That's similar to the idea I had for combating texting spam:
- If your number is in my address book then texts are free for you
- If this is the first time you are contacting me then you pay me $1
There are probably downsides and ways this will screw up real relationships but it will certainly increase the cost of spam.
- Every contractor (plumber etc) you hire will ask you to please add them to your contact list first so that they can message you.
- After a while of half their clients not doing that and lots of fees on their end, contractors stop providing a phone number at all, asking you to please install ContractorApp to communicate with them.
I love every part of this. Not having things in writing is one of the most common tactics with bad contractors. And I miss their call backs because I have unknowns goto spam, so I have to remember to disable that feature...
Ha! Okay, I like this, I think it changes my mind on the whole thing being viable. There's probably some reason it wouldn't work in reality but the satisfaction from pressing the charge $1 option on spam would be huge.
I disagree about the we-adda-baby-itsa-boy issue. I don't see how that'd apply given that you can charge them $1 from the very first message.
There are probably downsides and ways this will screw up real relationships but it will certainly increase the cost of spam.