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The major problem that I see is the opposition of incentives. Your core idea is that, "there's a piece of information you want someone to know, but you don't w

by Travis 16y ago

The major problem that I see is the opposition of incentives. Your core idea is that, "there's a piece of information you want someone to know, but you don't want them to realize that you know that they know." This builds uncertainty. Can't say I would ever use it, but that's fine -- I'll hold my disbelief. Then your monetization model is to pay money to reduce that uncertainty. Said uncertainty is the only reason you used this site to begin. So you're looking for people who want uncertainty, but want to be able to reduce uncertainty within that specific instance? Seems like your target customer has split personalities, which is going to make your idea really hard to sell to them. The other problem that I see is your explanation isn't very clear or concise. The best I can figure out is this: "there's a piece of information you want someone to know, but you don't want them to realize that you know that they know... for things where the first level understanding is unbearable... but then you fool yourself into thinking the other person doesn't know if you know that they know." Can you come up with a good elevator pitch for this? I'm still not quite sure what the core idea is. Examples would be greatly beneficial here, too.

jiganti 16y ago
>Then your monetization model is to pay money to reduce that uncertainty. Said uncertainty is the only reason you used this site to begin. So you're looking for people who want uncertainty, but want to be able to reduce uncertainty within that specific instance? Seems like your target customer has split personalities, which is going to make your idea really hard to sell to them. The recipient's perception of the sender's certainty is what's important here. If the recipient knows you sent 25 messages in a row, it's as if you sent a regular email. It logically follows that the recipient must respond, which won't happen if the recipient thinks the sender doesn't know if the message went through. This is as explicit as I can articulate it, I think. But moving on to a few examples makes it more intuitive. Say your boss has meetings that take up too much time and he needlessly covers off-topic things that reduce efficiency in the workplace. He's a proud guy and if you told him about this he would defend his position, as adjusting because a subordinate suggests it might make him seem weak. Of course this isn't ideal and many of you would claim to never work in such an environment, but this would be a perfect opportunity to shoot off a chancemail message with some constructive criticism. Now he doesn't have to worry about how he's perceived, because he can tell himself he just as easily could've not received the message and decided to change the meeting structure on his own. Another example would be a father telling his son or daughter that he's sorry for mistakes made in the past, or that he is simply proud of them. This is hard to do because a response to an explicit message is necessary. With chancemail, the recipient can not respond to let the sender save face, (again, since he could have not gotten the message) while being able to appreciate that the communication took place. As for an elevator pitch, I'm notoriously bad at them and have been meaning to improve. Often I'm so caught up in the theory behind my ideas that I lose sight of the fact that I usually only have a few seconds to sell someone on the concept. Any help would be great.
- Travis 16y ago
  What advantages does your approach have over simply sending an anonymous email? Your idea looks to break down as follows: pain: sometimes telling someone necessary causes an interpersonal friction because the recipient of the feedback is aware that the sender is observing / judging him on certain qualities. solution: give a margin for error so the feedback can be sent/received, but both parties can pretend as if the message was never sent. So again, what does your idea offer versus an anonymous service like http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/ http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/ (or any of the others; that was just the first google result). While I would encourage you to continue to develop this, the fact that you're unable to easily and clearly describe your idea tells me that it's a little vague to you, as well. At least that's how it comes across. Maybe you could try to explain by analogy? E.g., "ever wish you could send someone an email they could pretend to forget? well, try [blah blah blah]"

by Travis 16y ago

jiganti 16y ago

>Then your monetization model is to pay money to reduce that uncertainty. Said uncertainty is the only reason you used this site to begin. So you're looking for people who want uncertainty, but want to be able to reduce uncertainty within that specific instance? Seems like your target customer has split personalities, which is going to make your idea really hard to sell to them. The recipient's perception of the sender's certainty is what's important here. If the recipient knows you sent 25 messages in a row, it's as if you sent a regular email. It logically follows that the recipient must respond, which won't happen if the recipient thinks the sender doesn't know if the message went through. This is as explicit as I can articulate it, I think. But moving on to a few examples makes it more intuitive. Say your boss has meetings that take up too much time and he needlessly covers off-topic things that reduce efficiency in the workplace. He's a proud guy and if you told him about this he would defend his position, as adjusting because a subordinate suggests it might make him seem weak. Of course this isn't ideal and many of you would claim to never work in such an environment, but this would be a perfect opportunity to shoot off a chancemail message with some constructive criticism. Now he doesn't have to worry about how he's perceived, because he can tell himself he just as easily could've not received the message and decided to change the meeting structure on his own. Another example would be a father telling his son or daughter that he's sorry for mistakes made in the past, or that he is simply proud of them. This is hard to do because a response to an explicit message is necessary. With chancemail, the recipient can not respond to let the sender save face, (again, since he could have not gotten the message) while being able to appreciate that the communication took place. As for an elevator pitch, I'm notoriously bad at them and have been meaning to improve. Often I'm so caught up in the theory behind my ideas that I lose sight of the fact that I usually only have a few seconds to sell someone on the concept. Any help would be great.

Travis 16y ago
What advantages does your approach have over simply sending an anonymous email? Your idea looks to break down as follows: pain: sometimes telling someone necessary causes an interpersonal friction because the recipient of the feedback is aware that the sender is observing / judging him on certain qualities. solution: give a margin for error so the feedback can be sent/received, but both parties can pretend as if the message was never sent. So again, what does your idea offer versus an anonymous service like http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/ http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/ (or any of the others; that was just the first google result). While I would encourage you to continue to develop this, the fact that you're unable to easily and clearly describe your idea tells me that it's a little vague to you, as well. At least that's how it comes across. Maybe you could try to explain by analogy? E.g., "ever wish you could send someone an email they could pretend to forget? well, try [blah blah blah]"