HN Explorer

Show HN: I made a tool to hide HN usernames and reduce bias (hackerwhos.com)

38 points by jarrenae ↗ HN
Hey HN, I made this tool after I read a pretty interesting pg essay - http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

He talks about changing some HN usernames' colors to orange and then deciding to revert back

So I thought it could be interesting to remove usernames entirely. This Chrome Extension just replaces HN usernames with question marks. I've enjoyed using it so far myself and I'm curious what you think about the concept?

31 comments

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the-anarchist
If someone now adds quoted green text to it we've gone full circle.
copperx
I want to believe there's no path from the HN vertex to the 4chan one.
Kaze404
It wasn't even 30 minutes ago that I read someone defending a nuclear war as it would (paraphrasing) "solve the problem of overpopulation while also taking down some commies".
the_only_law
Oh yeah, I saw this one a few times both on Reddit and here with some delusion justification that we would be able to stop everyone else’s Nikes, but they couldn’t stop ours.
copperx
Indeed. Our Air Jordans are unstoppable.
krapp
I made a userscript for that once, ages ago. It stopped working after HN updated something and I was too lazy to fix it. It made threads a lot more readable, honestly.
gruez
This isn't really a problem given how discreet the usernames on this site are, as opposed to other sites with profile pics or bold usernames. By default I don't really notice the author as I'm reading each comment, so I'm not sure where this supposed bias is coming from.
bluefirebrand
Honestly the only time I even really notice usernames is when I find one person who is replying to a lot of threads in a single post.

Often I notice it because they are repeating the same rhetoric over and over, and it's usually something I strongly disagree with.

Even in those cases, I haven't internalized the names enough to recognize them in other threads.

YLE118
I think twice I've read a post and thought oh hey that sounds like X. Mostly because of some niche knowledge that I've seen on here before and possibly interacted with. It's possible I'm strange though, I rarely read authors of articles unless they seem familiar or are worth recommending.
jdefelice
The only time I look at usernames is when looking at thread replies to see if the person replying is the same.
jarrenae
A recent comment by dang mentioned that some users request specific usernames that are already taken (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32133471 ), and there was a bit of pushback and confusion about it.

I'd agree, the impact is minimal, but if you're an avid reader of the site, it's easy to start recognizing usernames if you're that sort of person. Situational for sure.

quickthrower2
Nice work. I think hiding the points, and maybe reordering should get rid of more bias.
bawolff
The flip side is that bias is a heuristic to try and boost signal to noise ratio. Well i'm sure that would reduce bias, i'd worry about the consequences for the signal to noise ratio.
quickthrower2
If you only show the top (page 1-3) submissions and not /newest, then I think signal to noise should be OK.
adeleine
When you're so impervious to bias that you don't even know that people have a problem with it.

Joking aside, have you thought of porting this into a simple user script that anyone can install? That would also mean support for all other browsers, and people don't have to use Google services.

jarrenae
That's a good point. I'll probably do that and add it to the site!
resonious
I usually don't even look at the usernames. In fact I sometimes go back to read all the usernames just to see if the same person is appearing twice in a thread.
GameOfFrowns
The only two I'd even recognize are "tptacek", because he appears to be so often in a really bad mood when posting and prolific karmacollector "tomte", who (I assume) tries to politicize HN furthering a personal social justice warrior agenda.
Akronymus
I wouldn't be surprised if some recognize me for, in their eyes, bad takes. (Some are bad takes even in my eyes in retrospect)

So far, I can't remember anyone trying to use my past comments against me in a sort of totschlagargument. (Thought terminating cliche)

As a personal rule, I keep track of at most the commenters who made comments in the same thread, when relevant.

egberts1
There’s quite a few HN usernames who have bot-like quality and post nothing but random news all day/all year.

This tool would not help us.

kurupt213
i never even notice the names unless they are green...and i don't know what that means
Jaruzel
Green usernames are for newbie accounts that are less than 30(?) days old.
kurupt213
So the opposite of what I guessed
hammyhavoc
I quite honestly don't even look at the names, I just look at what people have to say. Why? Because people can have quite rational, grounded, informed opinions and insight on one field, yet have completely off-the-mark, borderline tinfoil-hat-crap in another. Doesn't mean I don't respect the person, just means that no person knows everything, and putting anybody on a pedestal is something that is eventually going to hurt you and them too.
alex1212
This is interesting but not necessarily useful as most usernames are quite cryptic to begin with
kamban
Nice concept, but I barely notice the usernames.