It's not only (or even primarily) about linking your real identity to your HN account; it's about having a track record on HN itself.
I don't care if you're from Seattle or India, or if you're a young guy or an old lady; I care that you're the same person who posted that real interesting post three months ago about certain subject, or with whom I've had some interesting discussion about this or that, and who has a certain opinion about a controversial topic. I don't know if a certain post with your handle comes from the person I know is smart and probably knows what (s)he's talking about, or from some troll.
If I can never be sure if you're the same person, then trust can't be established; it's not about karma as "points," it's about karma as a property of human relations.
It's the same reason why I (almost) never respond to Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot - I'm never sure if the person who replies to me next is the same I was talking to.
That is a really valid point. I am not a creditable source when posting from this accoutn. The words coming from here can only be trusted as words without weight. No more, no less.
As an aside, I was not the person I was three months ago. Neither was anybody else on here. Part of my world view is that nobody is ever the same person as I remember them as.
Rationale:
a.) my impression of a person on the internet is inherently imperfect.
The internet is an autistic medium and can't really describe the complexity of a person. Maybe he is a "dummy" but happened to know one thing really really well and was having an awesome day mentally when he posted that comment. Or perhaps he was a putnam winner who was hangover and just broken up with a long term girlfriend when he made that really douchey comment. I just can't know this things and won't pretend to know them.
b.) people change.
What if my comment about not knowing anything about Python 12 months ago spurred me to go out and master the language last year? If you compared a persons comments at the very beginning of reading hacker news and then a year later, I expect you will see a massive shift in their writing style. People change and aren't the people they were the last time I interacted with them. How could I trust anyone on here (or in real life), if I know I can never be sure they are the same person they were the last time we interacted? It's a hard question that I haven't really found a good answer for yet.
To b.)
Developement of skills is mostly unidirectional. If you're a master of Python 12 today and you're not having an accident you won't be a total novice next year. Experiences you have made will (hopefully) be remembered next year (and I may want to question you about them), and maybe you will remember the people you had a conversation with. Yes, people change, but more than traces of the past remain nevertheless.
Very true. The only exception I could think of to that is when we are working with new technologies. As an example, node js and clojure are changing rapidly enough that the year to year difference is not insignificant. As we deal with technologies that are progressing more and more rapidly with time, it would probably be a good idea to keep in mind that some people who used to know what they were talking about may no longer have any idea of what is actually going on. But this is more a particular exception to places like Hacker News.
If I had a facebook, I would never do this sort of thing there. That would really really suck.
I don't care if you're from Seattle or India, or if you're a young guy or an old lady; I care that you're the same person who posted that real interesting post three months ago about certain subject, or with whom I've had some interesting discussion about this or that, and who has a certain opinion about a controversial topic. I don't know if a certain post with your handle comes from the person I know is smart and probably knows what (s)he's talking about, or from some troll.
If I can never be sure if you're the same person, then trust can't be established; it's not about karma as "points," it's about karma as a property of human relations.
It's the same reason why I (almost) never respond to Anonymous Cowards on Slashdot - I'm never sure if the person who replies to me next is the same I was talking to.