" I also dislike that it doesn't force job posters to disclose salary expectations before hand -- this is inefficient."

No, it's fair. I'm a fairly talented programmer and if I sense any bullshit tactics based on information assymetry I'm not interested on your offer.

This is the first advice professionals who have no experience of salary negotiations get: don't say the first price, unless you know what you are doing.

That you explicitly expect them to brake this rule does not speak well of your approach to the process.

Of course, there can be some local customs and practices I'm not familiar with.

Job posters, not job seekers

Ah, my bad, my apologies. Sadly I can't delete my earlier comment so I'll leave it there for posterity to document my inability in reading comprehension.

You made a good point re. job seekers though :)

As an applicant I don't give my salary expectations until the last moment. It would be foolish to.

its foolish to believe that applicants should have the right to hide their expectations indefinitely but expect employers to broadcast them to the world.

if you dont want asymmetry in the negotiation process, be a good sport.

First you must fix the asymmetry caused by how employers have a much better data for "what the market will bear."

That's the real reason why employers "should" be expected to name the first figure. It makes the relationship less exploitative.

Ideally, neither party would offer meaningless pre-interview/discovery numbers and both would be willing to accept nearly any number that made sense after agreeing on the likely quality of the applicant-candidate fit. In practice, neither of those things are true and an early number from a candidate is treated like a late-stage number should be. It's much easier to leave the number out than to try to fix that.

And as an employer, I'm certainly not required to give a number. "Market rate" is sufficient to start a conversation with a serious applicant.

I assume market rate seafood is going to be overly priced, I assume market rate salaries are going to be middling and uninspiring. I wonder why I assume the phrase "market rate" is a ticket to frown town?

You can set up questions in AngelList I believe, so that applicants have to answer them instead of just saying "I'm interested."