4 ms·

Show HN: my friday night project - F Junk Mail

42 points by scottmotte 14y ago

scottmotte 14y ago
I despise junk mail and last night I decided to surrender to my emotions. I built an emotional app that retaliates against junk mail. It is a usable experiment in appealing to people's emotions and using an API for real world interaction. Introducting F Junk Mail! - http://fjunkmail.com/ http://fjunkmail.com/. It sends real world postcards to junk mail senders. Currently, it has Charter listed. More companies/addresses are on the way, but you can also enter your own address in.
- lancewiggs 14y ago
  I can't see a way for the offending company to fix the problem. A little formality and the recipient email address on the card would add function to fun. Something like "please remove name@example.com from all of your mailing lists. All means anything you are associated with. Remove means I never want to see your emails again. "
  - scottmotte 14y ago
    It is a good thought. For now people can do that by changing the text of the message. I didn't want to require people to enter their private information.
milesokeefe 14y ago
"I think this is a fair price for the joy of retaliating against junk mail. Plus, it costs me time and money to deliver these postcards." What work is on your end? It appears that Sincerely prints/ships it, and the $2 charge is to pay for that.
- scottmotte 14y ago
  Fair question. That sentence is geared towards non-programmers (which is of course an audience outside of Hacker News) Think of it this way: Sincerely is an extension of me because I have to pay them 99 cents per postcard so it is costing me 'time' (but in this case I am paying for that 'time' with money). Then on top of that I need to pay Stripe 36 cents to collect. Same principle. But maybe I need to come up with a better/more-convincing sentence there to justify the $2. Additionally, if the idea actually catches on (it was just a friday night project) then I'll put the effort into closing the margin and finding a more affordable print/ship api.
  - milesokeefe 14y ago
    Ah, got it. I didn't realize strip takes that much, but it makes sense given it's a small purchase. I think it's better to charge $2 instead of ~$1.35. The even 2 looks like less money at a glance, plus you get to keep some.
    - lancewiggs 14y ago
      It felt like a lot to me. $1.90 might be worth testing.
      - fomojola 14y ago
        $1.99, perhaps? There was a pricing article on HN a few days ago that pointed out that the 99 cent thing really works, even if no one really seemed to have pinned down why.
  - biot 14y ago
    I'd take out the link to Sincerely. People don't need to know who the wizard is behind the curtain, only that it's magic to them. Say something like "Postcards cost time and money to ship. To save you the hassle of buying a postcard, looking up the address of the offending junk mailer, filling it out, and going to a mailbox to drop it off, we handle all that for you. That frees you up to focus your time and energy where it's best spent: crafting the perfect rant." Well done though and great use of both Sincerely and Stripe... not to mention actually launching!
rane 14y ago
Retaliate is misspelt in the subheader.
- scottmotte 14y ago
  Thank you. Fixed.
sniperjoe 14y ago
fire with fire? i like the post card art! two criticisms; the whole idea is a bit hypocritical (sending more spam) and doesn't address the underlying issue of spam mail. Have a place to sign up for a "do not spam" list on your website and give users the option to "F JUNK MAIL" for $2.00. Also, I think you should make the price $1 because sending a post card has a known price and it's quite easy to do so offline. Why should they use your service and pay more?
- scottmotte 14y ago
  I love the idea of a 'do not junk mail' list as part of the payment fee. Anyone know of an api or form to submit someone's address to (with their consent of course) in order to be added to a 'do not junk mail' list?
BlackJack 14y ago
I really like the site - good job! I think the cover page example should be related to a Nigerian bank scam though - everyone recognizes those "A prince passed away, you are 20th in line...collect your millions!" and I think it'd be a lot funnier/relatable than Charter :)
- scottmotte 14y ago
  haha, that would be funny but those are 'spam' based, right? I am targeting real world 'junk' mail with this.
dchichkov 14y ago
How about just registering at dmachoice.org or similar? Would save some energy and recycled paper cycles...
niftylettuce 14y ago
lots more of these sites can pop up with https://github.com/niftylettuce/node-sincerely https://github.com/niftylettuce/node-sincerely
scottmotte 14y ago
So I just received my Saturday mail. Of the 3 items, 2 were junk mail. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/190299/junk-mail.JPG https://dl.dropbox.com/u/190299/junk-mail.JPG One is direct tv with a low trick of a $200 'prepaid card'. This is why I really like companies like http://simple.com http://simple.com. If you guys haven't signed up for simple definitely do. I've been really impressed. Anyways, I think I will add direct tv on my list next for F Junk Mail.
DigitalSea 14y ago
Really nice idea, nice work man. There's just one thing though that worries me unless I misunderstand how it's all setup. But I noticed your popup where you enter credit card details is being displayed on a non-https encrypted page. Are credit card details safe to enter, are they encrypted in any way? I could be wrong and you could be using something like Stripe or a 3rd party payment API, I wanted to enter my credit card details to test it all out but was worried.
- scottmotte 14y ago
  Yes, I am using stripe via its stripe.js api so it is secure. (but if the little app proves popular I will invest in using https or at the very least piggy back on heroku's https)
  - melvinram 14y ago
    Even with Stripe, you should use SSL as per their info page: https://stripe.com/help/ssl https://stripe.com/help/ssl
    - scottmotte 14y ago
      Definitely agreed, but PCI-compliance wise I 'pass' with the current setup going through stripe.js. But nonetheless, I agree it is a must have for any legitimate site.
      - fatalerrorx3 14y ago
        I think most non-tech people wouldn't know that you were using stripe, and would abandon the site at the point of sale (but I could be wrong). Me being a tech person, I would still abandon the site after not seeing an SSL connection, in my opinion it's not worth it to not have one
gmisra 14y ago
Or you can use https://www.paperkarma.com/ https://www.paperkarma.com/ which is less passive-aggressive and more free.
- astrodust 14y ago
  It sounds more passive-aggressive to me.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
I think this is a fabulous idea. Can you do me a favor? Can you make it so that I can enter my name and address and then it will send a postcard to my choice of 'congressional representative (state or federal)', senate representative (state or federal), governor or president ? My experience is that getting paper mail from people is more effective at communicating than email, and knowing that someone paid $2 to send this comment is a clear sign to a representative that the person really really means it. I would love you long time if you could do that.
- prasincs 14y ago
  That's a great idea. I think the act of sending paper mail feels rather tedious to those accustomed to using emails, IMs often. People are more likely to use a tool like this if it meant attention to issues. From the perspective of the senators, seeing a stack of 10,000 paper letters is much more tangible than say, 10,000 emails or petitions on a webpage. Now someone needs to make it :)
  - scottmotte 14y ago
    This is an excellent idea. I am adding this RIGHT NOW as a show for how it 'could' be, but should probably become a separate site. I'll reply back when it is live.
  - scottmotte 14y ago
    Ok, to show how this might look, I've done the following: http://fjunkmail.com/?senators=true http://fjunkmail.com/?senators=true (it's hidden away unless you pass senators=true) What do you think? Should something like this be on its own mini site? Ideas for a name?
    - ChuckMcM 14y ago
      That is great! Probably put the name on the same line as the hello. Possible site names could be 'stopbadpolicy.<whatever>' or 'tell-your-congress-critter.com' or LetWashingtonKnow.com or even VoiceOfThePeople.com Clearly .com or .org or most tlds would work. As soon as its up I'll send another letter to my senators to ask them to force the TSA to follow the law.
steeleduncan 14y ago
Interesting idea. Out of curiosity - are you printing and mailing all these by hand or is there some cunning automation there?

