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by aeonfox 221 days ago
Not stupid or pointless, just difficult (and kinda evil) to monetise. But perhaps that counts as stupid and pointless here?
2 comments

It wasn't too hard. Probate firms scan obits to look for their own clients. This made that task less tedious.
'Difficult to monetise' is what I said. But maybe I'm wrong about that.
> 'Difficult to monetise' is what I said.

Sorry for misunderstanding. I could definitely sell it to local probate attorneys. I haven't because my coding is too weak for any kind of finished product. And because the data source is obit scraping, which isn't the best base upon which to build.

Not that difficult to monetise, dead people are not known for calling the cops for burglary and funeral homes, estate lawyers etc would pay for leads.

Given the audience on hacker news it's not even the worst thing people here do for cash because it's only one or so victim at a time instead of hyperscale. Old school artisan crime.

IIUC it's specifically for notifying the clergy, which would be a little sketchy to monetise. But the OP did say that probate firms already do this, so I'm guessing it's already a crowded market, which might make it difficult to monetise for other markets.