I didn’t deanonymize anyone. There are many Marks on LW (what with it being one of the most common male personal names in the West). The people on EA Forum who have been posting about it using the full username, they’ve deanonymized Mark. You should go complain to them if you think there is harm in it. And I am only the messenger about the deanonymization: anyone who uses GreaterWrong & related mirrors has already been deanonymizing all of the anonymous users every time they load a page for years now. A bit late to be worried. (Mark is currently arguing to keep this, saying “it works well enough”, which is uh.)
FWIW, I did actually manage to guess which Mark it was based on the content of the initial comment, because there aren’t that many persistent commenters named Mark on LW, and only one I could think of who would post that particular initial comment. So claiming not to have deanonymized him at all does seem to be overstating your case a little, especially given some of your previous musings on anonymity. (“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” and all that.)
I do, however, echo the sentiment you expressed on the EA Forum (that anonymous commenting on LW seems not worth it on the margin, both because the benefits themselves seem questionable, and because it sounds like a proper implementation would take a lot of developer effort that could be better used elsewhere).
De-anonymizing people who have chosen to post anonymously on purpose isn’t harmless.
Then again, posting from a deactivated account as a hack for anonymity isn’t exactly officially supported either.
I didn’t deanonymize anyone. There are many Marks on LW (what with it being one of the most common male personal names in the West). The people on EA Forum who have been posting about it using the full username, they’ve deanonymized Mark. You should go complain to them if you think there is harm in it. And I am only the messenger about the deanonymization: anyone who uses GreaterWrong & related mirrors has already been deanonymizing all of the anonymous users every time they load a page for years now. A bit late to be worried. (Mark is currently arguing to keep this, saying “it works well enough”, which is uh.)
FWIW, I did actually manage to guess which Mark it was based on the content of the initial comment, because there aren’t that many persistent commenters named Mark on LW, and only one I could think of who would post that particular initial comment. So claiming not to have deanonymized him at all does seem to be overstating your case a little, especially given some of your previous musings on anonymity. (“The lady doth protest too much, methinks” and all that.)
I do, however, echo the sentiment you expressed on the EA Forum (that anonymous commenting on LW seems not worth it on the margin, both because the benefits themselves seem questionable, and because it sounds like a proper implementation would take a lot of developer effort that could be better used elsewhere).