A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it. • Hacker News Board

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#21

Post by joshbegley » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:04 PM UTC

ifthenecho wrote: post #9

bambax wrote: post #5

Tried to enter an email address with a '+' sign in it: "Email address is invalid". No it's not.

I emailed them and they said they're fixing it. But for now, they manually added me - TheListserveProject@gmail.com.

thanks, ifthenecho. should be fixed now.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#22

Post by joshbegley » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:08 PM UTC

lpnotes wrote: post #11

Pretty cool... are you planning to switch from Mailchimp, though? It lists $240/month as the fee for 25K-50K subscribers. I'm curious about the business model behind something like this.

great question. we'd like to. have any ideas for the most inexpensive service? we don't have a business model (and don't plan to serve ads)...we just want to see what happens.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#23

Post by jessicaSFNY » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:12 PM UTC

We did an interview with the Listserve guys at Betabeat: http://www.betabeat.com/2012/04/10/the-listserve-nyu-itp-pro...

Seems like a super cool project.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#24

Post by latchkey » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:14 PM UTC

Let's start off by seeing how long the name lasts:

http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/legal.asp

http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/trademark.asp

http://wiki.list.org/display/DOC/Mailman+is+not+Listserv

This is why people call them 'mailing lists'.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#25

Post by neonkiwi » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:16 PM UTC

Seems like one of the people behind this, joshbegley, is hellbanned on HN. His comments on this page so far are just showing up dead.

Any ideas as to why this is? It makes me wonder about entering my email address on his site.

Edit: If you don't have showdead on, he says that plus signs are now accepted in email addresses[0], and that they won't be serving ads, and are looking for an inexpensive way to send mail[1].

[0]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3824420

[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3824434

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#26

Post by defen » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:16 PM UTC

dfc wrote: post #3

A million people are signed up? How long do you have to wait on average to win a one in a million daily lottery.

Assuming people can "win" more than once and no one else signs up, the expected wait would be 1 million days.

Edit: Guess I need to explain the math since I've been downvoted.

Let X be the random variable representing the number of draws until you are the winner. The probability that X = k is (999999/1000000)^(k-1) * (1/1000000)

From the definition of expected value: E = Sum(n*P(X=n), n, 1, Infinity)

From here it's a simple matter of arithmetic to calculate E. Here's the Wolfram Alpha link since I don't feel like typing up math in this input box (shortened so as not to overflow the layout): http://bit.ly/HzRUUt

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#27

Post by dangrossman » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:16 PM UTC

bambax wrote: post #5

Tried to enter an email address with a '+' sign in it: "Email address is invalid". No it's not.

Around 20% of the web still tells me my dan@dangrossman.info e-mail address is invalid.

.info domains have been around for 11 years now, and I can't work around these sites by removing a character.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#28

Post by latchkey » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:29 PM UTC

jessicaSFNY wrote: post #23

We did an interview with the Listserve guys at Betabeat: http://www.betabeat.com/2012/04/10/the-listserve-nyu-itp-pro... Seems like a super cool project.

It is shocking to me that as a reporter, you wouldn't even bother asking why they're using a heavily protected and trademarked word for their name.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#29

Post by Karunamon » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:36 PM UTC

latchkey wrote: post #24

Let's start off by seeing how long the name lasts: http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/legal.asp http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/trademark.asp http://wiki.list.org/display/DOC/Mailman+is+not+Listserv This is why people call them 'mailing lists'.

sigh

Lawyers ruin everything.

Re: A huge listserv. Each day, only one random person can write to it.

#30

Post by jamesaguilar » Tue, Apr 10, 2012, 9:45 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #29

latchkey wrote: post #24

Let's start off by seeing how long the name lasts: http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/legal.asp http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/trademark.asp http://wiki.list.org/display/DOC/Mailman+is+not+Listserv This is why people call them 'mailing lists'.

sigh Lawyers ruin everything.

In this case, as in most cases where this accusation is thrown around, the lawyers are merely agents of the people actually doing the ruining. Also, trademarks are not bad things.