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Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

blog.chaddickerson.com

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Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#11

Post by Gys »

gnicholas wrote: post #4

> My email list is broadcast-only but any replies go directly to me. This sort of mass-email is weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore."), unlike company emails which there's no awkwardness around unsu…

> weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore.")

You mean, like a post on FB ? Or Tweeting ? Readable for all ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ ? Who very likely are not really interested in your message ?

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#12

Post by echevil »

For any social network to work you’d need most of your connections to get onboard the same thing, whether it’s Facebook or anything else. It’s easy for some people to start emailing their friends but it’s hard to imagine that the general public start doing the same thing, and without that, the alternative won’t go very far.

In fact I’d find it much more annoying than Facebook if I start receiving such emails from friends.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#14

Post by extra88 »

wrs wrote: post #10

I'm not sure what Mailchimp is doing in this scenario. Couldn't you just…you know…send an email? Using BCC, of course.

* Mail email hosts are not cool with sending messages to large quantities of recipients because it looks like spamming, sending via a host that exists for sending mass email solves that.

* The Mailchimp platform provided some automation for the author when first asking people to opt-in. Presumably each message also includes an Unsubscribe link at the bottom which is less awkward to use than replying to the author, asking that they stop sending the email.

* TFA mentions Mailchimp's templates, it's not easy to create readable formatting of lengthy emails in standard email clients.

* It eliminates the possibility of screwing up and addressing the email to recipients using a line other than BCC.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#15

Post by gnicholas »

Gys wrote: post #11
gnicholas wrote: post #4

> My email list is broadcast-only but any replies go directly to me. This sort of mass-email is weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore."), unlike company emails which there's no awkwardness around unsu…

> weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore.") You mean, like a post on FB ? Or Tweeting ? Readable for all ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ ? Who very likely are not really interested in your message ?

If you follow someone on Twitter, that means you want to get their updates. And it's trivially easy to mute people on Twitter/FB so that you can stop seeing people's messages without risking offending them or hurting their feelings.

Another reply mentions having people who don't want to read your email newsletter set up filters to get rid of them. This is possible, but more work than a two-click mute on social media platforms.

Don't get me wrong — I'm not saying FB/Twitter are "better" — just that this solution occupies a middle ground that creates different privacy/relationship issues.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#16

Post by [deleted] »

Gys wrote: post #11
gnicholas wrote: post #4

> My email list is broadcast-only but any replies go directly to me. This sort of mass-email is weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore."), unlike company emails which there's no awkwardness around unsu…

> weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore.") You mean, like a post on FB ? Or Tweeting ? Readable for all ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ ? Who very likely are not really interested in your message ?

[deleted]

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#19

Post by joe_the_user »

Gys wrote: post #11
gnicholas wrote: post #4

> My email list is broadcast-only but any replies go directly to me. This sort of mass-email is weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore."), unlike company emails which there's no awkwardness around unsu…

> weirdly impersonal because it tells the recipient that you want them to know what you're up to, but you don't want to write a message just to them. Also, it would be very awkward to opt-out ("hey dude, um please don't send me your mass-email updates anymore.") You mean, like a post on FB ? Or Tweeting ? Readable for all ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ ? Who very likely are not really interested in your message ?

With FB, a person has opted in to being your friend. With a mass email list, whoever knows your email can send it.

With FB, you go to the site to get basically this stream of opt-in announcements. With email, they are mixed with things that might require urgent action and direct personal messages and spam and what-not. Of course, I don't have FB on my phone and if I did it would be more intrusive.

Re: Going old school: how I replaced Facebook with email

#20

Post by Arbalest »

maxxxxx wrote: post #13
User23 wrote: post #8

Why stop there? https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html

It's nice to be in such a privileged position. Unfortunately not an option for most of us.

A secretary certainly sounds expensive. Even if you had a remote Secretary as a Service who prints directly to your home printer as an implicit inbox (which you can't hear printing, because that would be too much like getting a notification), it would still cost too much.
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