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Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

talktomel.com

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Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#31

Post by nolastan »

rchaud wrote: post #27
nolastan wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally understand the privacy concern. If it helps, I'm a person, not a company—and I put my photo and personal links right on the homepage so folks can decide if they would like to trust me with this sensitive information.

It's not 2004 anymore, people may need a bit more than your photo and links in exchange for what you're asking.

I'm in the process of reaching out to existing customers, with an aim of getting some reviews on TrustPilot. Do you have any other ideas?

I accept that there's a certain percent of folks who will not trust me with their address, so I'm not trying to change anyone's mind or pressure anyone into signing up if that's the case.

Back when I worked at SaveUp, and we gave real cash prizes to people every day, we always had people claiming we were a scam. We even posted videos to YouTube of our selection and giveaway process, and posted new testimonials to our site every single day, but certain folks simply couldn't be convinced.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#32

Post by rchaud »

nolastan wrote: post #30
rchaud wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for some reason That reason has two names: Dribbble and Behance. That's where all this 'AI' website art and assets come from.

The image with the bird and the mailbox I generated directly from DALL•E. The asset on the Stripe checkout page for the Assistant plan I generated using Midjourney. All of these assets are placeholders while my partner is working on drawing a custom mascot to represent Mel.

I didn't intend to criticize the art itself, just mentioned why AI website art has that recognizable look, plus that usual soft-focus glow shadow. I think it looks fine for a company website.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#33

Post by nolastan »

rchaud wrote: post #29
rsyring wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really consider your address private information?

There's a big difference between having one's name and address appear on a public land registry database, vs just handing it to an SF tech startup. At some point that data will monetized. Remember unroll.me? [0] If this organization registers as a nonprofit, that's one thing. Outside of that, I wouldn't trust such services any further than I could throw a pitch deck claiming to make the world a better place, with you…

While I don't intend to register as a non-profit (there's CatalogChoice already), I could see registering as a Benefit Corporation / B Corp. Would that hold any weight, or would you still just view that as "an SF tech startup"?

There is no pitch deck for Mel as I don't intend to raise VC funding – precisely because I don't want to be pressured into doing something that goes against my values like selling user data.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#35

Post by rchaud »

nolastan wrote: post #31
rchaud wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not 2004 anymore, people may need a bit more than your photo and links in exchange for what you're asking.

I'm in the process of reaching out to existing customers, with an aim of getting some reviews on TrustPilot. Do you have any other ideas? I accept that there's a certain percent of folks who will not trust me with their address, so I'm not trying to change anyone's mind or pressure anyone into signing up if that's the case. Back when I worked at SaveUp, and we gave real cash prizes to people every day, we always had…

I would say register as a nonprofit, but that may not be feasible if you're planning to run this as a business.

People have soured on tech companies ostensibly doing something for the public good; it never works out as it should, because behind companies are investors, and at some point, they'll want returns.

The classic example is unroll.me -- auto-unsubscribe with no strings attached*! Asterisk: many strings attached.

There's just no guarantee that introducing a middleman won't bite me in the ass later.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/17/21027159/unroll-me-email...

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#36

Post by nolastan »

lloydatkinson wrote: post #19

Does this work in the UK?

I haven't done enough research yet on UK. I will circle back to this comment once I do.

I did have a user sign up from Canada, but it's so much simpler there that it probably doesn't make sense for Canadians to pay for Mel:

  1. Fill out the CMA Do Not Mail form: https://cmadnm.cawebhosting.ca/submit.asp

  2. Put a note on your mailbox that you don't want to receive Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#37

Post by hiatus »

assbuttbuttass wrote: post #34
astura wrote: post #8

In the US you can opt out of the majority of junk mail from creditors and insurance here - https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/prescreened-credit-insuran...

I wish this actually worked

It does. I did it years ago and have not received a single unsolicited credit offer from a company I don't already have a relationship with.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#38

Post by astura »

assbuttbuttass wrote: post #34
astura wrote: post #8

In the US you can opt out of the majority of junk mail from creditors and insurance here - https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/prescreened-credit-insuran...

I wish this actually worked

It absolutely does work.

Re: Show HN: Mel – The missing unsubscribe button for physical mail

#40

Post by dieselgate »

cl3misch wrote: post #18
dieselgate wrote: post #2

I really like the concept of "text this number to perform action". There was a post a few months back about a postcard creation service where you just text a photo.

How do you "text a photo"? Does this imply iMessage or MMS? I'm based in Europe and nobody uses SMS or iMessage here, so genuine question.

I have a TCL flip phone (alongside an iPhone 8): can text a flip phone photo by going to photo gallery, selecting a photo, going to “options” and then “share”. Message then becomes an option and an MMS text is possible.

This isn’t one size fits all but would start by going to the photo itself and then generate a text

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