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Comment by mbesto | Hacker News Reader

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mbesto

> Isn't email an outdated medium though?

Outdated in what sense?

> I get a lot of email, and messages from family and friends might not get seen for 6 hours (or more).

Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

> The better comparison here is a text message, but they can still get lost in the noise too.

How are you reducing the noise? Imagine now, I have an e-mail client, a SMS client, a todo app, a txt app, 10 gaming apps that all have notifications for me to "do something", how is the issue being solved? My noise is still the same, all I've done is created (yet) another beacon for displaying signals.

ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.

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> Outdated in what sense?

Outdated in that it's not targeted. I get all kinds of things into my inbox (I use filters too, but filtered things generally get forgotten about), emails from family, friends, newsletters, alerts when people reply to me on HN. My inbox is like my in tray, a list of things to work on

> Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

Email's distracting, I try and keep it closed as much as possible whilst I'm working.

> How are you reducing the noise?

We're not reducing the noise, we're just turning it into a very specific sound that you recognise. The idea is that if Por Favor pings, you should probably look at it. If a gaming app pings, you can ignore it and look at it later. We're trying to make sure you see things that you need to see, when you need to see them.

> ps - Hopefully, I'm not detracting you from your hard work. Trying to provide some honest feedback here that I'm hoping will help you.

Not at all! It's all very useful. We literally had the idea, threw a site online and posted it on here for feedback. We don't even know if the idea's gonna work yet. We (my partner and I) have a use case for it, but we were wondering if anyone else did too.

Why doesn't it get seen for 6 hours?

Many people don't check their email regularly. I only check my personal email once a day in the evening. If I'm busy or on vacation it can often go several days between me checking my email.

That being said, I agree that I don't see what this adds. I already have email, SMS and phone calls. If you need an answer within a couple of days, email me. If you need an answer within a couple hours, text me. If you need an answer within a couple of minutes, call me. I don't really see where something else can fit in.

It takes away the hassle of remembering to do things. If you call me at 3pm asking me to put the oven on at 4pm, either I 'm busy working and forget or you have to call me at 3:50pm to remind me again. Por Favor automates the reminder step.

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