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Like some of the other commenters, I remain a bit perplexed by this. I realize we all live busy lives, but the idea of long form communication going the way of

Like some of the other commenters, I remain a bit perplexed by this. I realize we all live busy lives, but the idea of long form communication going the way of the dodo seems counterintuitive to me. There will always be a need for someone to send me a message longer than 350 characters periodically. I don't understand how this actually changes that need. I'm also not so much a fan of the fact that this service will auto respond to people saying they should send a shorter email. That's kind of... jerk-like to be honest. I can see how it would be desirable to someone who just gets too much email, but I would posit that the better solution is to reduce the amount of email you're receiving or exercise more aggressive filtering.

afriend4lyfe 12y ago
You can still receive long form emails as you always have, I think Toastio is just offering another option that's more appropriate for day-to-day routine communication. I'd imagine auto-respond being an optional feature as well so you don't have to feel like a jerk if you don't want to. However, I'm not certain about this but it only seems natural.
- coldtea 12y ago
  >You can still receive long form emails as you always have, I think Toastio is just offering another option that's more appropriate for day-to-day routine communication. How's that any better than getting your regular emails kept under 350 words (and retaining all the interoperabillity and tons of tools and support that email has)? It's not like most people are emailing essays to my inbox. Or that even if someone does, I cannot just skip his email or read just enough to get his point.
  - afriend4lyfe 12y ago
    I don't think it's intent is to replace email but to supplement it with a new feature. Maybe one day the feature can become one of the tools you mention that regular email already has.
coldtea 12y ago
>I don't understand how this actually changes that need. It doesn't. It's a literal example of the cliche of the entrepreneur building the "X for Y". They substituted X for Twitter and Y for email, real needs or relevancy be damned. They even boast of it on their landing page: "Toastio is like Twitter for email". >I'm also not so much a fan of the fact that this service will auto respond to people saying they should send a shorter email. That's just an added stroke of genius.
krapp 12y ago
>I'm also not so much a fan of the fact that this service will auto respond to people saying they should send a shorter email. That's kind of... jerk-like to be honest. It's probably both a form of advertising and an attempt to grow their market through social pressure. By 'suggesting' people format their emails in such a way as to make them receptive to using the service and insinuating that doing something besides signing up for toastio is an insult (and oh hey... here's a handy signup link right here...) and a waste of your precious time. Of course, you could simply not write long emails, or quickly scan through the emails you get, or any number of things which don't require a third party startup, but that's not the point. First, you fabricate the disease, then you sell the cure.

afriend4lyfe 12y ago

You can still receive long form emails as you always have, I think Toastio is just offering another option that's more appropriate for day-to-day routine communication. I'd imagine auto-respond being an optional feature as well so you don't have to feel like a jerk if you don't want to. However, I'm not certain about this but it only seems natural.

coldtea 12y ago
>You can still receive long form emails as you always have, I think Toastio is just offering another option that's more appropriate for day-to-day routine communication. How's that any better than getting your regular emails kept under 350 words (and retaining all the interoperabillity and tons of tools and support that email has)? It's not like most people are emailing essays to my inbox. Or that even if someone does, I cannot just skip his email or read just enough to get his point.
- afriend4lyfe 12y ago
  I don't think it's intent is to replace email but to supplement it with a new feature. Maybe one day the feature can become one of the tools you mention that regular email already has.

coldtea 12y ago

>I don't understand how this actually changes that need. It doesn't. It's a literal example of the cliche of the entrepreneur building the "X for Y". They substituted X for Twitter and Y for email, real needs or relevancy be damned. They even boast of it on their landing page: "Toastio is like Twitter for email". >I'm also not so much a fan of the fact that this service will auto respond to people saying they should send a shorter email. That's just an added stroke of genius.

krapp 12y ago

>I'm also not so much a fan of the fact that this service will auto respond to people saying they should send a shorter email. That's kind of... jerk-like to be honest. It's probably both a form of advertising and an attempt to grow their market through social pressure. By 'suggesting' people format their emails in such a way as to make them receptive to using the service and insinuating that doing something besides signing up for toastio is an insult (and oh hey... here's a handy signup link right here...) and a waste of your precious time. Of course, you could simply not write long emails, or quickly scan through the emails you get, or any number of things which don't require a third party startup, but that's not the point. First, you fabricate the disease, then you sell the cure.