Depressingly true. Also the Google Play changes that require indie devs (if they have an LLC/business) must have their address publicly listed. For many of them (us) that's our home address. I'm not at all a fan of having my house's address publically available, especially since some of my apps are for local events.

There is no scenario in which having my address public benefits me. Zero. Only downsides.

I don't make apps that are controversial but there are a lot of less-than-sane people out there.

fyi, a sole prop can get an address from ipostal1 for about $25 up front and $250/year. And LLCs should be using an agent.

I understand this is yet another cost, and for a hobby, etc etc. Just letting people know these services exist.

In my experience, these addresses are tracked and usually banned.

> LLCs should be using an agent.

Why? Everyone says this but I don’t understand why I need to pay someone to get mail for me.

It makes sense if you incorporated in a different state but I created my LLC in my home state, though the “One Stop Business Portal” (it actually was very easy). Contrast that with when I created a Delaware LLC for a previous startup which cost a couple hundred to get started and 100-200/year in fees.

As for the ipostal1 I’m concerned about the address not looking legit (I don’t know what one of their addresses look like and/or if they will be banned/rejected). On top of that I don’t want to pay $15/mo for the ~10 letters I get a year for my business. See also: checks I need to deposit, not sure how that works.

LLCs / agent: to keep your address private. In most states LLC-associated addresses are a matter of public record. So if you care about privacy / crazies, app stores are far from the only place that lists that address.

ipostal1: It's basically a software layer over stores that offer various services. I've had no problems with the address. Most places offer a check deposit service.

this is also true for scammers. Their objective is to get through the machine, not construct things of value.

It's an endemic property of con-artists and these systems.

They're often designed poorly.

How many times have you had to be dishonest to jump through hoops and get something honestly done? At my last job, their receipt checking system for recomp was terrible. We had to create receipt forgeries with the proper values that were formatted in the way the system wanted because it only accepted forgeries.

It would be like a vending machine that only accepted crisp pristine flawless money so you had to feed it with counterfeits out of necessity.

Anyway, don't design these systems wrong otherwise perversity thesis in full effect.