4 ms·

As long people uses faxes as printers with an attached email address I don't see them disappear anytime soon.

by lcnmrn 8y ago

degenerate 8y ago
Faxing is to email as VoIP is to the PSTN Until we can get over the threshold of assuming nobody has a fax machine anymore, faxing is here to stay. Once we push that threshold, the remaining users can be forced out (by not having fax as an option, and faxing will fizzle away over time). Think of it like supporting IE6. A lot of the holdouts for IE6 were large health care organizations and VA/gov centers... the same exact places still holding onto fax.
- shados 8y ago
  Faxing is a headache for a lot of people. The problem is that the industries that use fax are in a position to force it on others. Certain healthcare departments, some mortgage related stuff, financial garbage, etc. Places where if you HAVE to do business with that entity for some reason, and the say "fax this to us", you're stuck hunting down a fax machine or using an online service. They thus have no reason to change.
  - tomjen3 8y ago
    Depends. Quite often people think they _have_ to do as they are told, where you can quite often come back with an alternative.
  - JohnFen 8y ago
    > Places where if you HAVE to do business with that entity for some reason, and the say "fax this to us", you're stuck hunting down a fax machine I just head to the local copy center when I'm forced to send (or receive) a fax, so for me "fax this to us" means "pay an extra $2 for no good reason".
  - AnimalMuppet 8y ago
    Last time I did business with someone who told me to fax them something, I asked them what millennium they thought it was. They promptly suggested an alternative. We did it that way. Just because they prefer fax doesn't (usually) mean that it's the only way it can work. It doesn't mean you have to do it their preferred way.
- snarfy 8y ago
  "I can't send a fax from where I'm at" "Where are you?" "2019. I'm in the year 2019"

As long people uses faxes as printers with an attached email address I don't see them disappear anytime soon.

by lcnmrn 8y ago

As long people uses faxes as printers with an attached email address I don't see them disappear anytime soon.

Faxing is to email as VoIP is to the PSTN Until we can get over the threshold of assuming nobody has a fax machine anymore, faxing is here to stay. Once we push that threshold, the remaining users can be forced out (by not having fax as an option, and faxing will fizzle away over time). Think of it like supporting IE6. A lot of the holdouts for IE6 were large health care organizations and VA/gov centers... the same exact places still holding onto fax.

shados 8y ago
Faxing is a headache for a lot of people. The problem is that the industries that use fax are in a position to force it on others. Certain healthcare departments, some mortgage related stuff, financial garbage, etc. Places where if you HAVE to do business with that entity for some reason, and the say "fax this to us", you're stuck hunting down a fax machine or using an online service. They thus have no reason to change.
- tomjen3 8y ago
  Depends. Quite often people think they _have_ to do as they are told, where you can quite often come back with an alternative.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > Places where if you HAVE to do business with that entity for some reason, and the say "fax this to us", you're stuck hunting down a fax machine I just head to the local copy center when I'm forced to send (or receive) a fax, so for me "fax this to us" means "pay an extra $2 for no good reason".
- AnimalMuppet 8y ago
  Last time I did business with someone who told me to fax them something, I asked them what millennium they thought it was. They promptly suggested an alternative. We did it that way. Just because they prefer fax doesn't (usually) mean that it's the only way it can work. It doesn't mean you have to do it their preferred way.
snarfy 8y ago
"I can't send a fax from where I'm at" "Where are you?" "2019. I'm in the year 2019"