On: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and ...

[DeusExMachina]

"To be green" is an idiom that means "to be immature in age or judgment; untrained; inexperienced."

So it's not completely misplaced.

[Taylor_OD → DeusExMachina]

I can certainly think of some reasons why it makes sense. But I can think of plenty of reasons why it doesnt as well.

[DeusExMachina → Taylor_OD]

Once you decide you need a color to mark new accounts, the same reasoning can be applied to pretty much any color. Probably the solution is to add a [new] tag like it happens already to dead, flagged, and banned entries or accounts.

[anothernewdude → DeusExMachina]

It is frequently used on other forums and sites to show users as being mods or admins. Why not show account age if the signal is important?