42 points by scottmotte 14y ago

I despise junk mail and last night I decided to surrender to my emotions. I built an emotional app that retaliates against junk mail. It is a usable experiment in appealing to people's emotions and using an API for real world interaction. Introducting F Junk Mail! - http://fjunkmail.com/ http://fjunkmail.com/. It sends real world postcards to junk mail senders. Currently, it has Charter listed. More companies/addresses are on the way, but you can also enter your own address in.

lancewiggs 14y ago
I can't see a way for the offending company to fix the problem. A little formality and the recipient email address on the card would add function to fun. Something like "please remove name@example.com from all of your mailing lists. All means anything you are associated with. Remove means I never want to see your emails again. "
- scottmotte 14y ago
  It is a good thought. For now people can do that by changing the text of the message. I didn't want to require people to enter their private information.

milesokeefe 14y ago

"I think this is a fair price for the joy of retaliating against junk mail. Plus, it costs me time and money to deliver these postcards." What work is on your end? It appears that Sincerely prints/ships it, and the $2 charge is to pay for that.

scottmotte 14y ago
Fair question. That sentence is geared towards non-programmers (which is of course an audience outside of Hacker News) Think of it this way: Sincerely is an extension of me because I have to pay them 99 cents per postcard so it is costing me 'time' (but in this case I am paying for that 'time' with money). Then on top of that I need to pay Stripe 36 cents to collect. Same principle. But maybe I need to come up with a better/more-convincing sentence there to justify the $2. Additionally, if the idea actually catches on (it was just a friday night project) then I'll put the effort into closing the margin and finding a more affordable print/ship api.
- milesokeefe 14y ago
  Ah, got it. I didn't realize strip takes that much, but it makes sense given it's a small purchase. I think it's better to charge $2 instead of ~$1.35. The even 2 looks like less money at a glance, plus you get to keep some.
  - lancewiggs 14y ago
    It felt like a lot to me. $1.90 might be worth testing.
    - fomojola 14y ago
      $1.99, perhaps? There was a pricing article on HN a few days ago that pointed out that the 99 cent thing really works, even if no one really seemed to have pinned down why.
- biot 14y ago
  I'd take out the link to Sincerely. People don't need to know who the wizard is behind the curtain, only that it's magic to them. Say something like "Postcards cost time and money to ship. To save you the hassle of buying a postcard, looking up the address of the offending junk mailer, filling it out, and going to a mailbox to drop it off, we handle all that for you. That frees you up to focus your time and energy where it's best spent: crafting the perfect rant." Well done though and great use of both Sincerely and Stripe... not to mention actually launching!

