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Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

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Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anon LLC is US specific. Not available in other countries.

Not limited by LLC, registering a company anywhere can ensure it to an extent

In Switzerland that would require you to deposit at least 25k or you can not use a fantasy name.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#62

As someone who grew up when they printed your address when your photo and name appeared in the paper, and when everyone had their name, telephone, and address in the telephone book -- this seems bizarre. Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product? Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program. Transparency and honesty are the best policies in b…

Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product?

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#63

If you prefer to use a pseudonym, why not just register an LLC? There are services out there that will register your company and be your registered agent in states that do not require your name ever made public (Wyoming for example). These services also provide a mailbox that would work for anything you need. You can then get a business checking account (Mercury works well) with your newly registered business. You ca…

...or strike a deal with existing LLC. This is what my company does. We sign contracts and you re hidden behind offshore corporate veil.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#64

As someone who grew up when they printed your address when your photo and name appeared in the paper, and when everyone had their name, telephone, and address in the telephone book -- this seems bizarre. Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product? Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program. Transparency and honesty are the best policies in b…

  - One might be working on multiple, own, competing products.
  - One might want to have a normal fulltime job where managers and HR aren't worried about their little side project.
  - One might not want people who google them to see they have a project going.
  - ...
Privacy doesn't exclude transparency and honesty.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not limited by LLC, registering a company anywhere can ensure it to an extent

No, company board and owners are public and readily available data in virtually all countries, US being an exception to the rule.

The seychelles is also a good choice for a completely anonymous company (note that banking may be a bigger issue to solve)

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#66
Hey! A couple days ago I launched anonfriendly [1]. It's a site that shows jobs where you can work pseudonymously. You might find it useful.

I launched on HN yesterday and it went #1. You might find that discussion [2] interesting as people were discussing the feasibility of working pseudonymously.

[1] https://anonfriendly.com

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31755025

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#67
I’d say it depends what you mean by anonymous. If you mean you don’t want every mention of your software to be “John Smith’s app” then just start a company. That would make it “Company X’s app.” No one would care much about who owns Company X or which of their developers wrote the code. You wouldn’t be completely anonymous, as you’re still the owner of Company X, but users referencing your apps wouldn’t know about or mention you by name. They could, but they won’t.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#68

As someone who grew up when they printed your address when your photo and name appeared in the paper, and when everyone had their name, telephone, and address in the telephone book -- this seems bizarre. Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product? Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program. Transparency and honesty are the best policies in b…

> Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program. Transparency and honesty are the best policies in business and personally. I don't understand your absolutist viewpoint here. Can you really not imagine a non-nefarious situation in which someone might not want to associate themself publicly with their work?

Yeah, that comment they don't like? Crazy people will false report some incident to get a SWAT team at your address. Other crazy people will call your employment and start a campaign of attacks to get you fired. Plenty of examples of this out there. Some people, eg youtubers, get swatted multiple times. Police turn up multiple times. These aren't isolated cases.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#69
post #47
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have some kind of point but it's lost by being rude

Yeah, fair criticism. But I'm just so over the insane mass hallucination these planet burning pyramid scheme grifters keep wanting to convince everybody is real. There are no clothes, there isn't even a damned emperor. They all deserver to be called out and ridiculed at every sighting. And yeah, I'm rude while doing that.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Is it still conceivable to remain an anonymous developer nowadays?

#70

As someone who grew up when they printed your address when your photo and name appeared in the paper, and when everyone had their name, telephone, and address in the telephone book -- this seems bizarre. Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product? Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program. Transparency and honesty are the best policies in b…

>"Are you never planning to appear at a trade show and promote your product? Hiding who you are seems cowardly, or maybe you have nefarious motives with your program."

Just fucking wow. There are whole bunch of totally valid reasons why one would want to be anonymous. It is ok to refuse to deal with such person / entity but to blame them in such terms is highly insulting and totally incompetent.

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