[HN Gopher] Show HN: Anonymize HN - a Chrome extension to anonym...
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Show HN: Anonymize HN - a Chrome extension to anonymize Hacker News
users
I wrote a small Chrome extension that allows the user to replace
all usernames on Hacker News with either the string `anonymous` or
a deterministic hashed value.
Author : danthelion
Score : 41 points
Date : 2023-08-14 17:36 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (chrome.google.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (chrome.google.com)
| kaycebasques wrote:
| Interesting idea! Presumably you pay a lot of attention to who
| has written a comment and want to remove that bias? In my case I
| usually don't recognize the author for any given comment so I
| don't really have that problem.
| danthelion wrote:
| Yes, that was precisely the motivation! (+ some interest in
| learning how to publish a Chrome extension).
| freedomben wrote:
| Always interesting to hear how others do things. There are
| only a handful of usernames that I know, but when I look for
| them it's important because (for example) they are the
| author/creator of a tool. From just a couple minutes ago for
| example, reading the Elixir post[1] the comments from
| josevalim are from the creator of the language, and the
| author of TFA. Not knowing that I think would make the thread
| a lot different (IMHO in a bad way), but I can definitely see
| the appeal of anonymizing other times.
|
| [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37122006
| kaycebasques wrote:
| Maybe the extension should also randomize the ordering of
| comments. Because I can infer that the top comment is more
| likely to be from someone influential in the space.
| tredre3 wrote:
| Sometimes I read a comment that I completely disagree with, but
| then I recognize the username and it's someone well respected
| on HN. So I enter a cycle of self doubts; "Am I out of touch?
| No, it's the HN elite that is out of touch."
| ShamelessC wrote:
| It's definitely the latter, on average. The number of times I
| am forced to care about a city I don't live in that also
| happens to be in the Bay Area where people's problems are
| eerily similar to mine except they make 20x more money and
| forgot that it's not very classy to brag about such things...
|
| Don't get me started on all the Ivy League circle jerking
| that goes on here. Again, I didn't have the privilege to go
| to an incredible school. And yet, I have now worked with many
| who did and found not much there, aside from wealthy friends
| and overconfidence.
| cyanydeez wrote:
| I got in the habit of rarely looking at usernames unless
| there's some self reference.
| Tactician_mark wrote:
| Depends on the viewing platform, but HN usernames are usually
| small font and low contrast compared to comment text. I think
| most are unlikely to notice who said what.
| hu3 wrote:
| Nice. Another suggestion is to randomize message order (so
| removes top voted bias) and to perhaps un-gray downvoted
| messages.
| freedomben wrote:
| It would be fascinating to see some data on grayed messages. I
| know in my case I look for them so that if I feel they are
| unfairly downvoted, I can vote them up. I would bet 50% of them
| I end up voting up, usually because they were downvoted for
| having an unpopular but not invalid opinion. If there is
| anybody else out there like me, then the gray could be a net
| positive because it prevents unfair downvotes from killing a
| comment unfairly.
|
| But I could also see myself being in a minority and the effect
| of the gray is compounding. So seeing some data would be really
| interesting.
| throwawayq3423 wrote:
| [dead]
| fortran77 wrote:
| For some reason, on this site usernames rarely matter to me. I
| know only 1 or 2 people by username.
| harha_ wrote:
| I like the idea, but honestly I very rarely pay attention to
| usernames here.
| badrabbit wrote:
| Like others I rarely pay attention to the username, except all
| the "famous" people on HN you just can't miss when they are
| posting. But I think you mean psuedonimyze? Because you can
| easily tell who is posting using stylometry or just human brain
| pattern recognition.
| Loughla wrote:
| Wait. Who are the famous people on HN (other than Dang, because
| he's the only one I recognize. . . ). What and who am I
| missing?
| znpy wrote:
| I always look for comments by bcantrill (hi Bryan!) whenever
| the topic seems like it could receive its attention.
|
| I really love hearing him speak, particularly when he loses
| it and rants against stuff (bonus points if "stuff" is
| Oracle)
| airstrike wrote:
| pg comes to mind? https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=pg
|
| also the occasional founder/CEO who may comment on some story
| related to their company
| Theodores wrote:
| The thing is that the people doing things in this world do
| not write comments. Elon Musk is a rare exception.
|
| I follow F1 and I imagine Lewis Hamilton and how he spends
| his day. He has better things to do than to chime in on F1
| forums.
