Hacker News Reader

Comment by jonalmeida | Hacker News Reader

This isn't a new Show HN since you've posted this before[1] with the domain postacard.io. What's changed since then?

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12427505

It's actually been completely rewritten from the original project. This time it includes NLP for address parsing (this was a huge issue with the first version and didnt work properly internationally). It also includes a Messenger bot integration to avoid the international fees with SMS.

Well, there is a penny difference in the title. A holiday discount?

Yeah, I'm playing with the pricing model. As a side project, I'd like it to at least break even. The NLP required for parsing addresses uses quite a bit of memory, so this increases the monthly costs to keep it online. Also, sending a postcard outside of the US costs substantially more than within the US. I wanted to find a good pricing structure that's flat, regardless of where the postcard is going.

There's room to reduce these costs as more people use the service. As long as I'm breaking even on servers I'll be happy :).

Sorry if you answered this somewhere else. But does it use LOB's API to send the postcard?

I wonder if there is data/logic on what would be the optimal locations (countries/cities/towns) where it is cheapest and fastest to send a postcard to that country or neighboring countries.

Do you seriously need a discount on something that costs $2.99?

Actually, 4th time- here are two more submission from same user.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13272490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13275228

Guilty as charged, with the stories.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com