I was wondering if requiring the creation of a "root level" URL on some domain might be a good substitute for real identity. Perhaps something like http://domain.com/hn.html, on any domain one has control over. A parallel would be Google's verification for its domain applications.
Each domain would need to be unique per user.
Many (most?) people here already have a domain that they control, and this seems like a reasonable hurdle for anyone posting to Hacker News to accomplish. Unlike credit card validation or the like, it's equally accessible for users from any country. And one doesn't even have to buy the domain, just come up with some way to make a file accessible on the root of some site.
It's also a nod to history of the internet. Long ago, essentially in the predawn of time, Usenet started being filled with spam and low quality posts. The alt.hackers newsgroup came up an interesting solution: self-moderation. Users were required to figure out how to add an "Approved" header to their own posts. Thus perhaps the file could just read "Approved". :)
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I was wondering if requiring the creation of a "root level" URL on some domain might be a good substitute for real identity. Perhaps something like http://domain.com/hn.html, on any domain one has control over. A parallel would be Google's verification for its domain applications. Each domain would need to be unique per user.
Many (most?) people here already have a domain that they control, and this seems like a reasonable hurdle for anyone posting to Hacker News to accomplish. Unlike credit card validation or the like, it's equally accessible for users from any country. And one doesn't even have to buy the domain, just come up with some way to make a file accessible on the root of some site.
It's also a nod to history of the internet. Long ago, essentially in the predawn of time, Usenet started being filled with spam and low quality posts. The alt.hackers newsgroup came up an interesting solution: self-moderation. Users were required to figure out how to add an "Approved" header to their own posts. Thus perhaps the file could just read "Approved". :)