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Comment by salesguy222 | Hacker News Reader

Thank you for your insight. I mean this comment seriously, because it is the only reason i don't run more websites:

what happens when my site gets very popular and lucrative, and someone uses my whois info to rob me in my home?

Don't use your home address in whois, period. Use a business address. If you have a site that is lucrative then you have enough to pay for a PO box or an office space. There are plenty of companies that will provide on demand office space and take and forward mail for a couple hundred dollars per month or less.

You don't have to get popular for this. All kinds of people can be the victim of targeted harassment campaigns. Such as indie game developers.

Thank you very much, I completely agree. The arguments that people should either pay up for WHOIS protection or use a publishing platform is like choosing between being extorted by the crips or the bloods!

I respect the information you have provided, but there is no reason in my mind that I should need to pay a couple hundred dollars for an address, or registration for a business etc

the reason for this is that I am a non-Serbian citizen living in Serbia right now, where most people have monthly expenses of $300!! :)

Does it realistically matter if you don't use a correct address?

I ask because I have a number of domains still registered to an old home address. I have never bothered to update them due to laziness and privacy concerns - but the domains keep working.

There has never been an attempt to verify the address.

> what happens when my site gets very popular and lucrative, and someone uses my whois info to rob me in my home?

You form a company around it and use the business address? Or use your domain registrar’s privacy guard if you can’t/won’t form a company.

I appreciate your response! I responded to another poster above. sure the prices arent exorbitant, but it feels like being offered a choice on how youd like to be extorted

By that point it's too late? If I want to register a domain, but have no money or time, I'm not going to incorporate just to do it. If a year later it goes viral and starts making enough money to be worth incorporating, my information is already public.

If I then move it to a business address, that will prevent casual snoopers but you can buy access to historical whois records...

Yeah, I see your point.

Thankfully (though not helpful in your case) the UK registry does allow “non trading individuals” to opt out of the public record. You can also change the registrant type from individual to company later.

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