[harel]

This warm apology for a cold email is probably more effective as a marketing tool than and freezer load of emails. This is said without any intention of sarcasm. Today I learned about your project and it looks pretty cool. Good luck!

[Mo3]

I'd definitely disagree. This comes off as nothing but another marketing attempt. "Oh no, I'm so sorry I cold mailed you about MY SERVICE HERE PLEASE CLICK ON IT, so I'd like to publicly apologise on my branded blog and post it to HN, by the way here's the STORY OF MY SERVICE IT'S FANTASTIC and by the way I built THIS SERVICE TO HELP ME SPAM TOO PLEASE CLICK ON IT"

And no, I'm not trying to be cynical, it's just super damn obvious.

[devoutsalsa]

Sellers gotta sell.

[Mo3]

Hey, live and let live, but this kind of scummy "apologising" is far worse than the cold mailing itself and absolutely despicably so misleading and manipulative.

[harel]

I actually don't mind. He didn't force me to click the story, read it or click on through to the app. He didn't invite himself into my inbox. He wrote a piece "apologising" for this or that. Intent aside, it's still an interesting project and I wish him all the best. Gotta remember technical people don't really do "sales" very well. It's a hard learning curve and I appreciate the attempt.

[Mo3]

It's not like I had physical injury because of his "apology" either, but this is absolutely morally wrong behaviour even if we specifically weren't affected by it, intent matters more than anything, and instead of actually taking to heart that cold mailing (which I don't think is even nearly as bad to start off with) is unfavourable he decided to strap on several layers of even more highly questionable behaviour. I know technical people don't do sales really well, but that isn't really a good excuse for doing this instead, and I don't believe we should allow this to happen without negative criticism.

It's not like this is an effective sales tactic either because intent matters and this is a clear demonstration of lack of ethical and moral values that could directly correlate to how customers are going to be treated.

[harel]

I agree it's clearly not effective as a sales tactic, as we have a range or responses here from meh to negative, but none is "positive".

[sjroot]

The pessimist in me is pretty confident that was the true purpose of this writing.

Nonetheless, hope it pays off for them.

[unclebucknasty]

>pessimist

You underestimate yourself. I would say "cynic" (a much higher aspiration), and I'm right there with you.

Question though: if you think that was the purpose, then wouldn't that be deceptive? If so, then why do you think it is that you "hope it pays off"?