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Comment by teddyuk | Hacker News Reader

He just comes across as an arsehole, this sort of nonsense has stopped me listening to whatever else he has to say.

What we all do with spam is ignore it.

No, he doesn’t, he comes across as someone who is helping by trying to react to a serious problem in a way that, if we all did it, might go some way to solving it. I wish everyone would/could do something like this.

If you send me an unsolicited email you/your company goes on an avoid list and it would take a very strong, very personal recommendation for me to work with you after that.

Unsolicited email is targeted (or in some cases, pretty untargeted) advertising. It’s unprofessional, unpleasant and a hassle, and should be called out and heavily penalised whenever possible.

if we all did it, might go some way to solving it

That's kind of the history of all the problems facing humanity, isn't it? If we could work together, we would solve all of them. But we don't. We have this complicated mixture of self-interested behaviour and collective policing via laws and social norms but it always seems like self-interested behaviour wins out in the end. Dedicated individuals will always find the cracks in the dam.

And how would I go about contacting you in a professional, pleasant and unhassling way if I genuinely have good reason to reach out and we have no prior connection?

What I hear from your conclusion is "screw anyone who isn't already in my network", and that sounds... sad?

If you "genuinely have good reason to reach out and we have no prior connection", that's fine and 99% of folks aren't going to consider that spam.

Ultimately, it really comes down to the intent.

What would a genuinely good reason even be?

If only people with a genuinely good reason made contact it’d be a lot easier. If someone has a such a reason then they ought to be able to explain it well enough in an email, and given that the process of avoidance isn’t automated, it’s more than likely going to get seen.

Collaborations and discussions are always welcome and it’s not hard to get in touch with me, it’s generally very easy to separate this from the spam. Twitter is a better place than email to kick off a non-spammy relationship with someone you don’t know.

That said, half of the people who send this spam think they have a genuinely good reason and I have no doubt some of them even believe it. 99% of the time there isn’t a good reason, they are after something. “I saw you do after X and we provide Y which is necessary for X” is not a good reason. For instance, even if I’m hiring, unsolicited contact from recruiters who think they can fill that role is entirely unwelcome, etc.

I can count on one hand the number of fruitful outcomes from completely cold contact that I’ve experienced in >15 years.

I've been thinking about this and my conclusion is that paying me money for my time is a good way. If you really have a good reason, it should be worth for you to pay for my time. Price can be decided through bidding, if more people want my time.

I think this is a fair way to go about the problem of being unable to reply to a few million emails every single day, if you're really famous.

If someone isn't willing to put their money where their mouth is, then they can't have a genuinely good reason to reach out to me, I figure.

> What we all do with spam is ignore it.

There are two kinds of people: those who ignore it and those who fight it. The former can afford it because of the efforts of the latter.

Lets fight the good fight for freedom from spam, or just use your spam folder.

And your spam folder is a result of those who have fought it.

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