Hacker News Doppelgänger
Consumer and social
hacker news tool
SHOW HN2021
How HN took it
23 positive, 51 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 52 critical, out of 128 comments about the project. Thread score -0.19.
Execution: 7 for, 37 againstIdea: 12 for, 5 againstPerformance: 0 for, 6 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 3 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun way to find like-minded users and throwaway or secondary accounts
From 4 comments
I have 2 accounts at over 1k karma. I generally start a new one when I make major moves (across multiple state lines or between countries). My accounts did not correlate,…
Supermancho on HNHandy to find people using several identities, spammers with multiple accounts or to uncover throwaways.
BiteCode_dev on HNIt works! My doppelgänger is my old account.
easton on HNFinally we bring authorship attribution to expose secondary HN accounts. I've been waiting for this for years!
graderjs on HN
Matches sometimes resemble the commenter's own writing style
From 3 comments
This is cool. I can definitely see similarities in sentence length and style compared to my closest matches.
phendrenad2 on HNOkay, the first one I got does actually write like me. It's funny because I didn't agree with what he says in his posts, but I totally recognize why it ranked highly similar to…
ksaj on HNApparently I'm rather similar to jacquesm [0], while shantly [1] is the top match of both of us. Associativity seems to hold up. Also, I'm in a way on the front page (?), so I'm…
Sebb767 on HN
Objections
Matches often look unrelated or are inactive accounts
From 4 comments
Is this in any way distinguishable from just picking random accounts? There is no discernible similarity between the supposedly similar accounts that I can discern.
StefanKarpinski on HNIntriguing idea, but for me the criteria used to root out doppelgängers doesn’t lead to interesting results. My HN soul mates do not write like me, do not write about the same…
leephillips on HNMost of the listed accounts for me have no activity in recent months, and the ones that do engage on different topics (they are quite technical; I am not).
gnicholas on HNAs a designer on HN. The top 5 matches didn’t resonate as they were obviously developers who nerded out about code. My most relatable characteristic was some of our comments are…
pelagic_sky on HN
Service errors and slow loading under traffic
From 3 comments
I get a blank screen with a link to the hosting website on the bottom right. Chrome on Android mobile.
yawaworht1978 on HNStuck on "Please wait..." for me. :(
hidden-spyder on HNIs it intentional that this only works once and then the page needs to be reloaded to enter another name?
formerly_proven on HN
Usernames are case sensitive and lookups often fail
From 3 comments
If you encounter the error that "This user does not exist or does not have any activity.", check the case. They seem to be case-sensitive on this page. (I checked with correct…
_Microft on HN“ This user does not exist or does not have any activity.” :( Edit: looks like it’s case sensitive, be warned people on mobile phones. Edit2: the person I matched with the most…
baby on HNSame.
CrazyStat on HN
Privacy concerns about linking accounts to identity
From 3 comments
So, we give this our username and it matches us to browser id/cookies/IP/whatever and sells the set to marketeers ... or?
pbhjpbhj on HNSo does this tool connect IP address with account name?
rvba on HNAlso this is the kind of service I would build if I wanted to figure out the ip of a user.
aasasd on HN
Requests
Weight by karma or comment count to reduce bias toward low-activity users
From 2 comments
I think currently it is a bit biased towards users with low comment count. Top similar user for me had 4 comments, top 2 only 1 comment. Then top 5 and top 6 again had 1 comment…
kkoncevicius on HNNice use of your service for a Show HN! The number of comments about the Karma being divergent on people's matches suggest you could add a simple ensemble approach with a karma…
jedwhite on HN
Use only recent comments rather than three years of history
From 1 comment
I tested with dang's username and I really don't see the similarities between the comments on: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang and…
busymom0 on HN
Publish the code and database or a how-it-works post
From 1 comment
Can you share the tool and its database as well as hosting it? Is it small enough to do so? I’d love to see / use your work but it feels weird to participate in allowing a third…
gorgoiler on HN
Questions
How much does hosting cost to run it
From 1 comment
Nice use of your service for a Show HN! The number of comments about the Karma being divergent on people's matches suggest you could add a simple ensemble approach with a karma…
jedwhite on HN
Is there a tool to download one's own HN comment history
From 1 comment
By the way, on a related question, I have an interest in being able to download all the things I've written on HN, but am not clever enough to hack together some tool to wget and…
supernova87a on HN