I don't think I would enjoy receiving one of these. It looks scary, and the PII side of things is creepy.
If you like my work, say so on social media. That does way more for me than this novelty panic-inducing letter.
Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
211–220 of 239 posts
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah. It is one of those kind of things where one might think that the recipient will first carefully read the letter and then form an opinion on it. But in reality people will form an emotional response just based on the appearance of it. And even after they read it they might be left perplexed and some might spend further resources to figure out if this is a legal threat in some way. I would find such a letter in i…
It really depends upon you knowing the recipient. I've got a friend with whom, over the years, I've exchanged many a "legal" demand letter back and forth. It's a running joke that we have, and it's pretty fun and funny. But, yeah, there are plenty of other friends who I would terrify if I sent them something official looking.
No, it doesn't rely on you knowing the recipient. If I got this letter from someone I didn't know, I would enjoy it.
Is it worth the risk that someone would find it "incredibly bad taste" (parent post, not yours)? Obviously humour is subjective, but perhaps such people need to have their Sense of Humour shifted, Overton-window style.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
The name and address is valuable because it can be matched to offline behavior through a bill you pay or rewards membership you are enrolled in to further enrich the data associated with id_8z6748dxzh and combine it with your shopping history at Macy's and Safeway, for instance. This is even more valuable when combined with your cellular bill. I've work in ad tech,and with CDPs for nearly 20 years.
Why wouldn’t they just buy name and address in bulk from one of the many providers that has essentially all of our info?
It's easier to target Hackernewses by advertising on their own site.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't want to plug in a cool person's info without knowing who the info is being sold to. Have we reached peak data privacy paranoia? Harmless lil projects that harken back to the good ol' days of the internet are somehow actually devious PII honeypots? Why do people think their data is so valuable on its own without being connected to their actual consumer related behavior? Truly, what is a name and address wort…
I have to agree with cootsnuck here. If you are one of the people that found it necessary to raise red flags in these comments about this web site, here’s why I think you got your level of paranoia wrong in this case: 1. The site was never going to scale. The guys are printing physical letters and hand-inserting them in envelopes with stamps, for free! 2. So some entrepreneurial folks on the internet have gathered a…
I can't think of a better example of gaslighting, wow.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't want to plug in a cool person's info without knowing who the info is being sold to. Have we reached peak data privacy paranoia? Harmless lil projects that harken back to the good ol' days of the internet are somehow actually devious PII honeypots? Why do people think their data is so valuable on its own without being connected to their actual consumer related behavior? Truly, what is a name and address wort…
I have to agree with cootsnuck here. If you are one of the people that found it necessary to raise red flags in these comments about this web site, here’s why I think you got your level of paranoia wrong in this case: 1. The site was never going to scale. The guys are printing physical letters and hand-inserting them in envelopes with stamps, for free! 2. So some entrepreneurial folks on the internet have gathered a…
> The guys are printing physical letters and hand-inserting them in envelopes with stamps
These things can be done at massive scales cheaply.
> for free!
That increases my level of concern, not decreases.
> Yeah maybe they should have not put up the language of “we get to sell your data if somebody offers to buy our web site”.
Maybe? What the heck do they need the data for a second after they sent the envelope?
> But so what!
So they don’t get my friends addresses. So that.
> The whole thing is just a kind adventure that brought a smile to the faces of some strangers, and will never be more than that.
You say that. But that is at contention here.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Have we reached peak data privacy paranoia? Harmless lil projects that harken back to the good ol' days of the internet are somehow actually devious PII honeypots? Safe assumptions with most any "tech" industry company or individual now are that they will behave completely like sociopaths when it comes to personal data. It's so baked into "tech" culture now, even people who may be ethically inclined don't recognize…
I’m old enough to remember the white pages, where essentially everyone’s name, phone number, and address were published and distributed. But it’s hard to have a conversation about appropriate calibration of what is private, and what are reasonable expectations, when extremists from both pro-privacy and scorched-earth commerce are so strident.
It was a lot harder to SWAT people when the White Pages existed. American society was much higher-trust then; people didn't show up to pizza parlors with assault rifles because of something they read online.
You'll have to forgive those of us who simply want to remain safe.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#217What's stopping you from just... sending a letter or a postcard? Benefits:
1. It comes from your heart.
2. You don't leak PII to internet randos.
3. It shows you put some thought into it.
4. Writing letters is fun, and the post office needs all the help and support it can get. While you're at it, why don't you give THOSE folks some praise, too?
5. A personalized letter doesn't look like something official and frightening. Seriously, you're underestimating how many people this is going to unnecessarily scare, at a time when our institutions are failing more and more.
Maybe we don't need to automate away every last bit of being human.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazing idea. I’m sure the person on the line is… not used to this. I remember one time having a super helpful person at Home Depot walk me through a home project I needed some advice on so I asked to talk to their manager to compliment/thank them. After a few minutes the manager came over and looked so ready for me to berate them about something only to look incredibly shocked that I was actually complimenting the s…
I’ve done this a few times in the past as well. But I found it’s less stressful for everyone if you preface it first like, “You’ve been really helpful. Can I tell your manager or mention you in a survey or something?” (Note: direct managers at stores don’t always have the ability to do much to reward good employees and it might be more helpful to fill out a survey or something that corporate sees.)
I would be worried about angering the manager if they learned that this super-helpful employee spent half an hour chit-chatting with a customer instead of doing other tasks. Kinda like how agents are under time pressure in call centers.
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#219Love the idea! But! I don't love the idea of sending PII for friends and family to an unknown source in order to facilitate this. You can ask your friendly neighborhood LLM for a template and go to town! "I'd like to create a positive spin on "Cease & Desist" letters for the holidays that I could send to friends. Let's call them a "Continue & Persist" letter. How can I make something cute and uplifting that I could s…
"...And here is a magnet pin with the logo of the company, to fix this letter on your fridge at home if you want, so your children and partner can read it also". That would be chef kiss
Re: Send someone you appreciate an official 'Continue and Persist' Letter
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure if they changed it after your comment, but right now there is clearly two options. One where you can get a google doc and just use theirs as a template, and one where they send it for you.
Yes! We added it in later so people could make their own!
<3