> Sorry to hear that commenting (including on HN) didn't make this person any friends.

Has HN really helped people connect in this sort of way?

To me, HN has almost always felt anonymous, in the sense that I don't recognize (hardly) any of the users that post (aside from maybe dang). A lot of times, I don't even look at the username.

I think this is a combination of a lack of an avatar that nearly all other social media platforms have (except maybe Reddit, which also feels anonymous for the same reason, but I don't use it much/am not a member), as well as the low contrast username.

HN seems to intentionally deemphasize the author, and draw the focus on the content of the article and comments. Which results in a lack of connection (again, likely by design).

But I've been around for almost 15 years, and can't think of a single person I've connected with outside of HN, and could maybe name less than a handful of users by their username.

Again, not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. Just would be surprised if many people have made friends on HN (unless you're going out of your way/trying to build a network, which I guess some people likely do).

I've met multiple business partners on HN, and friends I routinely hang out with in Chicago, and people I talk to in private chats most days. I've made more connections here than on any other group besides IRC #hack (a function of how old I was in the 1990s), and that includes the local politics Facebook group in my muni, which has introduced me to over a dozen people I now know IRL.

Well, you're not supposed to chat on Hacker News, there are strict rules on what comments you can make; so you can only make connections by contacting guys in other ways, which can only happen if they did put contact info in their profile page.

But, yes, the way the username is displayed matters as well, I rarely look at it.