I think it's good that the usernames don't show. Other HN members have expressed a similar opinion over the years... it prevents voting for/against the person keeping your impression of the comment (at least the first impression) based on the content and not the author.

I strongly disagree. It's very useful to be able to qualify comments with what I know of that user, especially when I don't know much about the field being talked about.

I'm much more likely to take tptacek's advice on security more seriously than someone else's. Likewise with grellas's legal analysis, Patio11's small business/SEO advice, etc. That their names along might cause high karma for them isn't a bad thing. Quite the opposite, it causes their comments to be pushed to the top, which is almost always a good thing, as they're consistently the best comments in those threads.

It gives some measure of ability to gauge trustworthiness.

I'm not disagreeing. In fact, I upvoted you.

But I'm saying that the first impulse impression/reaction for a comment should be based on what it says, not who's doing the saying. After you read it, you can qualify it by its author. It's not like I'm suggesting we hide the author or anything - it's right there, when you need to find out who wrote what. But don't make it stick out any more than it already does. Put the content front and center, and make it the focus of attention. After you've read the comment and judged it for what it says and how its written, then reflect on who wrote it and what kind of weight that will give it.

Hacker News' display of usernames borders on anonymity; it's not highlighted nor emphasized in any way. It's like HN is an invitation to debate with its hivemind.

It should at the very least be easier to scan the usernames when reading large threads. Now, it's either a strain or something you forgo entirely. I'd be interested to see an eye movement analysis of HN users in relation to the username displays.

Grudges are what Ignore features are for. (And the opposite for Buddy systems.)

I recently wounded up criticizing a start-up pitch in a thread, and it turned out that the person I had the conversation with was one of the founders. At least the OP - and preferably the coworkers - should be highlighted. The latter could be achieved by letting the OP include user names, when s/he creates a thread.