[90s_dev]

From one perspective, you could say that I had a mental illness caused by a combination of issues from my childhood that caused me to have a serious problem with exhibitionism from 5 until 30 years old.

From another perspective, I was just a morally evil person for all of that time.

I think both are correct. It's more complicated. I have my own thoughts on what caused everything to happen the way it did and why I was the way I was. But what I can say is that I'm no longer that person. But that doesn't matter to most people.

Part of my just punishment is that my reputation is forever ruined. That's why I adopted this handle, 90s-dev. My plan was to use this to make money anonymously. But then at the last second I had the idea to go public and hope for a public redemption, partly because I needed money and knew that the product wouldn't sell and was running out of savings, and partly because I strongly felt like I was being deceitful, which is an awful feeling. So I revealed my identity in my Show HN post.

[johnisgood]

Unfortunately many people will stop at your past, and it ends there. They will not consider or appreciate you coming forward. Personally, I could not care less. I care about the project, not the person behind it. Of course when it comes to funding the project (or someone with a past like yours), that complicates things. Maybe you should be as transparent as possible with the money? In any case, I am not sure what I would do and I do not have the means to donate anyways.