The person could have lost a password. Been at a different machine. Works for reddit. First time poster / long time reader. Some people have been on this site so long they just like to play a game where they try to get to 500 karma as fast as possible. Then they start over and try to beat previous best time.

I don’t normally post on HN or even read it that often. So it is necessary because I lurk and just wanted to share my thoughts. I don't wanna derail things but perhaps consider most of the people on HN are probably lurkers and sometimes we make an account to join the chat :)