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Comment by highace | Hacker News Reader

This immediately strikes me as a "why didn't I think of that" idea, but in practice (in my workplace at least) everyone would figure out who was who based on the writing style and general tone. In a larger more anonymous group of people (like a class) you could probably get away with it, but then what have you got to lose in the first place by just voicing your opinion publicly?

But good luck, I think this is a pretty cool idea.

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It seems best suited for a group who are familiar, but not necessarily friends. A class is an excellent example; close coworkers are not.

And depending on what it is you want to say, you may have a lot to lose. Have you never taken a class with a teacher who displays blatant favoritism, or is sexist or racist enough to make a difference to you, but not to the administration? Being able to say something without an authority figure being able to punish you can be pretty important.

One of the co-founders here; we entirely agree that the concept works better in large numbers. We're particularly interested in how the site could be used for those larger classroom or office discussions, as a way to increase productivity and generate more innovative ideas. It could be really useful for social circles as well, but the group would likely have to be more than 10 people.

I think the social circle aspect might be overrated. How often do you need to speak anonymously within a group of friends, unless you're trying to stage an intervention or something?

Maybe. The premise of this whole concept is that we don't really know most people's ideas. Even our friends may have important things to say, but we would never know about them. For that reason, I can't say it categorically wouldn't work in a social setting.

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