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What is it with all the numbers as names?


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2017 Jul 25, 1:48pm   8,559 views  70 comments

by lostand confused   ➕follow (3)   💰tip   ignore  

Any reason ?? Oh I guess I am too-did patrick make a change or Dan??

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1   Dan8267   2017 Jul 25, 1:50pm  

Oh sure, PatNet gets all hacked up and you blame me just because it's usually me doing this shit. Profiling!

2   🎂 Tenpoundbass   2017 Jul 25, 1:51pm  

Dan you're quite the interesting read as a number.

3   Dan8267   2017 Jul 25, 1:52pm  

28658, your insane posts give you away as TPB.

4   Patrick   2017 Jul 25, 1:57pm  

Not hacked, just an experiment to see if it cuts down on personal attacks.

See the comments in https://patrick.net/1308342/2017-07-25-end-of-thunderdome

5   Dan8267   2017 Jul 25, 2:54pm  

rando says

Not hacked, just an experiment to see if it cuts down on personal attacks.

Well it's not going to help me because my username contained my user ID since always. Not much obfuscation there.

6   dublin hillz   2017 Jul 25, 3:03pm  

This change is rather artistic, it has hint of postmodernism. Age ain't nothing but a number and we ain't nothing but a number!

7   Patrick   2017 Jul 25, 3:04pm  

Yes, that's a good way to look at it! It's minimalist and abstract.

Dan8267 says

Well it's not going to help me because my username contained my user ID since always. Not much obfuscation there.

Dan8267 is saying that his user_id in the database is 8267 so he is still easily identified even when we just show user_id's instead of names.

8   Strategist   2017 Jul 25, 3:24pm  

rando says

Not hacked, just an experiment to see if it cuts down on personal attacks.

It will confuse the hell out of newcomers.

9   RC2006   2017 Jul 25, 3:50pm  

I feel like your jewing us.

11   Ceffer   2017 Jul 25, 3:53pm  

I have never felt so humiliated since bending over and coughing at my draft physical.

Patrick should be forced to smell Trumpligula's fingers and sig heil him for 24 hours straight!

12   RC2006   2017 Jul 25, 3:56pm  

I don't understand what this is suppose to do, you can still click on name and see who it is.

13   anonymous   2017 Jul 25, 4:02pm  

rpanic01 says

I don't understand what this is suppose to do, you can still click on name and see who it is.

The point is to stop focusing on the messenger, and start concentrating on the message.

Gossip and carrying on about one another is pre-teen girl shit. You can get that everywhere on the web.

I think Patrick is trying to provide something valuable here, and to do that, he may need to castrate the feminism out of some of you wimps

14   Patrick   2017 Jul 25, 4:04pm  

Yes, if you put in that little amount of work you can still see who it is.

But maybe that's the best system. You still have an identity, but people are tempted to judge your current words instead of seeing them only through the lens of what they have decided they think about you.

Maybe there will be some agreements between users who think they don't like each other.

15   Y   2017 Jul 25, 4:16pm  

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

16   Peter P   2017 Jul 25, 4:27pm  

Interesting...

17   anonymous   2017 Jul 25, 5:39pm  

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

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

What do you classify Reddit as?

18   Patrick   2017 Jul 25, 5:55pm  

1641 says

Online communities are built on recognizable personalities

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

19   Patrick   2017 Jul 25, 5:56pm  

1641 says

unless you're quoted and then you're identified

Fixed that.

For now. Everything can easily be reverted.

20   EastCoastBubbleBoy   2017 Jul 25, 5:59pm  

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

21   anonymous   2017 Jul 25, 6:00pm  

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.

22   Y   2017 Jul 25, 8:44pm  

Are these prison numbers?

23   just_passing_through   2017 Jul 25, 10:46pm  

For the love of god make it stop!

24   HEY YOU   2017 Jul 25, 10:50pm  

HEY YOU posted this comment.

25   Blurtman   2017 Jul 26, 4:15am  

Fucking odd number bastards! Long live the evens!

26   Blurtman   2017 Jul 26, 4:21am  

How about a random name generator?

27   BayArea   2017 Jul 26, 7:33am  

11736 says

For the love of god make it stop!

I feel the same lol

28   WookieMan   2017 Jul 26, 7:34am  

1641 says

For the love of god make it stop!

This.

Agree.

29   anonymous   2017 Jul 26, 7:42am  

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

30   Patrick   2017 Jul 26, 7:56am  

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.

31   anonymous   2017 Jul 26, 8:03am  

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

32   Patrick   2017 Jul 26, 8:32am  

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.

33   Patrick   2017 Jul 26, 8:37am  

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.

34   Dan8267   2017 Jul 26, 8:45am  

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.

35   Patrick   2017 Jul 26, 8:45am  

8267 says

You should implement the per thread pseudonym mechanism I described.

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

36   anonymous   2017 Jul 26, 8:55am  

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.

37   MAGA   2017 Jul 26, 9:12am  

Go back to the way it was.

38   Patrick   2017 Jul 26, 9:56am  

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

Does it cut down on the flame wars?

39   georgeliberte   2017 Jul 26, 12:16pm  

Is '69=666' taken?

40   BayArea   2017 Jul 26, 12:31pm  

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.

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