Comment by ddingus | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ddingus | Hacker News Reader

This is literally nagware!

:D

No judgement here, I just chuckled and had to say it. (I have had similar thoughts)

Good luck.

Aw shit, I should not say this, but... I once thought up a service where people would sign up to make calls and or send texts. Use cases were:

Get the word out. Politics, fund raisers, events, that sort of thing.

Public service. Warnings, availability of resources.

Deliver short message. Advertising. Think 5 seconds, or a very targeted "tweet" in the form of SMS.

Bounty, info request. Get contact info for X. Or, what system do you use? Who does hiring? Whatever. (Controversial, I know)

The distributed nature of it made blocks hard.

Users, in a short alpha simulation, liked some use cases, hated others. It was difficult to arrive at what activities were worth it.

Since you are entering this space, I will just leave it all here. (Was not for me, for personal reasons)

At least we put a smile on one person's face, jk :)

We want users to view the tool as a virtual assistant, and not as the enemy. Over time we hope to add features like daily summaries, more conversational / nlp understanding and, eventually, the ability to understand what the tasks are about so we can offer positive feedback/encouragement.

Good luck. I think it is valid and all that. No worries, and yeah, I grinned.

I understand how you feel. We don't look at it like Nagware, nor for the use cases you're describing. My co-founder and I tend to need reminders to do the things we want to do - I shared more details on our blog. Things along the line of drop this off at the post office, pick up prescriptions, don't forget <child> has basketball practice. This isn't a tool to let campaigns nag you until you get to the voting booth.

We're heading the direction of allowing people to determine who they'll accept tasks from, to keep it from being openly naggy. There's no reason I should be able to task Mark Cuban, just because I have his number (I don't).

Thanks for your feedback!

The distinction is clear. I think it's an interesting space, and again good luck.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com