patrick.net

well, the avatars and usernames were always an open invitation to slander...

Interesting...

Online communities are built on recognizable personalities, not academic anonymous arguments.

------------------

What do you classify Reddit as?

1641 says

Online communities are built on recognizable personalities

I used to think so, but Reddit does well by minimizing individual identities.

1641 says

unless you're quoted and then you're identified

Fixed that.

For now. Everything can easily be reverted.

is that I am to you all? A number? Can I at least choose a good one? Say 314159?

1641 says

errc says

What do you classify Reddit as?

Dunno but Reddit has easily recognizable users.

Not really. I never look for the usernames, just read the comments.

Are these prison numbers?

For the love of god make it stop!

HEY YOU posted this comment.

Fucking odd number bastards! Long live the evens!

How about a random name generator?

11736 says

For the love of god make it stop!

I feel the same lol

1641 says

For the love of god make it stop!

This.

Agree.

I know, I need to know who it is that is posting so I can emote over the messenger, and the message itself can fuck off

Nothing is more important than my preconceived notions. The last thing I want is to be duped into agreeing with someone's POV, that I already hate because they are a librul

1104 says

The last thing I want is to be duped into agreeing with someone's POV, that I already hate because they are a librul

Or because they voted for the great satan Trump.

If I know you love Trump then I hate you, and will automatically oppose everything you say! Like a Real American!

This is all super-interesting to me, after years of trying to get people to concentrate on the message and not the messenger.

So it is possible. Attention to the message is gained, but something is lost as well (a sense of having specific friends and enemies online, and the ego-feedback pleasure of caring for one's own reputation).

It's kinda like walking around on the street and not being able to recognize anyone's race either. You don't know whether they are likely to be friend or foe. It's the end of prejudice. It's the utopia of everyone being just citizens.

One important question: will such a forum gain new users, or will it simply lose the old ones? I don't want to piss anyone off, but I do want to let this run a bit longer and then see if there is a bump up in new users.

BTW, I just noticed that you can simply mouse-over the user number and you'll see the user name in your browser's footer. Works that way in my browser anyway.

1 says

BTW, I just noticed that you can simply mouse-over the user number and you'll see the user name in your browser's footer.

I noticed that right away, but I didn't tell all the trolls for a reason. Geeze...

You should implement the per thread pseudonym mechanism I described.

8267 says

You should implement the per thread pseudonym mechanism I described.

So everyone gets a random but more human-readable username per thread?

So it is possible. Attention to the message is gained, but something is lost as well (a sense of having specific friends and enemies online, and the ego-feedback pleasure of caring for one's own reputation).

-----------

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

I like it.

Go back to the way it was.

Gimme a bit of time to see what the effects of semi-anonymity are.

Does it cut down on the flame wars?

Is '69=666' taken?

1 says

Gimme a bit of time to see what the effects of semi-anonymity are.

Does it cut down on the flame wars?

I think it will cut down on the flame wars initially. It'll also cut down on people's interest to post here.

Eventually people may learn the number of their most and least favorite user.

Not a fan.

www.youtube.com/embed/d0LaT6qVRpg

21548 says

I think it will cut down on the flame wars initially. It'll also cut down on people's interest to post here.

I think it has already reduced flame wars and gotten people to read more of the point before judging.

But yes, I see that it's harder to become attached to a forum if you don't recognize and feel something positive or negative about the other users.

Still just an experiment.

>>cue music>>
Sometimes you want to go

Where nobody knows your name

1 says

I think it has already reduced flame wars and gotten people to read more of the point before judging.

This is just initial confusion, it won't last. Numbers are not going to change people's tendencies and fundamental nature.

1 says

So everyone gets a random but more human-readable username per thread?

Precisely. Make it impossible to tell who posted what.

People will occasionally figure out the other person's username by the writing, but that information is only good in that one thread.

This, of course, is just an experiment in preventing trolling by making the trolls incapable of distinguishing their butt-buddies from their marks.

21548 says

Eventually people may learn the number of their most and least favorite user.

Yes, which is why randomized names are needed for each thread.

1641 says

This.

You could always choose to identify yourself in a thread with randomized names either in a post by clicking a link to reveal your username.

Conversations would still be easy to follow since your pseudonym would be in green, and everyone else's pseudonyms would be human readable, even more so than usernames.

1 says

But yes, I see that it's harder to become attached to a forum if you don't recognize and feel something positive or negative about the other users.

You could also reveal real usernames to friends, but that would greatly diminish the anti-trolling properties of the feature. Even trolls generally don't want to piss off their butt-buddies least they lose the support of those users.

Agree with others that the numbers only suck. The numbers aren't memorable - recognizable the way a name is. Hard to have a conversation if you cant recall if 12345 said something to me, or was it me responding to 23456, etc. Even designated single thread names would be better than this.

It's interesting to me that others value the personal nature of the usernames (aliases). I like to read the comments without prejudices of who it is that's posting. What if you were sure you hated someone, but they had a good idea, or piece of information, you may have discarded prior to even considering such, solely because you know said person is a complete dickhead?

Is the cost of missing out, worth the benefit of self censoring ideas before even considering them? All in the name of hate.

How about color coding the word "user", with no numbers.
everyone is assigned a color from 1 to 65535
this could be a problem for those with opsin apoprotein deficiencies,
but hey ...fuck em...the worlds gotta have ditch diggers too...

1104 says

What if you were sure you hated someone, but they had a good idea, or piece of information, you may have discarded prior to even considering such, solely because you know said person is a complete dickhead?

Is the cost of missing out, worth the benefit of self censoring ideas before even considering them?

Yes, that's the point here!

Not quite ready to undo it. In fact, I think people have already learned a lot of numbers and fallen back into their old ways of "I hate this before reading it"

I should try out Dan8267's idea of a unique name per thread...

After thinking about it, yes, lets stay with the numbers. If people want to identify themselves, they can put their name or handle in the text of the posting.

All "user#" should be preceded with Asshole.lol

It would also be very interesting to simply list political positions and have people say whether they agree or not before knowing which politician holds the view.