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I don't know why you think that's creepy. They put that information out there to begin with and for a reason (to be read by humans). Some things online require

I don't know why you think that's creepy. They put that information out there to begin with and for a reason (to be read by humans). Some things online require an identity. Things that involve money also involve real-life consequences and responsibilities to different parties. It would be an overwhelmingly bad idea to start letting sellers hide behind usernames if those sellers are responsible for accepting money and shipping products. (This would be somewhat solved by Tinytrunk handling payments, but that goes against one of his stated goals of not charging processing fees.)

trotsky 15y ago
I'm not sure I feel strongly about either side of the discussion, but just to be clear you're saying you think it would be "an overwhelmingly bad idea to [create ebay]"?
- coderdude 15y ago
  Does eBay not handle payments? Edit: I actually didn't know, so I looked it up. Turns out that eBay does not handle payments. Though I suppose they're relying on the reputation system. So it's not an overwhelmingly bad idea to allow sellers to hide behind usernames when they're handling payments and shipping as long as there is a good reputation system in place. Which makes sense since that's why you would want your name there anyway, to lend or gain reputation.
  - trotsky 15y ago
    ebay started in 1994 and bought paypal in 2002
  - fookyong 15y ago
    exactly. that's actually one of the reasons I don't use eBay to sell things, I have no reputation on eBay. but selling to my locality, I'm happy to give away my identity in exchange for an instant boost of reputation / buyer peace-of-mind.
chlee 15y ago
Don't take me wrong. I am not arguing that the Tinytrunk should allow arbitrary pseudonyms. I fully understand the point that Fookyoung made. That he want to make sure real, accountable users are selling things on Tinytrunk. Obviously, Fookyoung is trying to balance between preventing seller fraud and Tinytrunk's user experience. However, I think the balance is tipped towards preventing seller fraud at the expense of user experience. However, there potentially harmful and/or unintended consequences that can result from publicly disclosing the user's full name on the internet, e.g. privacy related issues. For example, a malicious user can easily obtain sensitive and private information about a certain seller ala 4chan style either directly or indirectly. Also, we've seen how users reactive negatively to potential privacy issues nowadays [cite various user discontent towards facebook, google plus, and various social networks here]. Also, this is not a binary issue, e.g. either disclose the user's full-name or use nothing but pseudonyms. There are other alternatives and compromises, like the yelp method that I described above (which task rabbit also uses). We can argue further on the issue of real names vs pseudonyms on preventing seller fraud. Like someone above me pointed out, ebay is a great example of a buying/selling market that thrived despite its users hiding behind pseudonyms. Etsy is also another example. Let's not forget various online forums that have thriving for-sale and for-trade sub-forums w/ its sellers and buyers using pseudonyms, e.g. AnandTech and Hard[OC].
- coderdude 15y ago
  You make some great points. My original assertion about hiding behind usernames has been thoroughly blown out of the water, given the success of eBay and Etsy. I had always assumed that they handled the payments themselves, but clearly they've found ways to protect buys and sellers without sacrificing privacy. I prefer when everyone knows who everyone else is, personally, but I understand that many people don't want to broadcast their personal information.

trotsky 15y ago

I'm not sure I feel strongly about either side of the discussion, but just to be clear you're saying you think it would be "an overwhelmingly bad idea to [create ebay]"?

coderdude 15y ago
Does eBay not handle payments? Edit: I actually didn't know, so I looked it up. Turns out that eBay does not handle payments. Though I suppose they're relying on the reputation system. So it's not an overwhelmingly bad idea to allow sellers to hide behind usernames when they're handling payments and shipping as long as there is a good reputation system in place. Which makes sense since that's why you would want your name there anyway, to lend or gain reputation.
- trotsky 15y ago
  ebay started in 1994 and bought paypal in 2002
- fookyong 15y ago
  exactly. that's actually one of the reasons I don't use eBay to sell things, I have no reputation on eBay. but selling to my locality, I'm happy to give away my identity in exchange for an instant boost of reputation / buyer peace-of-mind.

chlee 15y ago

Don't take me wrong. I am not arguing that the Tinytrunk should allow arbitrary pseudonyms. I fully understand the point that Fookyoung made. That he want to make sure real, accountable users are selling things on Tinytrunk. Obviously, Fookyoung is trying to balance between preventing seller fraud and Tinytrunk's user experience. However, I think the balance is tipped towards preventing seller fraud at the expense of user experience. However, there potentially harmful and/or unintended consequences that can result from publicly disclosing the user's full name on the internet, e.g. privacy related issues. For example, a malicious user can easily obtain sensitive and private information about a certain seller ala 4chan style either directly or indirectly. Also, we've seen how users reactive negatively to potential privacy issues nowadays [cite various user discontent towards facebook, google plus, and various social networks here]. Also, this is not a binary issue, e.g. either disclose the user's full-name or use nothing but pseudonyms. There are other alternatives and compromises, like the yelp method that I described above (which task rabbit also uses). We can argue further on the issue of real names vs pseudonyms on preventing seller fraud. Like someone above me pointed out, ebay is a great example of a buying/selling market that thrived despite its users hiding behind pseudonyms. Etsy is also another example. Let's not forget various online forums that have thriving for-sale and for-trade sub-forums w/ its sellers and buyers using pseudonyms, e.g. AnandTech and Hard[OC].

coderdude 15y ago
You make some great points. My original assertion about hiding behind usernames has been thoroughly blown out of the water, given the success of eBay and Etsy. I had always assumed that they handled the payments themselves, but clearly they've found ways to protect buys and sellers without sacrificing privacy. I prefer when everyone knows who everyone else is, personally, but I understand that many people don't want to broadcast their personal information.