From the URL in your profile, you seem to do both of the mentioned things...
I won't post links here but from the link in your HN profile (http://web-wanderings.blogspot.com/) a Google search and thirty seconds or so of time reveals a Name, Yahoo account and Twitter handle, the lattermost of which (and a personal page linked from your Gravatar) both strongly tied to a particular religion.
Is there all that much to putting up the thin layer that is a pseudonym in the face of that?
(Hint: This is a new account created using an IP that isn't my own with no details given - it wouldn't (alone) be enough to hide me from anyone actively watching from HN's servers, but should stand up to after-the-fact checks...)
LOL, you made an effort? I'm honored. But you missed the point. Google and Facebook have naturally and unnaturally coerced people into living a certain online lifestyle. I wonder if you know the history of Afghanistan's Taliban rule and their policies towards the Hindu subjects, and how they forced them to wear a cloth of specific colors so they can be distinguished from the Muslims?
I am not making parallels but above is an example of unnatural and forced coercion into applying identities. The other is also unnatural but still a coercive strategy, perhaps just influential in method.
BTW, based on your assessment of my online identity, did you think I was a Hindu or a Buddhist? Because I'm neither.
There's a difference between wearing you're religion on your sleeve (i.e. obvious to everyone without any effort) and wearing it on a necklace under your shirt (i.e. obvious only to those people to whom you show it or who make an effort to find it). GP apparently does the latter.
I won't post links here but from the link in your HN profile (http://web-wanderings.blogspot.com/) a Google search and thirty seconds or so of time reveals a Name, Yahoo account and Twitter handle, the lattermost of which (and a personal page linked from your Gravatar) both strongly tied to a particular religion.
Is there all that much to putting up the thin layer that is a pseudonym in the face of that?
(Hint: This is a new account created using an IP that isn't my own with no details given - it wouldn't (alone) be enough to hide me from anyone actively watching from HN's servers, but should stand up to after-the-fact checks...)