Comment by psyc

Twelve years ago the userbase was much smaller, and a lot more people used real names either verbatim or stylized. It was much, much easier to know who people were. Now it's the same for me. Outside a handful of old timers that I recognize automatically, I don't really see usernames because the majority either start with "throwaway" or are otherwise gibberish to me. I myself abandoned my real name account 6 years ago, around the time I realized it was going to be a great risk to have ones name attached to ones thoughts permanently on the public web.