not to protect my rep, to avoid a personal problem I have, which is an overwhelming compulsion to have the last word in every discussion. I can get just about anybody to agree with me if I spend enough time to find out what mistake they made when they misinterpreted my words, and I have a really hard time accepting that people are going to say things about me which are inaccurate or illogical. so I end up wasting a lot of time arguing with people who never bothered to read what I was saying carefully in the first place.

I created this account so I could come on here and correct these comments. I had to create a new account because I threw out my HN password about a week or two ago in hopes of staying out of these kinds of discussions. I don't know which specific incident on Reddit of deleting my comments and/or my account you're referring to, because I've done that many times, but it probably involved wasted time or inadequate explanation on my part and poor logic on the part of several other people.

it's basically a failure of discipline and priority-setting on my part. I'm getting better at it, though.