The purpose of using real identities (government ID) is not to facilitate debate and sharing of opinions, but to punish and neuter debate and limit sharing of opinions.
Compare the outcomes of totally anonymous reputation-based forums such as HN, reddit or 4chan with near-real identity forums such as Facebook or Linkedin.
There is a very open flow of ideas and debate on 4chan and other reputation-based forums.
There is at least as much hate speech and trolling going on at Facebook as on HN, yet Facebook has near-real identities.
Linkedin have at least as much spam and criminal phishing posts going on as HN, yet Linked in has near-real identities.
HN would not be a better forum if everyone had to register with their government ID. The main benefit would be to make it easier to ban one person from accessing the forum, and silence that individual.
Compare the outcomes of totally anonymous reputation-based forums such as HN, reddit or 4chan with near-real identity forums such as Facebook or Linkedin.
There is a very open flow of ideas and debate on 4chan and other reputation-based forums. There is at least as much hate speech and trolling going on at Facebook as on HN, yet Facebook has near-real identities. Linkedin have at least as much spam and criminal phishing posts going on as HN, yet Linked in has near-real identities.
HN would not be a better forum if everyone had to register with their government ID. The main benefit would be to make it easier to ban one person from accessing the forum, and silence that individual.
My vote is for reputation-based forums.