It’s not purely selfish. Some probably wouldn’t contribute here if they could not be anonymous. Quite a few people on HN who are valuable contributors are anonymous.
> It’s not purely selfish. Some probably wouldn’t contribute here if they could not be anonymous. Quite a few people on HN who are valuable contributors are anonymous.
Maybe this is a case of the baby/bath water problem. Would comments improve if accountability is improved? Would overall comments/discussion improve?
I can only tell you that I’m pretty sure that my writing would change.
I really don’t know whether quality in general would improve. It might but you might also lose many valuable contributors in the process.
I certainly have no problems with communities in which you have to use your real name. It’s a valid path to take, I just would much prefer to keep on commenting here anonymously. But a change of that policy wouldn’t be the end of the world. I would just abandon my old account, register a new one and probably comment a lot less and differently.
