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Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

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Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#61

Post by antasvara »

saghm wrote: post #22
SilverBirch wrote: post #19

Isn't this the opposite of what I want? I don't want people willing to pay getting into my inbox. Those are the people who think they can get more from me somehow. Those are exactly the people I want to not be in my inbox.

I imagine the point is that if you make the price high enough, the ones who don't want it enough will go away, and the ones that do will want it enough that it's worth your while. You can set the price to whatever threshold is high enough that you'd find the money worthwhile.

>the ones who don't want it enough will go away, and the ones that do will want it enough that it's worth your while..

Counterpoint: if you think you need to pay for my attention, that's a negative signal for what you're asking me. If I'm giving 10 vendors a shot at my business, I'm not going to pay money for the right to give you that opportunity?

On the other side, the only person paying $5 to ask me something is probably someone getting a lot of no's elsewhere. That, or what I offer is so valuable that people are willing to pay for it. But that's not most people.

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#62

Post by loumf »

benrutter wrote: post #37
loumf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get about 10 AI generated spam emails a day that get through my spam filter. It takes about 10 seconds to block and mark as spam. I barely read the first three words of each.

> I get about 10 AI generated spam emails a day that get through my spam filter. Yikes, that's sounds unworkable for a lot of people! Most people in here are techies and use email all the time, but some use cases (say, contractors who are mostly out in jobs) people might only sit down in front of emails properly once a week. 70 emails is a mammoth waste.of resources to have flooding your inbox in that kind of context…

I am saying that 70 emails would be 70 seconds of time, so not a big deal. I can usually tell from the sender that it won’t be real and it takes just a couple of words to prove that. The good thing is that they tend to get to the point quickly, which works in my favor.

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#63

Post by loumf »

sigmoid10 wrote: post #45
loumf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get about 10 AI generated spam emails a day that get through my spam filter. It takes about 10 seconds to block and mark as spam. I barely read the first three words of each.

Do you often sign up for new services using your actual email? In gmail, I get spam in my primary mailbox maybe once every few months, usually after I've signed up for something. After marking mails as spam a few times, they are usually sent to the spambox automatically and I have a tidy primary inbox again for a long time.

I’m sure the source is LinkedIn ultimately. They reference my job and things from there and pretend to have carefully considered my posts (just LLM generated BS)

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#64

Post by pjmlp »

stvltvs wrote: post #60
pjmlp wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy, set a filter with only contacts get through, everything else lands on junk. Every now and then update the contacts with key emails that might have been lost. Working quite fine since 2000's.

It's hard to say whether you're missing out on legit emails from new senders or old senders with new addresses unless you review your spam folder regularly.

Yes, once a week is enough.

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#65

Post by ubermonkey »

Interesting idea, but honest to god I don't really have that big of a spam problem anymore.

O365 is handling 90% of it on our corporate mail; my personal address (which is far older) is hosted at Fastmail and it traps nearly all the spam there, too.

In 2026, I'm much more annoyed by PHONE spam -- though Apple's "who the hell are you and why should ubermonkey take your call" feature has done wonders. (I assume something similar exists in Android.)

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#67

Post by saghm »

antasvara wrote: post #61
saghm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine the point is that if you make the price high enough, the ones who don't want it enough will go away, and the ones that do will want it enough that it's worth your while. You can set the price to whatever threshold is high enough that you'd find the money worthwhile.

>the ones who don't want it enough will go away, and the ones that do will want it enough that it's worth your while.. Counterpoint: if you think you need to pay for my attention, that's a negative signal for what you're asking me. If I'm giving 10 vendors a shot at my business, I'm not going to pay money for the right to give you that opportunity? On the other side, the only person paying $5 to ask me something is p…

Sure, that's fair. I'm just saying that I probably would read a dumb solicitation email from someone who gave me, like, $10,000, but in practice that will be almost nobody, so either way I'd win!

Re: Show HN: Make senders work to get into your inbox

#68

Post by bri3k »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #42
4chandaily wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of companies pay the post office to deliver paper spam to my mailbox each day. I don't want any of that, either. "Free" makes spam easier, but a cost doesn't prevent it.

No... but paper spam actually pays less than a regular letter. Make it pay more, and the amount will go down. Not to zero, but down significantly.

The post office _wants_ some spam ads in the mail. They get paid less but everyone gets it. At this time without mail ads there would not be enough mail most days to send a postal carrier out. Think of it as the fiber in your diet. You don't get anything nutritional out of it but it helps move things along.
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