6 ms·

Ask HN: What are some use cases for my web service?

13 points by maskur 17y ago

there 17y ago
hookers can use it on craigslist to avoid giving out their email address to potential law enforcement, i suppose
- makmanalp 17y ago
  It's not just them, anyone might need it. I'm sick of the "only <insert socially unacceptable / bad figure> needs privacy" argument.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    Anyone might need it, but criminals are the ones likely to need it, and therefore criminals will account for most of the site's usage. Just math.
joshu 17y ago
subpoena magnet?
- maskur 17y ago
  I'm aware of this; The mailinator guy Paul Tyma talked about this in his blog (http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2006/06/im-getting-sick-of-subpoenas.html http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2006/06/im-getting-sick-of-subp...).
scrame 17y ago
You might look into the uses, history, and eventual demise of anon.penet.fi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anon.penet.fi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anon.penet.fi
levirosol 17y ago
how exactly do you do this? "If you want to email someone, have them send an email to your maskur.com address, so their maskur.com address will appear in the "From" field, or ask them to mask their email on this page." at that point, haven't you already communicated with them? either by phone / in person, or via email?
- slmbrhrt 17y ago
  Public bulletin boards, forums, and ads are a few ways to do it.
mehere 17y ago
this is exactly what Match.com started as...
robotrout 17y ago
I like this idea. It serves some sort of need, I'm sure. I don't see how to monetize it, but if your goal is just to provide a needed service, I think it's pretty cool. It's arguably more convenient than setting up another yahoo or google account. As to who would use it, one would first assume it would be mostly folks engaged in illegal sorts of activities. Since we've decided to control our population by getting them to live in fear, by making them all guilty of breaking some law, I'd say your userbase is potentially very large. However, some of those folks (child porn, drug dealers, terrorists) probably shouldn't be helped. There's also the paranoia aspect. How do I know you're not a cop, trying to trap me? How do I know you're really destroying your database? I think anybody that's doing something wrong won't risk using you. So, taking out the justifiably paranoid law breakers, that need you, but dare not use you, that leaves us with dating and craigslist ads.
krisneuharth 17y ago
You could possibly create an API for this service and see how people use it. In my current project I have a need for something like this but having to send an email complicates my use case some.
sebastian 17y ago
Pretty similar to mailinator.com witch I have been using for a while.
- maskur 17y ago
  The difference is that maskur masks the address of incoming mail, whereas mailinator doesn't. Mailinator is good for when one party wants to hide their address, whereas maskur is good for situations where both parties want to hide their address.
makmanalp 17y ago
Normally you'd come up with use cases before you actually implement the idea :) You could encourage people to use it with any sort of online trade (craigslist / ebay etc) but I don't think it'd take long for them to duplicate the behavior should this ever become very popular.
arihelgason 17y ago
Emailing people you meet on http://omegle.com http://omegle.com
- maskur 17y ago
  This is a good use case; if only I can partner with omegle's owner.
  - icey 17y ago
    He's on reddit and fairly active, you could probably message him over there: http://www.reddit.com/user/eurleif http://www.reddit.com/user/eurleif
callmeed 17y ago
Whistle-blowers and others who want to leak info to journalists/investigators without revealing their identity right away. You should include a form that allows a user to notify a person of their maskur address via SMS ... "I have important info regarding insider trading at YAHOOGLE, please email me at yahoogle-leak@maskur.com"
- arihelgason 17y ago
  A disposable email address would do the job. Also, a source might want to know who they're dealing with.
bayareaguy 17y ago
This sounds like a good way for people who use online services and games to collaborate without the downsides of exposing "real" email addresses (which seemingly inevitably find their way to spammers, search engines, etc). It could be particularly useful for celebrities, public figures, political protesters, parents, teenagers or anyone who might be otherwise embarrassed (or worse) should their email logs be revealed to an inappropriate social group or the general public.

13 points by maskur 17y ago

there 17y ago

hookers can use it on craigslist to avoid giving out their email address to potential law enforcement, i suppose

makmanalp 17y ago
It's not just them, anyone might need it. I'm sick of the "only <insert socially unacceptable / bad figure> needs privacy" argument.
- tptacek 17y ago
  Anyone might need it, but criminals are the ones likely to need it, and therefore criminals will account for most of the site's usage. Just math.

joshu 17y ago

subpoena magnet?

maskur 17y ago
I'm aware of this; The mailinator guy Paul Tyma talked about this in his blog (http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2006/06/im-getting-sick-of-subpoenas.html http://paultyma.blogspot.com/2006/06/im-getting-sick-of-subp...).

scrame 17y ago

You might look into the uses, history, and eventual demise of anon.penet.fi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anon.penet.fi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anon.penet.fi

levirosol 17y ago

how exactly do you do this? "If you want to email someone, have them send an email to your maskur.com address, so their maskur.com address will appear in the "From" field, or ask them to mask their email on this page." at that point, haven't you already communicated with them? either by phone / in person, or via email?

slmbrhrt 17y ago
Public bulletin boards, forums, and ads are a few ways to do it.

mehere 17y ago

this is exactly what Match.com started as...

robotrout 17y ago

I like this idea. It serves some sort of need, I'm sure. I don't see how to monetize it, but if your goal is just to provide a needed service, I think it's pretty cool. It's arguably more convenient than setting up another yahoo or google account. As to who would use it, one would first assume it would be mostly folks engaged in illegal sorts of activities. Since we've decided to control our population by getting them to live in fear, by making them all guilty of breaking some law, I'd say your userbase is potentially very large. However, some of those folks (child porn, drug dealers, terrorists) probably shouldn't be helped. There's also the paranoia aspect. How do I know you're not a cop, trying to trap me? How do I know you're really destroying your database? I think anybody that's doing something wrong won't risk using you. So, taking out the justifiably paranoid law breakers, that need you, but dare not use you, that leaves us with dating and craigslist ads.

krisneuharth 17y ago

You could possibly create an API for this service and see how people use it. In my current project I have a need for something like this but having to send an email complicates my use case some.

sebastian 17y ago

Pretty similar to mailinator.com witch I have been using for a while.

maskur 17y ago
The difference is that maskur masks the address of incoming mail, whereas mailinator doesn't. Mailinator is good for when one party wants to hide their address, whereas maskur is good for situations where both parties want to hide their address.

makmanalp 17y ago

Normally you'd come up with use cases before you actually implement the idea :) You could encourage people to use it with any sort of online trade (craigslist / ebay etc) but I don't think it'd take long for them to duplicate the behavior should this ever become very popular.

arihelgason 17y ago

Emailing people you meet on http://omegle.com http://omegle.com

maskur 17y ago
This is a good use case; if only I can partner with omegle's owner.
- icey 17y ago
  He's on reddit and fairly active, you could probably message him over there: http://www.reddit.com/user/eurleif http://www.reddit.com/user/eurleif

callmeed 17y ago

Whistle-blowers and others who want to leak info to journalists/investigators without revealing their identity right away. You should include a form that allows a user to notify a person of their maskur address via SMS ... "I have important info regarding insider trading at YAHOOGLE, please email me at yahoogle-leak@maskur.com"

arihelgason 17y ago
A disposable email address would do the job. Also, a source might want to know who they're dealing with.

bayareaguy 17y ago

This sounds like a good way for people who use online services and games to collaborate without the downsides of exposing "real" email addresses (which seemingly inevitably find their way to spammers, search engines, etc). It could be particularly useful for celebrities, public figures, political protesters, parents, teenagers or anyone who might be otherwise embarrassed (or worse) should their email logs be revealed to an inappropriate social group or the general public.