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by ProllyInfamous 10 days ago
My primary thoughts on exiting email came after reading Paul Graham's excellent essay on email being nothing more than a to-do list that ANYBODY can add on to [†].

SPAM-rant: I personally feel that a system needs to exist/replace email... which uses some sort of low-tx-fee crypto to "cost money" for each and every email sent. The recipients could then "refund" such fees, optionally & consentually, when they've determined that sender worthy of free-contact.

Everybody else should have to pay to call/text [Ω]. Since no such system publicly exists: I opt-out.

[†] personal anxiety is my biggest reason for hating inbox-opening

[Ω] e.g: similar to postal mailings

1 comments

Oh yes, that's a good point. Email as a todo list is pretty horrible. I myself have high anxiety and just accepted I will never be able to effectively use emails in the todo list way.

I've been noodling with concepts for what I see as my ideal email client and orienting it towards "conversations" instead of "todo list" is a key aspect I want

>orienting it towards "conversations" instead of "todo list" is a key aspect I want

We probably both grew up on AOLim... which to me was a fantastic, globally-accessible solution.

Several employers over the past decades have had IRC groupchats, but it's internal-only, and not quite AIM's glorydays.

Although I imagine if instant messengers were more popular, today..: they'd be just as scammy as everything else-s become.

I got a pager and a landline [¬]. Bots haven't figured out how to interface with numeric paging systems, yet; nor have most meatsicle operators/salesmen (but it's easy to teach your friends&family). #no-apps #no-location-services #no-text

Should anybody in my contact list need to "email something," we do so while on a phonecall via a temp-burner receiving address (auto-deletes after 10 minutes).

== no email to-do list

If later somesuchbody says "did you get my email, I sent it yesterday?" I can legitimately and verifiably respond "nope."

[¬] the latter, recently; service isn't "on" yet but soon... will not have a ringer, page-only