anonysize.me

Consumer and social

gift giving

SHOW HN2011

166points
47comments
#44of 1,097 in 2011
Top 5%of 2011 by points

How HN took it

DebatedReal support and real criticism

8 positive, 11 neutral or asking, 5 mixed, 8 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score +0.09.

Idea: 4 for, 2 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 5 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Simple, clever idea with a good name.

    From 4 comments
    • Super simple and neat idea, awesome job!
      creativityhurts on HN
    • Very sharp- great job!
      emilepetrone on HN
    • Love the idea (and the pun). But I can't think of many of my non-tech savvy female friends (speaking from NYC) who would not be totally freaked out by this. Those of us more…
      danso on HN
    • Zappos will love this. Great idea and I love the name. As a critique, I'd recommend rearranging the form/descp/iphone image on the launch page. I think you rather have users read…
      deepkut on HN
  • Design is attractive.

    From 2 comments
    • This is a really neat concept and the design is gorgeous! How effective has this been? Personally if I got an anonymous text like that I wouldn't reply haha
      skadamat on HN
    • Great idea. It gives me that "duh" moment that I hadn't thought of it before! While I think the visuals are beautiful, I did notice that your current call to action on the page…
      jqueryin on HN

Objections

  • Anonymous texts seem like spam and may make recipients suspicious.

    From 4 comments
    • So I tried this on my friends while we were all waiting in line for a movie. I tried it on one friend first and she glaced at it and immediately thought it was spam. Then I sent…
      danso on HN
    • If I hadn't heard of the service before I wouldn't reply either. It's not that I think someone is going to steal my identity with a neck size measurement but an unknown…
      lifebeyondfife on HN
    • Love the idea (and the pun). But I can't think of many of my non-tech savvy female friends (speaking from NYC) who would not be totally freaked out by this. Those of us more…
      danso on HN
    • From the comments below, it seems that only the "non-nerds", "non-tech savy" guys would be naive enough to be suspicious when they get an anonymous SMS notification to divulge…
      darwinGod on HN
  • Recipients may guess the sender from context, weakening anonymity.

    From 2 comments
    • the only downside i see to this is that anybody i might use this service on would immediately know it was me, because i'd be the only one nerdy enough to use it. worded another…
      notatoad on HN
    • Cool. But I think most people would be able to guess who sent the text based on who is likely to be buying shoes for them.
      kwamenum86 on HN
  • Message lacks context about the site and sender.

    From 2 comments
    • So I tried this on my friends while we were all waiting in line for a movie. I tried it on one friend first and she glaced at it and immediately thought it was spam. Then I sent…
      danso on HN
    • Wow this is a great hackathon project. It's simple, but something that people will actually want to use after the hackathon. I do agree that the message may need some tuning up…
      jrubinovitz on HN

Requests

  • Identify the sender to the recipient without losing anonymity.

    From 1 comment
    • I just tried this with my gf. She was seating across to me and When she received the text message, she was confused and told me "OMG how do they know my name?". Then I explained…
      jpadilla_ on HN
  • Add clothing sizes.

    From 1 comment
  • Clarify the call to action and form layout.

    From 2 comments
    • Great idea. It gives me that "duh" moment that I hadn't thought of it before! While I think the visuals are beautiful, I did notice that your current call to action on the page…
      jqueryin on HN
    • Zappos will love this. Great idea and I love the name. As a critique, I'd recommend rearranging the form/descp/iphone image on the launch page. I think you rather have users read…
      deepkut on HN

Questions

  • Does it work outside the US?

    From 1 comment
  • How effective has it been?

    From 1 comment
    • This is a really neat concept and the design is gorgeous! How effective has this been? Personally if I got an anonymous text like that I wouldn't reply haha
      skadamat on HN

Alternatives named

  • Zappos affiliate program.

    From 2 comments
    • You should figure out websites that have affiliate programs, force the requester to choose a website, and when you end the text message, include the website to add some validity.…
      AndrewGCook on HN
    • This is awesome. Now if only Zappos had an affiliate program so you could make some money off of these clicks too.... Oh wait! We do!
      jjacobson on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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