Title: There's an old internet joke, that on the internet, nobody knows you're a dog.<p>The way to let people know that you're not a dog, is to establish an identity, maybe a short blurb about yourself and a way to contact you out-of-band.<p>Lots of HN profiles are blank, and the nicknames used are anonymous. Of course, the theory is that since we are all judging your writings by their merits it is just as good to get that information you just wrote from an anonymous source as it would be to get it from a source that has an identity.<p>To me that would matter, for one when someone is attaching their name - and by extension their reputation - to their words they automatically have something to lose by saying it.<p>Second, it helps to verify that they are real people with relevant experience, instead of posers.<p>Anonymity on the net has its uses, for instance for whistleblowers and to ask embarrassing questions.<p>But for the most part it is used as a shield for cowardly attacks, sockpuppets and to create a persona with a reputation that is larger than the one the person is really entitled to and so on.<p>Being yourself is more than enough. So, to all those that are for whatever reason anonymous here, step out of the shadows and tie your HN identity in with your real-life persona.<p>Anonymous cowards belong to that other site :)
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