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Comment by tarr11 | Hacker News Reader

I can't seem to see any biography about you on your HN profile or this post.

Are you planning on doing this anonymously?

No, but I prefer sharing my identity on a 1-on-1 basis during project discussions, rather than put it in the proposition.

[thread flagged]

To me, this is a red flag.

The offer is set before the entire HN community. It has substantial financial and legal implications.

You are competing with YC.

Your track record is relevant to the ranking of this thread on HN.

Fair enough. I can see where you are coming from, although even if you found out my real identity (which might be possible if you look carefully enough through my history of comments), you would not find anything that would substantially strengthen the proposition.

I'm no one special... just a techie with some moderate success who wants to help launch some cool new products.

Until you reveal your identity, you're wasting everyone's time.

He's really only wasting about 30 seconds of it, though, as comments and Google are indeed the only two things required. He appears to be exactly what he says he is.

I personally don't think his identity is relevant to all HN, but it's definitely something that's going to be revealed to the selected candidate/project because of the legal implication.

It's not so much discovering something which would strengthen it, as discovering something which would weaken it.

Since your comments point to a trail which leads to a plausible individual, it is difficult to see a serious legitimate benefit which arises from not claiming to be that person. On the other hand, falsely claiming to be that person would have legal implications.

[Edit] on a meta-level, I believe that a precedent for this type of offer to be made anonymously is a hazard to the HN community.

> The offer is set before the entire HN community. It has substantial financial and legal implications.

So? If you're not going to take the OP up on his offer then what business is that of yours? Or are we little children that need your protection?

> You are competing with YC.

And YC can't deal with that competition? It has to be shouted down so nobody knows about it?

> Your track record is relevant to the ranking of this thread on HN.

Not one bit. The ranking is only dependent on the number of upvotes, not based on his/her track record.

Really, you have 0 business flagging a thread like this. It's one of the more interesting experiments that I've seen here and if stuff like this gets flagged then HN has truly lost its charm.

The OP got a chance to address the concern I had about the specific offer. He did so. This page kept its upward momentum. Call the fouls which matter.

He's not withholding identity indefinably, just filtering for privacy sake.

That's reasonable to me. Anybody could out him once they connect, if he was a shady character the ruse wouldn't last long.

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