

Show HN: SenderPays - Pay the Recipient and Get Noticed - works over email - rwij
http://senderpays.co

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tocomment
This has been a great idea for almost two decades now. It's just waiting for
brilliant execution. Is this the one? Maybe.

I hope it takes off, it would solve a lot of problems with email.

Advice, you guys should try to sign up some celebrities so people can get
started right away. For example, I'd like to try it but I don't have the email
address of anyone I might want to email.

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rwij
Yes, it's a very old idea and recently Esther Dyson has been championing it
though my eagerness to see it through was when I couldn't email a doctor that
was treating me since she wouldn't give out her email address because she knew
better but heck I would have paid the same price as for a face-to-face
consultation to to reach her by email!

I think anyone who'd want a response from just about anyone could make use of
this just like I would have to contact my doctor (provided she'd given her
email address) and the same applies to journalists, consultants and even the
author of your favourite cook book, anyone you'd want advice from :)

Just released SenderPays for Custom Domains which allows anyone to set it up
on their account - for instance email rehanw at yahoo dot com to get an idea.

Thanks for the feedback!

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tocomment
It still seems like the main problem to contacting someone famous/important is
the the sender doesn't know their email address.

I'd say if you could have a list on the front page of some examples of people
you can email (who have signed up) it would go a long way.

Maybe even try to recruit some minor internet celebrities?

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rwij
That's the problem, because anyone can contact you the most sensible thing is
not to display your email address but with a system like this or something
similar that could change for the better because usually when you email
someone you want something, and in most cases your willing to compensate that
person for their time.

Take for instance a finance blogger, you could possibly send an email but then
most people are already doing that so currently you don't stand out but if you
think that person's time is worth $50 you could pay that person an incentive
with the hope of getting a reply, no reply then you get a full refund.

Currently email and the internet in general don't place a value on people's
time, but that's changing because Google can't provide the answers to all our
questions - sometimes the experts opinion is what's required and it's time
their compensated, it's only fair.

------
politician
If the goal is anti-spam, BTC is the ideal currency (e.g. "I only accept
emails that come with at least 0.0001 BTC."). Paying for a response, though,
seems easily gamed.

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rwij
Spam has been fixed for the most part, this has to do with actually getting a
response for your message, especially when contacting a person who gets a lot
of email. Paying an incentive to the recipient puts a value on their time,
just like you would when paying for a doctor or a lawyer offline, you're
paying for their advice otherwise why else would you be trying to contact
them.

