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Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

getsmokesignal.com

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Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#31

Post by dpcan »

benwerd wrote: post #11

Isn't this effectively a way to stick a button at the bottom of my emails that says, "I'M INCREDIBLY DISORGANIZED"? Now, within teams, I can definitely see the use - particularly if it also picked up tasks from bug trackers, tools like Remember the Milk, etc. But maybe as a Rapportive-style dashboard (and at-a-glance team page) rather than a signature - so when I email my colleague, it warns me that he's late on 3 ta…

Agreed. If you have nothing in your inbox, it looks like you have nothing going on, are not successful and are unimportant.

If your inbox is overloaded, then you are unproductive, overwhelmed, unhelpful, flustered.

If you are in between, it says almost nothing about you and therefore would be pointless.

I think this was probably a fun little project, but I see absolutely no sense in it- at least not the way the author intended anyway.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#33

Post by rhplus »

There are two huge problems with this service: trust and privacy.

Trust: a one page website is asking for access to my Gmail account. As far as I can tell, this means it gets access to everything 24/7. EVERYTHING. Holy crap. Because of the way that web security has evolved, my email inbox (not Gmail, but that's beside the point) is now the master key to my life. No way in hell am I handing a service like this the master key to my life.

Privacy: I'm assuming this is inserted into the email as an HTTP reference ("signature updates throughout the day"). If that's the case, then most correspondents won't see the image because modern email clients block 'beacon' image requests by default. If that's not the case and the image is embedded as a MIME object, then the tool is kinda useless, because who knows when a correspondent will read my reply?

If anything, the real solution is already described in the website header: "It's kinda like the AWAY setting on instant messenger, but for email". Most IM software, including Gmail, already has "online presence" notification. Perhaps that's where the real solution lies.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#34

Post by karipatila »

Geee wrote: post #27

Completely unrelated, but how does that Museo Sans render so nicely on Win/Chrome? Usually font rendering on Chrome is horrible. Now, checking Typekit, it seems some fonts have nice anti-alias, while some not. Where's the difference?

I think it's in the TrueType hinting:

http://blog.typekit.com/2011/03/16/skolar-web-hinted-for-bet...

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#35

Post by joshuacc »

Geee wrote: post #27

Completely unrelated, but how does that Museo Sans render so nicely on Win/Chrome? Usually font rendering on Chrome is horrible. Now, checking Typekit, it seems some fonts have nice anti-alias, while some not. Where's the difference?

I believe that is due to the work they explain in this blog post: http://blog.typekit.com/2011/07/26/new-from-typekit-improved...

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#36

Post by zavulon »

The design of the site is very, very good. Within a couple of seconds I knew EXACTLY what this does. Not usually the case with a lot of startups out there. That text under the logo is very good.

Having said that, unfortunately I'll join others in saying I won't use this. I'm one of hte "searchers" - my inbox is always full, but I search for right emails, instead of filing into folders and deleting.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#37

Post by gkoberger »

huhtenberg wrote: post #22

Another take on the same problem is to send an automatic reply saying Your email has been received. There are %N emails in my Inbox before yours. Your email is important to me. The estimated wait time for the response is %M days. Thank you for your patience. :)

If I ever were to get an email from anyone saying that, I guarantee I would never email them again. So incredibly annoying.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#38

Post by tgrass »

This provides a greater benefit to the recipient than the sender.

Jack wants to send Jill an email and using SmokeSignal can send it when there is the least noise in Jill's inbox. SmokeSignal is a utility for him not her. Devise a way to implement/market SmokeSignal to Jack, in which he persuades Jill to use it.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my site "Smoke Signal"

#39

Post by kooshball »

simonsarris wrote: post #25
huhtenberg wrote: post #22

Another take on the same problem is to send an automatic reply saying Your email has been received. There are %N emails in my Inbox before yours. Your email is important to me. The estimated wait time for the response is %M days. Thank you for your patience. :)

If two people both used that automatic reply, and one of them emailed the other, it would result in the world's funniest arms race.

The big email provides should already have loop detection. This is no different than a vacation email or an NDR.
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