

Show HN: Send Coal to Congress - lcusack
http://coaltocongress.com

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ScottWhigham
Heck, at least half the people on HN won't get why coal was chosen. Perhaps an
answer as to "Why coal?" would be appropriate on the home page.

Also, there is no call to action (or it's not clear enough). I clicked through
to the cart and it gives me a three-step explanation but no links or buttons
that say "Click me to get started". I was on the cart page and, at the bottom,
it just says "It appears that your cart is currently empty!" This could be
massively improved if you just sit your mom (or someone non technical) down at
a computer and watch what they click while trying to accomplish a given tasks
(or just exploring).

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jamescun
As someone who does not get why coal was chosen, I was hoping you would
explain why coal was chosen in lieu of waiting for the website to update.

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dragonwriter
The reference to "The Naughty List" makes it clear why coal was chosen: _Santa
Claus has been believed to make a list of children throughout the world,
categorizing them according to their behavior ( "naughty" or "nice") and to
deliver presents, including toys, and candy to all of the well-behaved
children in the world, and sometimes coal to the naughty children, on the
single night of Christmas Eve._ [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus)

~~~
jamescun
My first thought was obviously that of Santa Claus, and leaving coal in the
stockings of naughty children. However the commentary here and the text on the
website lead me to think it was perhaps referring to something more localised
to America or its politics.

~~~
bradleyland
I thought of the Santa Claus connection as well... but it's not Christmas. Not
even close. Satire is humor, and with humor, context is important.

If this really is a "you get coal for xmas" joke, then it's going to fall flat
for a lot of people.

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showerst
FWIW packages sent to member offices get scanned by a mail processing center
off site, I'm not sure if they'd actually deliver the coal on to the office or
not =P.

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coal2congress
I looked into that some and it didn't sound like coal was an item that'd get
flagged

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TheCowboy
Coal contains things that are considered toxic.

The dust of coal itself can also have adverse health affects if inhaled. You
might want to properly shrink wrap the coal. You don't want some poor unpaid
intern to get a whiff of coal in their lungs between when they open the
package and throw it in the trash. The workers who inspect all packages might
not appreciate it as well.

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_stuart
What does sending coal to a congress member do? Why not donate the money to
the candidate you think you should be in congress?

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dragonwriter
> What does sending coal to a congress member do?

Makes money for the person selling the service of sending coal to members of
Congress (and, secondarily, for the coal industry.)

> Why not donate the money to the candidate you think you should be in
> congress?

Because there is no way for someone to throw up a quick service to make money
off of that.

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SoftwareMaven
Please sort the list of states in the filter. Reading each of 50 entries to
find my state is suboptimal.

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BigTuna
This plan crashes and burns at Step 3. Hope you make money though.

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jrobertfox
this is pretty awesome, do you make a profit off of this? how many orders so
far?

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coal2congress
I'll make a small margin if I get I bunch of orders, but haven't had many
orders yet. Any improvement suggestions?

~~~
ensignavenger
You should add an option to send coal to the President, as well. I know it is
Coal to Congress... but we should give credit where credit is due!

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thrillgore
Christmas has come early!

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madaxe
But... by buying coal, you're supporting their interests. Much of congress has
an incentive to blow up Appalachia.

~~~
coal2congress
But maybe they'll get so much coal they never wanna see another piece again?!
;)