rane 14y ago

Retaliate is misspelt in the subheader.

scottmotte 14y ago
Thank you. Fixed.

sniperjoe 14y ago

fire with fire? i like the post card art! two criticisms; the whole idea is a bit hypocritical (sending more spam) and doesn't address the underlying issue of spam mail. Have a place to sign up for a "do not spam" list on your website and give users the option to "F JUNK MAIL" for $2.00. Also, I think you should make the price $1 because sending a post card has a known price and it's quite easy to do so offline. Why should they use your service and pay more?

scottmotte 14y ago
I love the idea of a 'do not junk mail' list as part of the payment fee. Anyone know of an api or form to submit someone's address to (with their consent of course) in order to be added to a 'do not junk mail' list?

BlackJack 14y ago

I really like the site - good job! I think the cover page example should be related to a Nigerian bank scam though - everyone recognizes those "A prince passed away, you are 20th in line...collect your millions!" and I think it'd be a lot funnier/relatable than Charter :)

scottmotte 14y ago
haha, that would be funny but those are 'spam' based, right? I am targeting real world 'junk' mail with this.

dchichkov 14y ago

How about just registering at dmachoice.org or similar? Would save some energy and recycled paper cycles...

niftylettuce 14y ago

lots more of these sites can pop up with https://github.com/niftylettuce/node-sincerely https://github.com/niftylettuce/node-sincerely

scottmotte 14y ago

So I just received my Saturday mail. Of the 3 items, 2 were junk mail. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/190299/junk-mail.JPG https://dl.dropbox.com/u/190299/junk-mail.JPG One is direct tv with a low trick of a $200 'prepaid card'. This is why I really like companies like http://simple.com http://simple.com. If you guys haven't signed up for simple definitely do. I've been really impressed. Anyways, I think I will add direct tv on my list next for F Junk Mail.

DigitalSea 14y ago

Really nice idea, nice work man. There's just one thing though that worries me unless I misunderstand how it's all setup. But I noticed your popup where you enter credit card details is being displayed on a non-https encrypted page. Are credit card details safe to enter, are they encrypted in any way? I could be wrong and you could be using something like Stripe or a 3rd party payment API, I wanted to enter my credit card details to test it all out but was worried.

scottmotte 14y ago
Yes, I am using stripe via its stripe.js api so it is secure. (but if the little app proves popular I will invest in using https or at the very least piggy back on heroku's https)
- melvinram 14y ago
  Even with Stripe, you should use SSL as per their info page: https://stripe.com/help/ssl https://stripe.com/help/ssl
  - scottmotte 14y ago
    Definitely agreed, but PCI-compliance wise I 'pass' with the current setup going through stripe.js. But nonetheless, I agree it is a must have for any legitimate site.
    - fatalerrorx3 14y ago
      I think most non-tech people wouldn't know that you were using stripe, and would abandon the site at the point of sale (but I could be wrong). Me being a tech person, I would still abandon the site after not seeing an SSL connection, in my opinion it's not worth it to not have one

gmisra 14y ago

Or you can use https://www.paperkarma.com/ https://www.paperkarma.com/ which is less passive-aggressive and more free.

astrodust 14y ago
It sounds more passive-aggressive to me.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I think this is a fabulous idea. Can you do me a favor? Can you make it so that I can enter my name and address and then it will send a postcard to my choice of 'congressional representative (state or federal)', senate representative (state or federal), governor or president ? My experience is that getting paper mail from people is more effective at communicating than email, and knowing that someone paid $2 to send this comment is a clear sign to a representative that the person really really means it. I would love you long time if you could do that.

prasincs 14y ago
That's a great idea. I think the act of sending paper mail feels rather tedious to those accustomed to using emails, IMs often. People are more likely to use a tool like this if it meant attention to issues. From the perspective of the senators, seeing a stack of 10,000 paper letters is much more tangible than say, 10,000 emails or petitions on a webpage. Now someone needs to make it :)
- scottmotte 14y ago
  This is an excellent idea. I am adding this RIGHT NOW as a show for how it 'could' be, but should probably become a separate site. I'll reply back when it is live.
- scottmotte 14y ago
  Ok, to show how this might look, I've done the following: http://fjunkmail.com/?senators=true http://fjunkmail.com/?senators=true (it's hidden away unless you pass senators=true) What do you think? Should something like this be on its own mini site? Ideas for a name?
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    That is great! Probably put the name on the same line as the hello. Possible site names could be 'stopbadpolicy.<whatever>' or 'tell-your-congress-critter.com' or LetWashingtonKnow.com or even VoiceOfThePeople.com Clearly .com or .org or most tlds would work. As soon as its up I'll send another letter to my senators to ask them to force the TSA to follow the law.

steeleduncan 14y ago

Interesting idea. Out of curiosity - are you printing and mailing all these by hand or is there some cunning automation there?