Ask HN: Should we make a standard throwaway account like whos hiring account?

7 points by open 15 years ago | 3 comments

It feels as though every day there's a bunch of newly registered account made for the sole purpose of asking one question because people don't want to use their main account and it happens so often that I wonder if its worth it just to consolidate and let people use one account with a known login and username just to post from.<p>Not that it really matters (other than HN db being litered with one off accounts and random usernames being taken) but just thought of it because of the who's hiring account suggestion a couple months back.

bmm6o 15 years ago |

What exactly is the problem? Too many throw away accounts?

profitbaron 15 years ago |

There also could be an option like Quora have where you can submit anonymously, where instead of it saying "by USER" it says "by anon" with no link to a users profile etc.

However, I don't think that it really makes a big difference either way but it is a nice idea.

bmm6o 15 years ago | |

The problem with that approach is that the asker needs to post follow ups and respond in thread. I don't know how Quora handles it, but it sounds like more work than PG would like to put into any feature with such little benefit.