Ask HN: Just what, precisely/technically, does the green name mean?

[Helianthus]

I'm happily reading people's opinions about C++ compilers[1] and I'm distracted by chandlerc's username. Sometimes it's green, sometimes it isn't.

This is inherently offensive to my insistence on rigid understanding: there must be a pattern! I set out to find the system's explanation for its workings; surely somewhere is listed the minimum karma, set timespan, or other voodoo that determines who's new and who's not.

But I couldn't find it. This is where someone can very quickly strike me dumb by pointing out it's right <a>here</a> and anyone with a brain would have found it. Well. I didn't, ok? Site policies ought to be pretty accessible, ok?

Then I started thinking. Is there any purpose to coloring a username green besides simple elitism? It seems chandlerc quickly earned his stripes, to the extent that a green username _doesn't have any real meaning_.

Why is the separation of new people more important to this site than, say, the highlighting of the name of the submitter? Do we really think that alienating new people--whether that's the intent of the feature or not, that's what it does--ought to be that high in the feature queue? Does a green name _really_ help you filter out noise?

I have no idea whether I prefer to see comment scores. But I'm suddenly, surprisingly filled with distaste at the green user name, not only because the mechanism isn't clear but because the mechanism doesn't do much.

You may consider my gears thoroughly grinded. Erm--ground.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2577481

[Peroni]

He's a new user. Simple as that.

This may help your rigid understanding: http://news.ycombinator.com/noobstories

[ZeroGravitas]

That's interesting, I hadn't thought about it (or read about it) much but I had assumed the highlight was for particularly useful commenters. Maybe it was the choice of green, which obviously intends to convey newness, but I took it as green for go/positive/yes.