|
| It is as simple as that, people that are famous for achieving
| things are not going to waste their time on forums.
|
| What I do find amusing is how many HN extensions there are in
| the Chrome store. If I was at university then I would write
| one too - the simplicity of the format begs for some styling
| and whatnot.
| badrabbit wrote:
| They write comments and even chat, not every successful
| person is arrogant or considers themselves above even
| talking to regular people.
| hu3 wrote:
| In Go posts I always look for rsc messages. Which is Russ Cox
| from Bell Labs and Google.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rsc
|
| https://swtch.com/~rsc
|
| Also Rich Harris, creator of Svelte and SvelteKit:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rich_harris
|
| Redis creator chimes in from time to time:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=antirez
|
| There are more I'm sure.
| freedomben wrote:
| Exactly. I would also add josevalim creator of Elixir, who
| I actually Ctrl+F for on Elixir-related threads.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=josevalim
| nwoli wrote:
| I can only think of jgc, hardmaru and karpathy as people I
| see around here more than once
| touisteur wrote:
| Used to see nickpsecurity a long time ago, I hope he's OK.
| The creator of the D language and John Nagle are also very
| active around here.
| fragmede wrote:
| Paul Davis (programmer) is around here somewhere. Maybe not a
| household name, but he's got a Wikipedia page. I remember
| because someone challenged him on his level of experience as
| a programmer, and then someone else linked his Wikipedia
| page.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36931617
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=PaulDavisThe1st
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Davis_(programmer)
| badrabbit wrote:
| I don't wanna stoke anyone's ego. But there are people whose
| work I've used or refernced many times that pop up on HN and
| comment or post. Not always with a ton of karma either.
| accoil wrote:
| You might recognize some of
| https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders
| Bilal_io wrote:
| It would be vrry interesting to clone and repurpose this
| extension to show tags next to known users from a centralized
| database. Example's of the tags would be "mod", "{name of
| tool/library/language} author", "expert in {area}", "CEO of
| {comapny name}", etc.
| mdwalters wrote:
| Is this also for Firefox?
| danthelion wrote:
| Only Chrome, might check out how to port it when I have some
| time.
| LinuxBender wrote:
| It could probably be done using uBlock.
| millzlane wrote:
| Right-click a username above a comment Block
| element Paste the following in the text box
| ## td > table > tbody > tr > .default > div > .comhead >
| .hnuser Click the Create Button
| LinuxBender wrote:
| Confirmed that works. Added to "My Filters" Thankyou
| # HN Username news.ycombinator.com## td > table >
| tbody > tr > .default > div > .comhead > .hnuser
|
| That would be a good addition to LetsBlockIt [1]
|
| [1] - https://letsblock.it/filters/tag/hackernews
| millzlane wrote:
| Done. Well, issue opened.
| pessimizer wrote:
| I try my best to treat every forum like /b/. All people are is
| what they just said. I'm not having a conversation with an
| individual, I'm having a conversation with a venue. I'm grabbing
| the floor and addressing the chair.
|
| I bet if HN went forced anon, it wouldn't make much of a
| difference in posting and upvoting patterns.
| [deleted]
| superkuh wrote:
| I disagree. I get a regular stream of people referencing my
| past comments (like days or weeks before on entirely different
| subjects). I think this only really applies to highly active
| posters with opinions that stick out though.
|
| I would definitely use this extension if it were written for a
| real browser instead of googlestuff. It wouldn't help with
| others behaving based on identity but I like the idea.
| Loughla wrote:
| That's interesting. I have never had anyone reference my
| prior comments. Maybe it's because I don't say controversial
| things? I wonder what the difference is.
| mywittyname wrote:
| I've had people reach out to me because of past work I've
| talked about on here. Mainly potential startup founders
| looking for opinions/feedback.
|
| The only time I ever look at someone's post history is if
| they are interesting, insightful, or famous(ish) (and use
| their real name).
| fragmede wrote:
| For local industry celebrities, like geohot, Jeff Barr,
| patio11, or select few from
| https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders, people track what
| they say, or at least I do, simply from having run across
| their sometimes prolific comments, and get a sense of their
| views on things, even if the exact wording gets forgotten.
| So when they say something out of character, it reflexively
| seems weird enough to go back and check.
