
Save $9, Here Are The TechCrunch Staff’s Email Addresses - PhilipA
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/14/please-dont-spam-us/
======
dm2
"Well, unless AOL messes up my email inbox again:" I thought that was a joke
at first, but apparently they are owned by AOL.

Are techcrunch employees required to use AOL Desktop? It looks the same as it
did in 1998
[http://daol.aol.com/software/aoldesktop97/](http://daol.aol.com/software/aoldesktop97/)

AOL badly needs to rebrand themselves. It seems like the company has changed
and is very profitable in recent years.

They could offer, "the greatest thing in the world, by AOL", but it's not a
company I would ever do business with, I don't have a logical reason for this.

Fun fact: "at one point, half of the CDs manufactured worldwide had AOL logos
on them" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL)
[http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/27/aol-
discs-90s/](http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/27/aol-discs-90s/)

~~~
simcop2387
I love the requirements, 266MHz processor, 1gb ram recommended. That processor
speed makes me think it hasn't been updated really in nearly 20 years.

~~~
jbigelow76
If it were 20 years old I wouldn't expect to see the 1gb RAM recommendation.
How much did a gig of RAM cost 20 years ago? I'm guessing about as much as a
used Volkswagen :)

~~~
ewzimm
Try two new Volkswagens fully loaded. A quick search says it would cost about
$28k, which is $45k today adjusted for inflation.

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toni
In other words, TC does not approve charging money for providing a set of
useful email addresses (even if it's wrapped in a neat Bootstrap/Stripe gift
box) and regards it as good old _shady pro spammers_. It leads to young
startups sending mass emails and giving headache to everybody on their path.
They prefer to share their email addresses with you openly and free of charge.

Which brings us to the obvious question: Why is this on ProductHunt?

~~~
dictum
"No subscription. No automatic renewal."

As if...

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kyro
Is descending further down towards the bottom of the barrel to leech on more
publicly available, easily harvested and/or less scarce items to sell at a
markup a rising startup trend? It seems building novel value into a product is
becoming less important to a segment of the startup industry. We now have
selling of public parking spots, dinner reservations, and now email addresses.
And while this model isn't new, there appears to be a popular reemergence of
it.

~~~
thenmar
I think it's that we just enjoy the spectacle of companies that seem like
terrible ideas or based around an ethically questionable action. Nobody gets
excited about "tech startup grows revenue to $100k on niche, hard to
understand product and delays investor round to avoid dilution"

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mgraczyk
TC doesn't seem opposed to PressFarm's success as a business. From the
comments (Tsotsis is an editor at TC):

    
    
        Wouter Smet : ...with this post you just gifted Press Farm, apparently a super tiny company/web site, the exposure and traffic startups can only dream about....
        Alexia Tsotsis : Oh, yeah, you're right, we totally didn't think of that angle. Oops!

~~~
toni
I don't see how you might conclude that "TC doesn't seem opposed to
PressFarm's success as a business" based on that one line of comment.

I read Alexia's response as "We considered the possibility that this post will
give PressFarm a much unwanted exposure, and yet we went ahead and published
it anyway, just to save you the ice creams money."

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mladenkovacevic
This is just an email list? A more compelling product would connect a
particular journalist with every story they've ever written, across all
publications he/she's ever worked at. Then you could search articles by topic,
type of product covered, sentiment towards particular vertical...etc and reach
out only to the journalist that seem to have an interest in whatever story
you're pitching.

~~~
smackfu
"Seems like a lot of effort when you can just spam the whole list."

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bhartzer
If you set up gmail filters correctly, there's really no reason why you
shouldn't make your email address readily available.

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AznHisoka
Most email addresses of these guys are easily inferred. Some even have them in
their Twitter bio like Anthony Ha. Not a big deal.

~~~
larrys
It's like stuffing envelopes. If you have to do 3 or 10 inefficiency doesn't
matter that much. If you have to do 100 or 500 or 5000 all that extra time to
guess name@ or name.last@ or nlast@ or n.last@ etc. is a big time waste.
Paving to have the right address (even if some aren't correct because they've
changed) is worth paying for.

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ars
If they are willing to do that, then I guess the age of email spam has passed.

~~~
minimaxir
Most TechCrunch writers gave their email freely if you asked. This list is the
inevitable conclusion.

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slosh
does someone want to make a more comprehensive list?

~~~
minimaxir
That list is a list of all the authors at TechCrunch. I would not recommend
e-mailing the administrative staff.

~~~
lnanek2
Maybe he means other sites.

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anoncow
Plain text? Isn't TC worried about spam?

~~~
mey
They most likely have very good spam filters already in place. They are
receiving "tips" already constantly.

~~~
devindotcom
tips are supposed to go to tips@techcrunch.com but when I was there it was a
total firehose you had to filter out into a folder and wade through all at
once. You'd probably be okay emailing a writer directly if you have a good
reason to think they rather than someone else should be receiving your pitch.

~~~
taylorbuley
Word. I'll note for others that impressing a journo involves not looking up
their most recent clips and figuring our how your topic is like those too, but
rather understanding the needs of that particular writer in their particular
beat and trying to add value for her while extracting some value of your own
as well.

