

Down To Fax is Chatroulette for fax machines - arram
https://www.downtofax.com/

======
damncabbage

      Q) How will you make money?
      A) Volume.
    

Funny people.

(The random profiles are hilarious too: <http://www.downtofax.com/random>)

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mappu
You might want to link to the non-HTTPS version, or fix the certificate.

Very cool and funny, though.

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roneil
Chrome wouldn't let me get through to your site through your link because of
certificate issues but it works fine over an insecure connection; for the lazy
here's the non-HTTPS link: <http://www.downtofax.com/>

Definitely an interesting/hilarious idea (and I love your testimonials
section), but I have to ask, has anyone actually given you a fax number yet? I
don't think I know a single person that still owns a fax machine

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zyad
Creating fake profiles of customers using picture of dead people is not funny
at all.
[http://www.downtofax.com/users/8c51050c7abd11e1b11512313d186...](http://www.downtofax.com/users/8c51050c7abd11e1b11512313d186462)
<http://www.elizabethstricklandunterzuber.com/> She passed away in 2006.

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stayfaxy
Thanks for the heads up. This account has been deleted. Unfortunately some
people aren't taking this as seriously as we hoped. There are over 20mm
Americans (mostly in rural areas) who have access to a fax machine but don't
have the internet.

We have a feature to flag inappropriate profiles.

~~~
jaredsohn
>Unfortunately some people aren't taking this as seriously as we hoped. There
are over 20mm Americans (mostly in rural areas) who have access to a fax
machine but don't have the internet.

The problem with your implementation is that you require your users have the
Internet to create a profile and to receive a fax. Ideally you would have a
phone number (different ones for men seeking women, women seeking men, men
seeking men, women seeking women) that someone could send a fax to and receive
back a random fax.

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slewis
Psh, if anyone gets contacted via DTF you should submit the post to
<https://www.faxins.com>, so the entire internet can laugh at your
technologically impaired suitor!

~~~
simonbrown
Working link: <http://www.faxins.com/>

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marquis
Oh, what a pity we had our landline phones disconnected earlier this century.

~~~
tedivm
You're going to feel so weird saying that in 50 years.

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stfu
Great, great, great idea. So simple, so beautiful, so non-IPO. Wish I would
see more of that pure idealism around here.

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jes5199
it's like tacocopter for dating!

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gibybo
<http://www.downtofax.com> gives me a domain placeholder for some hosting
company. <https://www.downtofax.com> gives me a certificate error. Best I can
tell the DNS hasn't propogated everywhere yet.

There is a CNAME record for <http://dtf.herokuapp.com> though, and that URL
seems to show the correct site for me.

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jaxn
It is not even Sunday in Australia yet. I am going to stay off the Internet
all weekend now.

~~~
davvid
I was thinking the same thing. At risk of spoiling it for others -- is it
april fools yet?

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ultrasaurus
Brilliant! I'm rolling out PagerDuty as we speak.

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simonbrown
What are you using to send the faxes?

~~~
ricksta
I'd like to know as well. is there something like twillio for fax or
something?

~~~
jroll
There's <http://hellofax.com>, wonderful service.

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mcmire
I'm definitely investing in this once it IPO's.

(P.S. Try downtofax.com, neither <https://www>. nor <http://www>. work.)

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readme
Would be even funner if it was "You DTMF?"

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msellout
My favorite profile is the grue.

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lhnn
What a frightenly unambitious idea.

~~~
jaybill
They now quote you saying that on the front page, btw. Linking to this
comment.

~~~
christiangenco
I love these people so much...

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lolcraft
Sorry, but no. This is OKCupid, or whatever, for fax machines. Which is weird,
you know. Taking the "corporateness" and Extreme Seriousness connotations of
fax, and the sexy fun vibe for dating, and mixing them... Sort of funny, if
you asked me. I guess I'm not that eager on dating women who use faxes, _in
2012, for dating_. Total turn-off.

Now, first thing I thought was, this could be some app in which the user
writes something, or draws something, scans it and it goes to a random's user
printer. That's cool like ChatRoulette. It has all its penis-in-your-face
potential, and all its ephimerous-beauty potential at the same time. I was
dissapointed :(

Oh, and the SSL certificate is wrong. It's associated to a *.herokuapp.com .
Please fix it.

~~~
stdbrouw
Let it percolate in your mind for another half a minute. Everything will
become obvious.

~~~
twfarland
I'm utterly convinced that some people are missing the part of their brain
that detects satire.

~~~
DanBC
Well, yes. A lot of those people are going to be on HN as well. There are
people who take things very literally. (To the point that analogy and metaphor
become confusing.)

BTW: I love down to fax.

