs forums such as Hacker News and slatestarcodex where most people don’t use their real names.
In those forums, reputation accrues to username; little (or at least less) attention is paid to brand-new accounts.
Here, a lot of accounts are trying to recruit/use the “I’m a for real serious longtime member of this community” reputational/seriousness boost, while being who the heck knows who.
Then one solution would be to have a trusted third party vet the burner’s identity under an NDA that allows them to verify agreed-upon non-identifying information, such as EAG attendance history, employment history, etc.
In those forums, reputation accrues to username; little (or at least less) attention is paid to brand-new accounts.
I’ve spent a lot of time on both HN and slatestarcodex (subreddit/blog comments), and this isn’t really the case. Most usernames I see are ones that I have no particular recollection of. I basically never look at the username to decide whether to read a comment.
HN will display your username in green for the first two weeks after you register, and you get the ability to downvote after accumulating 500 karma, but for the most part people ignore usernames. (Example: I once got a reply from a user who said “I keep seeing people make this argument.” It took me a little while to realize that was because the two of us had a related discussion a few weeks ago, where I’d made this argument to them. It was only after I looked through my comment history for the older discussion that I realized what was going on.)
An exception here is that in both communities there are a few celebrity users that get upvotes more easily, but they’re a small minority.
If you want you could create a post in one of those communities asking people how much they pay attention to usernames and see what responses you get.
Here, a lot of accounts are trying to recruit/use the “I’m a for real serious longtime member of this community” reputational/seriousness boost, while being who the heck knows who.
Maybe a trusted neutral party could vouch for these claims?
In those forums, reputation accrues to username; little (or at least less) attention is paid to brand-new accounts.
Here, a lot of accounts are trying to recruit/use the “I’m a for real serious longtime member of this community” reputational/seriousness boost, while being who the heck knows who.
Then one solution would be to have a trusted third party vet the burner’s identity under an NDA that allows them to verify agreed-upon non-identifying information, such as EAG attendance history, employment history, etc.
If anyone wants me to validate their otherwise anonymous account I’d be happy to do that.
I would support that.
I’ve spent a lot of time on both HN and slatestarcodex (subreddit/blog comments), and this isn’t really the case. Most usernames I see are ones that I have no particular recollection of. I basically never look at the username to decide whether to read a comment.
HN will display your username in green for the first two weeks after you register, and you get the ability to downvote after accumulating 500 karma, but for the most part people ignore usernames. (Example: I once got a reply from a user who said “I keep seeing people make this argument.” It took me a little while to realize that was because the two of us had a related discussion a few weeks ago, where I’d made this argument to them. It was only after I looked through my comment history for the older discussion that I realized what was going on.)
An exception here is that in both communities there are a few celebrity users that get upvotes more easily, but they’re a small minority.
If you want you could create a post in one of those communities asking people how much they pay attention to usernames and see what responses you get.
Maybe a trusted neutral party could vouch for these claims?