It’s funny how I spend so much time on HN, yet couldn’t point out a single username (that I don’t know IRL) besides dang.

This is one reason I feel an odd disconnect (anonymity?) with HN that isn’t felt on other social platforms I’ve been a part of. Those often have avatars or some other visual form of recognition that helps put a “face” to a name.

I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but I definitely think it’s intentional.

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jedberg 7 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Reddit was originally designed this way, and HN sort of accidentally copied it. Back then, we always said, "content is first". We wanted people to get upvotes for their content, not for who they were.

I prefer it that way.

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bsimpson 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Funny to see a reply from one of the ~10 usernames I recognize on here.

	▲	jedberg 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Haha right back at ya buddy.

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nottorp 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's good if you ask me. I never check even the user names when replying, just the comment.

The only user name I can remember is dang, because of the occasional moderation or housekeeping posts.

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leoc 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As an old lag there is a fairly large number of names which I recognise on sight, quite a few of them from the old days of /r/programming and even the main reddit. I'd have trouble listing many of them completely unprompted though.

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latchkey 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've had these same opinions for years. It is an under appreciated social network of some of the top minds and quality comments.

I've been collecting a long list of ideas on what you're describing. Thanks to AI encouraging me to really dive in and use it, I've been quietly working on something for what you're describing.

First step is to improve the HN UX a tiny bit and flesh out a framework for how to code it. Next will add some interesting social features I've been brewing on. Why can't I easily follow someone?

Open source. GPLv3. It isn't perfect, but this is not AI vibe slop, and there are lots of tests from day one. I want to make this sustainable over a long period of time and become genuinely useful to a community that I've gotten a lot out of.

Note, the chrome store is really slow at getting releases out (or I'm too fast), best to install from github releases. It is also buggy and I'm fixing and improving things as fast as I can.

https://orangejuiceextension.github.io/

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fragmede 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Inline reply is great (wrote my own extension pre-for that, even!), but what's wrong with the built in favorites feature?

	▲	latchkey 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It is the builtin favorites. AI generated some bad text... I've already updated it locally but haven't pushed yet. I'm starting with a basis of existing features (fully re-implemented) from dead extensions and will build my own tweaks from that.

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add-sub-mul-div 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Another thing is that lacking the freedom to delete our own comments here, I assume many people treat their account as only a throwaway identity.

	▲	genewitch 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		i revoked my HN credentials on my phone because i was arguing too much and otherwise not getting enough sleep. When you have to get up and walk across a house to tell someone they're wrong on the internet, I try to make sure i won't have to delete it. I am contrite about a few of my off-the-cuff comments.