Show HN: Anonymous Mode, an experiment with anonymity on Facebook | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Anonymous Mode, an experiment with anonymity on Facebook

anonymousmode.com

9 pointsyakto8 comments

Just launched today, built it over the last few weekends. Sorry for the fb login requirement, as I know HN isn't the target demo of this app. But I thought you all might appreciate an effort to get away from the never-anonymous aspects of Facebook.

Besides http://www.anonymousmode.com, you can also access the app at http://apps.facebook.com/anonymousmode

Would appreciate feedback, particularly on how long you think it will take FB to complain about how closely I've mimicked their UI. :)

God, I literally cracked up laughing when I saw all the permissions you asked for!

Too many? My mom taught me I won't get anything if I don't ask for it. :)

I thought it was a joke... =P

I can see how the HN crowd would be amused, but for the target demo, I'm currently under the assumption that they don't really read/care about those extended perms too closely. Suppose I could cut a couple of them and stage them in later to engaged users, but I doubt if that's going to affect conversion significantly.

Note: if you cancel the login prompt, you can still browse around the site and see most of it.

Okay, I just removed a bunch of the perms asked for up front, because I really would like some feedback from some of you. Anyone?

I don't even have a Facebook account, so I haven't spent more than ten seconds looking at your site (sorry!), but I do find it hilarious that an "anonymous mode facebook" requires authentication via a facebook account.

Yeah, that's a bit of a disconnect all right, but a necessary one: without an active FB session, I can't wire up the necessary features like Search (of all FB's 600MM users) or showing you your friends list.

Rest assured that while you you do need to connect via FB, all your activity on the app is anonymous - as either "a friend" or "a stranger" of the user you're rating/commenting on.

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