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I was sincerely hoping to hear your side. I wish your response wasn't this vague.

stonecraftwolf 6y ago
I get it. But I also don’t have much of a tolerance any more for dealing with abuse, and it’s not possible to be open about this stuff without also making yourself vulnerable to that abuse. I wish there was a solution to that, not least because I wish I could participate more frequently and more openly, but if there is a solution beyond moderation for this purpose I haven’t figured it out yet.
- belorn 6y ago
  An option is to use a throwaway account for comments that would leak personal information if linked to a main account or personalized username.
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    That's an option... but if the person behind the throwaway account still receives abuse, it doesn't matter that the abuse didn't come down on their main account. It's still abuse aimed at them as a person, and it still hurts just as much.
  - ThrowawayR2 6y ago
    Be careful about assuming that a throwaway account guarantees anonymity. Based on what HN moderators have said in posts to users misusing throwaway accounts to violate the HN guidelines, they are able to link throwaway accounts to primary accounts. That necessarily implies if HN suffers a severe security breach, all throwaway accounts may be linkable to the main account which would reveal the email address on the main account, if present, and enable researching of the user's identity based on posts on the main account.
- raarts 6y ago
  Aren't you able to provide examples that you've seen happening to others in this site? Because if not nobody knows what you're referring to, and you could just as well haven't made the comment in the first place.
  - Leparamour 6y ago
    >Aren't you able to provide examples that you've seen happening to others in this site? Because if not nobody knows what you're referring to, and you could just as well haven't made the comment in the first place. Why the aggressive tone? You could activate "showdead" in the settings and watch any thread with controversial/political topics yourself.
- danaliv 6y ago
  Just want to say: I feel you.

I get it. But I also don’t have much of a tolerance any more for dealing with abuse, and it’s not possible to be open about this stuff without also making yourself vulnerable to that abuse. I wish there was a solution to that, not least because I wish I could participate more frequently and more openly, but if there is a solution beyond moderation for this purpose I haven’t figured it out yet.

belorn 6y ago
An option is to use a throwaway account for comments that would leak personal information if linked to a main account or personalized username.
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  That's an option... but if the person behind the throwaway account still receives abuse, it doesn't matter that the abuse didn't come down on their main account. It's still abuse aimed at them as a person, and it still hurts just as much.
- ThrowawayR2 6y ago
  Be careful about assuming that a throwaway account guarantees anonymity. Based on what HN moderators have said in posts to users misusing throwaway accounts to violate the HN guidelines, they are able to link throwaway accounts to primary accounts. That necessarily implies if HN suffers a severe security breach, all throwaway accounts may be linkable to the main account which would reveal the email address on the main account, if present, and enable researching of the user's identity based on posts on the main account.
raarts 6y ago
Aren't you able to provide examples that you've seen happening to others in this site? Because if not nobody knows what you're referring to, and you could just as well haven't made the comment in the first place.
- Leparamour 6y ago
  >Aren't you able to provide examples that you've seen happening to others in this site? Because if not nobody knows what you're referring to, and you could just as well haven't made the comment in the first place. Why the aggressive tone? You could activate "showdead" in the settings and watch any thread with controversial/political topics yourself.
danaliv 6y ago
Just want to say: I feel you.