Ask HN: Is it possible to change your HN username?

3 points·sharonpaul··6 comments

Hi everyone! Do you have any idea on how to change a hackernews username, but without creating a new account?

thanks a bunch!

Try emailing pg - that's the main way most things not supported by the web interface are dealt with (deleting accounts, password recovery, and so forth). I'm not sure if he's able to change account names, but it's possible, and it wouldn't hurt to try.

If you ask and pg does change your username, would you mind replying to say so? It's useful information to have, and would allow greater accuracy in answers if the same question is asked again.

You can't. Why would you want to?

Just start a new account.

You may want to if you're being stalked and you used your real name as your username, and there is personal info attached to your submissions that could help the stalker locate you. Not saying it's likely but it's possible.

or because when you started off on HN you didn't think too much of it, so you picked a stupid name...like latch...and now you wish it was better tied to your other online identities (twitter...github...).

But no, you can't. It's the key to all your data (not that this is insurmountable, mind you).

hahaha thankfully its not because someone is stalking me. but yea, i want it to be tied the same as my other online identities.

didnt want to change it as I wanted to keep the records of submissions that I had in the past. with a karma of 43...its not high, but i kinda treasure it LOL

If people really wanted to stalk someone, they can do it outside of HN although I've seen a thread on this in the past so I know what you're referring to but it's usually very unlikely. That said, I'm using my real name LOL

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