Remark: The most efficient inbox in the world? | Hacker News Reader

Remark: The most efficient inbox in the world?

getremark.com

8 pointsJoelMarsh27 comments

Please someone. Just listen. All my email problems will be solved if you just make a plugin for Thunderbird that groups all emails (recieved and sent) according to who they're from and to. If I had cancer and the make-a-wish foundation asked me what I wanted, that's what I would ask for. That exact thunderbird plugin.

To be more exact, You know how message boards work? There's a forum which contains threads and those threads contain replies to the thread. Everytime there's a new reply in one of the threads, that thread gets bumped up to the top of that forum. Imagine that every contact you email or or every contact that emails you, is a thread, and all your emails are replies in that thread. That way everything's grouped under some kind of contact. And previous conversations are easy to find.

If there's any justice in this world, I will get my plugin one day. (That and Sony Pictures must finally release the full soundtrack to Resident Evil 2002)

Well, we're not a Thunderbird plugin, but you're getting warm. :)

If you want the plugin that bad...build it. Regarding the threads, that just sounds like it would add confusion. How do you respond to a specific email/reply in one of your threads? Also, to me, the problem in email doesn't lie in the emails you receive on a regular basis from the same people. It's all the other emails.

5 years of trying to program has resulted in nothing. I can't. I want to but I can't. I've wasted enough time trying to learn. Not everyone can be a programmer (although programmers disagree).

"How do you respond to a specific email/reply in one of your threads?"

You just reply to it, it still has a subject. It's just that in your inbox all the emails (regardless of subject) are grouped under the sender you're communicating with.

Here's what your inbox would look like:

========== INBOX ==========

Chris Norstrom >> Re: What would the inbox look like (from Chris Norstrom) 3/12/2013

               << What would the inbox look like (from you) 3/11/2013

               >> Lets meet on Sunday (from Chris Norstrom) 3/10/2013

               << Re: Good to see you again (from you) 3/9/2013

               >> Re: Good to see you again (from Chris Norstrom) 3/8/2013

               << Good to see you again (from you) 3/7/2013

Dave Weinhardt >> Re: bla bla bla this is an email subject (from Dave Weinhardt) 3/6/02013

Amy Pohlerofsky << Mario Party gathering Friday, don't invite Tom. (from You) 3/5/2013

I have a similar idea for managing contacts where the contact is "bumped" up whenever any type of communication is made (send/receive phone calls, emails, SMS's, etc)

Less important contacts naturally settle to the bottom. You can scan the list once in a while for people you've neglected but wish to keep in touch with.

Interestingly, KakaoTalk, a popular messaging app in Korea, organizes your chat rooms like this and I use it much more than the alphabetical list of contacts.

YES! This.

My make-a-wish request would be some standard protocol to translate threaded discussions such as from here and Reddit into an NNTP feed. Back in my early 90s college days, I could rip through an amazing amount of content in a short amount of time. The half-dozen or so keys in trn or tnn, combined with thread filters, made this kind of content consumption so incredibly efficient that I sorely miss an interface today.

Yet another take on email - and how to use it properly. It says my inbox will be 66% more efficient - but I don't know what that means exactly. I am a heavy user of gmail labels to organize my email - and I am sad that mailboxapp.com does not support gmail labels yet.

How is your product going to work exactly? - Are you going to put labels on emails automatically? - Delete emails automatically? - Archive emails automatically?

Thanks for doing the test! And for explaining a bit about how you use email, that's helpful.

We won't do any of those things, actually. Our inbox/app is structured much differently and your own natural behavior informs the algorithm (no manual teaching/rules required).

Everything is controllable if you want to control it, but it's the other side that's interesting: if you want to be lazy and let things pile up, Remark will do the housekeeping and make sure you don't miss anything.

Your labels will be safe, and we will never delete anything automatically.

This is a classic product failure. I went to your page and don't know what problem you're solving of mine. I've adopted a zero-inbox policy for the last several years. What problem are you solving?

Not trying to be a d*, just providing feedback, if you changed your landing page to identify the problem you're solving, it would make more sense. If it's a problem I'm unaware of, you need to convince me that this is a problem I should be worried about.

