

Empowering Email - omarshammas
http://www.omarshammas.com/post/26787467037/mailcules-empowering-email

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ibagrak
I like the idea, but I cannot imagine normals using it en masse. It seems so
natural to those familiar with software engineering because it's basically a
little language embedded into email conversations. For someone unfamiliar with
computer science concepts like translation, languages, compilers, etc, it
would be a formidable thing to learn and use.

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omarshammas
I agree that it is a major concern, and we're trying to break down this
barrier by making the language as human readable as possible.

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jmduke
This is a minor, surface-level thing and completely separate from the actual
functionality of your app, but: when I read 'Mailcules', I think 'molecules',
not 'Hercules.'

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scottmagdalein
Yeah, I can only hear it as "mail-quools".

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scottmagdalein
This type of thing went through a phase and then died out, much like dedicated
messaging apps like Kik and Beluga.

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omarshammas
interesting, do you remember any of their names.

What was the problem with those apps?

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jacalata
"I want Sandy" was the biggest one I remember. The company closed/was acquired
by Twitter
([https://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy/topics/a_fork_in_the_...](https://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy/topics/a_fork_in_the_road_an_important_announcement_about_i_want_sandy))

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jwoah12
I'm interested to see how this turns out if you pursue it. We actually applied
to this past YC with a very similar concept. We got rejected, and were later
convinced by a former YC founder that it was too much of a big change for most
email users, so we pivoted.

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omarshammas
I'd love to chat with you some time if you're available. Just to pick your
brain, and see what advice you received.

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ckluis
A combo-app that translated that text into a visual todo list (or other
mechanism) makes more sense for 90% of users. Sort of like integrations into a
more robust email client. You know like Outlook, but modern.

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omarshammas
I was thinking along those lines as well. It would be great if a user could
add a widget that would parse the text of the opened email and present the
user with the action items of the email.

I liked the ability to be able to use the service from any client. And see the
widget as an extension that would increase the usability.

The biggest barrier I believe is people learning the language in the first
place to be able to perform these action items.

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deniszgonjanin
We're looking for some comments on whether a service like this would be useful
to you, and how you would use it. Thanks!

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ninetax
This looks interesting enough to give you my email, but It would be great to
have a shorter syntax perhaps? That looks like an awful lot of typing,
especially for smartphone users.

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deniszgonjanin
The balance we're trying to strike with the syntax is for it to be as succinct
as possible, while being human readable and as natural as possible. How would
you make the syntax better

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mikeswiss
i believe remember the milk have similar idea, where you can email it
something and it will create a task for you

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googletron
In the age of Siri. Why should I type?

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jmduke
"In the age of video, why should I read?"

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googletron
true. true.

