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I am tired of seeing a question from user1234567 answered by user8901234 and user5678901, all with indistinguishable avatars

I can imagine the problem that this system is supposed to resolve: presumably we want to encourage anyone to make a contribution, even if they aren't creative enough to concieve an image and a title that evokes their own character.

Perhaps Stack Overflow has grown a long way beyond the initial concept, but one of the more valuable experiences to me now is that I recognise - for better or for worse - the names that I see in the discussions.

It may be enough that users with auto-generated names and icons already feel some pressure to upgrade with things as they are now: I really can't tell. But couldn't we mark a user reaching the 10K reputation graduation point by requiring them to invent a name for themselves? That way the pressure of already-used names is relieved while regular contributors become recognisable.

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    And what benefit would come from changing a name from user123 to IamAwesome? Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:47
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    My mom named me "user1234567" and I am proud of it :) Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:48
  • @juergend: As I have described, I would be talking to people whose names amd icons I recognised. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:49
  • Yes, and that would be so much better because? Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:49
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    @juergend: I hope I don't have to describe how a knowledge of someone's background and character helps us to phrase our comments? Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:52
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    Well I'm sure I get more downvotes because others recognise my name and are wary of my prior conduct. Hang on a minute ....... brb, changing my name to a number. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:52
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    @psubsee2003: She must have been so upset when you changed it Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:53
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    Actually we want the content here to be based on posts and not on users. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:53
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    @juergend: The two are inseparable, and pretending otherwise is counterproductive Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:54
  • @juergend: Were that true, there would be no need for any kind of ID. As it is, some are useful while most are pointless. Numeric use IDs may as well be blank Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 0:55
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    @juergend having a non-number name shows some degree of investment in the identity and the site. That in turn helps people say "yes, they will be back to read what I wrote and so I'll write better content." Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 1:03
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    @juergend If I am looking for a question to answer that will help someone, and given two options - one from a user with a user123 name, another from a user that created a personalized name... I'd likely answer the personalized one. There are many questions that are possible to answer and many more questions than people can answer. If given the choice, I'd rather answer one that will likely be read again from someone invested in the site. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 1:12
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    @MichaelT I personally don’t care who is asking the question. Being it someone with a number-name or a custom one; with a fancy avater, a weird one, or with the default randomized one; man or woman. I simply don’t care. I do care about the content and how it’s written. If the question is interesting to me and/or well written, I am more likely to invest time in answering it. The identity of the person asking has zero influence on that to me. The names are only important to me in a community-building sense; but that goes beyond the main purpose of these sites. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 1:17
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    @poke When I go about answering a question on SO, my time is not limitless. I want to give an answer that has as much meaning as possible. I filter by tags and look for something to answer. Typically there are quite a few candidates. The one that I want to sit down and spend a good chunk of time on answering (I don't do 'try some code' answers) are ones from someone who has shown an investment in belonging to the site and returning. The name is the first pass that I use for that filter. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 1:24
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    @Borodin As I said, I do care about the content and how it’s written, so that definitely impacts me. However, I don’t look at who asks the question; I simply don’t care. The author’s profile is completely irrelevant to my process of answering. And I think you can see from my reputation that I am capable of writing answers the community deems useful. Commented Jun 3, 2014 at 12:16

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Content is king here.

Recognized users post horrible content from time to time. And anonymous numerical gravatar folk can come up with brilliant questions and answers as well.

Content > Contributor

We are social beings, but SO is not a social network. We (as individuals) want to focus on users, even if it's counterproductive to the goal of creating a library of good content.

Just because we have a tendency to do stupid things doesn't mean that the SE staff should encourage us in our problematic behavior. There is a reason that user information is shown after the content of a post rather than before it. There's a reason that it's so small. And there's a reason that even anonymous users who are virtually indistinguishable from each other can post here.

It's to protect us from ourselves.

If it really bugs you though, you can create a userscript that uses the unique ID to generate names and icons more pleasing to your personal aesthetics.

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