In the 15s I spent on your site, I couldn't figure out what you guys do, other than you're going to do something with my email (my most personal, prized possession on the internet).

Thanks for the feedback, (I don't think you're a d*) and you're basically right. This site, though, isn't actually a product (yet). It's a test, to prove our inbox concept. Like glorified customer research, in a good way.

That being said, maybe we could have been more explanatory. It's hard to know where to land for a "teaser" sort of thing. We'll think of you when we make the "real" product site later. ;)

Thanks again!

I am one of the founders of Remark and would love your feedback! I would really love to hear your result and a description of how you handle email!

I did it (still no results), but please send me an email telling me when your app "remove itself" from my gmail account with a link to where I can check this myself (and cancel it myself if you didn't). This would make me trust you more. I would NEVER have it tested in the beginning if I hadn't see it upvoted here in HN. Actually, I realized now that don't even know where to go to manage this gmail apps.

You manage them in your Google Account under Security, Connected applications and sites

Thanks. :)

drunkenfly beat me to it. Thanks. :) As far as I know we revoke our own access when the test is complete (although that doesn't come with an automatic notification. When you get the email with your results, you're welcome to check, and if it isn't revoked, please let me know: foundersATgetremark.com.

I have no idea what Remark actually does. What does an efficient inbox mean? What will clicking "Test your inbox" do?

In the footer of the site (the FAQ type text) we explain a bit, but all we do is count things from your inbox. The actual content of messages or attachments is never downloaded (just the headers and such), and we only have read-only access for a short period of time.

Nothing is re-organized or moved or labeled or anything like that.

Fair enough, but the first FAQ is "What is Remark?" and the answer is "Right now, Remark is a work-in-progress."

I admit that I stopped reading after that. Think about it -- why would I keep reading? If the service doesn't answer such a simple, critical question (what are you?), then there's nothing to compel me to keep trying to find the answer.

The next sentence is: "...it will be a downloadable email app for desktop and mobile."

That still tells me absolutely nothing about the product!!!

Well, your position on privacy is good and all and I appreciate it. But what does it do? I know the test counts my emails, contacts and all, but what does it do to make it more efficient?

I follow the "inbox zero" dogma, and as such my inbox was void of any email as I took the test. Yet, it claims it'll make it 50% more efficient. What does it mean? Will I have 50% fewer email in my zero-email inbox? Or is "inbox" a term for "all my emails"? Hence, is 50% more efficient 50% fewer email? 50% fewer disk size? I'm lost.

It's great to be so talkative about the respect of privacy and such, but at least be as talkative when it comes to what your product does. And if you're merely crying to create buzz, well it wasn't clear at first sight and I'm not sure I'll ever come back on this page later. I'm not hooked 'cause I don't know what it does better.

That's fair, and I am glad we're on the same page about privacy. It's important to us, but also hard as hell to communicate that we're not trying to steal or read your stuff. :)

As far as the product... the efficiency is due in part to the behavioral algorithm and in part to the information architecture of the app itself.

The archive and inbox are literally structured in a way that makes it easier and faster to get to everything, find old attachments, search for content, and so on. A deeper explanation of that part is gonna get long without some visuals, so if I may, let's leave it there and we'll post more info when we can (remember that we're only proving our concept with this site).

The behavioral algorithm basically treats everything you do in email as information about what and who is important, and we use that to make sure that important stuff rises to the top, conversations are threaded in a useful way, and so on. As far as I know, there isn't another app that does it like that.

For now (until we get a little further and create some more explanatory materials) hopefully that satisfies your question.

It does indeed. Thank you.

I guess the page could have been a little more teaser-y, so that I'm not lost into thinking it was closer from release than it is. :)

I wish you well!

?? what did I just authorise ?? Sorry.. I have no idea what you are doing with my data and I regretted almost immediately the "grant permission" thing when it just said "Thanks ! You are now going to be 99% more efficient !". I couldn't find the revoke access button fast enough !

WOW, the response is huge right now! We appreciate your patience if the test takes a while (your results will be emailed to you, so you don't have to wait).

"Remark prioritizes, pre-sorts and cleans your inbox automatically."

Good luck with that, I will stick with my email as it is.

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