| pessimizer wrote:
| I get that too (rarely), but almost always from real creeps
| who are trying to find something they can use to dismiss my
| opinion on something dumb they said. Otherwise, people just
| drop me nice emails.
|
| I don't do it on my end, though. I really only care about
| what was said, and I'm addressing anyone who is reading.
|
| I honestly would drop the word "you" from all of my replies,
| except sometimes things can sound ruder when I drop it than
| when I don't. Like criticizing in the third-person somebody
| standing right in front of you.
| [deleted]
| mpsprd wrote:
| Tangentially, I always found the discussion flow on image boards
| interesting because of the "anonymous chorus" of replies.
|
| It creates special patterns: cryptic references to spot non-
| initiates, people role-playing a straw man and replying to
| themselves, shunning people using confirmed user names, etc.
| There is jargon for all of this but it is too offensive for this
| venue.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| I kind of like the threadID system that some boards use.
| Unfortunately(?) the ones I frequent are too tame for it to get
| enabled.
| renewiltord wrote:
| Two amusing related things:
|
| - https://github.com/roshan/hnncnn (no comments and usernames on
| the front page)
|
| - https://stylometry.net/ (no longer works, but stylometry for
| various HN users - it was pretty good!)
| searchableguy wrote:
| Do people recognise usernames on HN? I would be surprised if
| anyone remembered or recognised my username on HN and added any
| association to my comments.
| PartiallyTyped wrote:
| Yes, I do remember a few people once I read their handles, like
| this guy [1].
|
| [1] https://kidger.site
| mywittyname wrote:
| Yeah, I remember a few people by their usernames. Mostly users
| who share the same interests as me.
| laurentlb wrote:
| Usually not, but it happens that I recognize the username of
| someone I've met before, or authors of specific tools. Of
| course, this works only for people who use a their name or a
| similar username in other places.
|
| I certainly don't associate people with their previous comments
| on HN.
| circuit10 wrote:
| I remember seeing you on the EleutherAI Discord I think
| omoikane wrote:
| Some usernames do show up quite often, especially the ones who
| ended up here:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders
|
| I recognize some recurring usernames, but don't necessarily
| associate them with anything outside the context of HN.
| fragmede wrote:
| Well, you do happen to be searchable...
| dijit wrote:
| maybe like 5 people, including dang.
|
| If you asked me to name them though I wouldn't be able to, but
| when I see their comments I remember them. Interesting how that
| works.
| neontomo wrote:
| Might be interesting to combine with:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30668137
|
| https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/441566-hn-avatars-in-396-b...
|
| Description:
|
| _The concept is to use HN usernames as the seed into a
| deterministic avatar generator. This generator is built from the
| famously simple xorshift32 PRNG, which both provides a random
| variable for the image generator steps, and "pseudo-hashes" the
| seed string to provide the initial PRNG state using a non-linear
| step (adding each codepoint - which is likely not very robust
| against collisions compared to proper hashing algorithms, but is
| simple and good enough)._
|
| And do away with the username, but still keep an avatar based on
| their username to make it easier to follow the flow of a thread.
| jorvi wrote:
| If they also seeded with the post ID, you're cooking.
|
| Basically turns it into 4Chan with tripcodes. Technically you
| can re-use your tripcode but the community there really really
| looks down on doing that (or used to, I haven't been there in
| something like a decade).
| neontomo wrote:
| To what purpose? To make a new avatar for every new comment,
| regardless of poster?
| jorvi wrote:
| No, you would have the same avatar under a post (so it is
| grokkable who is replying to who), but your avatar would
| differ between posts.
|
| The tree within HN is "post > thread > comment", no?
|
| There is a lot of use in having the same avatar within
| threads and across threads, but I don't see much use in
| having the same avatar across posts. All it leads to is
| point farming, echo chambering and bandwagoning.
|
| Many times I see well-known users with recognizable
| usernames offer insightful comments. They are very
| knowledgeable, well-informed and polite. Many times
| however, if someone else dares to go against this user with
| an equally valid well-informed polite countercomment,
| groupies of said recognizable user will nuke those comments
| into deep grey, purely because it goes against their god
| and he must be right.
|
| You see this across all subcommunities that have a point
| system and usernames. People lose sight of the content and
| will blindly follow whoever is the most well-known person
| within that community.
|
| Something like Reddit, but with the value-judging system of
| imageboards would be a godsend.
| joset9264 wrote:
| [dead]
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(page generated 2023-08-14 23:02 UTC)