If You Can't See Your Folks | Hacker News Reader

If You Can't See Your Folks

ifyoucantseeyourfolks.com

31 pointsnickbaum15 comments

This is just a gut reaction, but this service does not go well with my stomach. I live 4k miles away from my parents and 9k miles away from my grandparents. I see my parents only once or twice a year. But it's a treat everytime I do.

If I were to use this service, I would have to think that my parents think they are not important enough for me too keep up regularly with. Like I'm so mad busy that I can't skype them or email with them, so I pay someone $50 to do it on behalf of me. And I'll have a database of stories stored in the cloud, instead of you know, memories in my brain.

Maybe disregard this comment, but this seems like the technical, MVP, software-eating, wrong solution to a very emotional and personal problem. How much more of human contact and relationships do we want to outsource to technology?

Related: http://vimeo.com/70534716

Hi nchuhoai, that's a fair concern, but for what it's worth, I've found the opposite happens. Several users have actually emailed me to thank me for bringing their family closer together.

StoryWorth brings up questions you don't typically ask. The next time you talk on the phone, instead of talking about what happened last week, you end up talking about your parents' high-school, or what they were like at your age.

I mean, ideally we'd all take the time to sit down with our parents and a voice recorder, but that rarely happens. If StoryWorth can get you started down that path, then next time you see them in person, you'll have some really interesting things to talk about.

[stylistic edit]

I had the same gut reaction. It feels like the person who knows their significant other's personal assistant better than the SO themselves.

What's the alternative? To just not do it at all?

Skype and email yourself. If you don't have the time to do that, likely you dont care enough (you as in some person, not you you)

Agreed, you should absolutely call your parents (I call mine about once a week). StoryWorth isn't meant to substitute for a relationship.

I don't think it's an either/or though. One important part of StoryWorth is that these stories are saved for future generations. For example, my paternal grandmother died before I was born, and I would love to be able to read her stories today.

> One important part of StoryWorth is that these stories are saved for future generations.

Is this actually promised anywhere on the site? What happens if you stop paying the $49/year? What happens if they go out of business?

Great question. You can download all your stories at any time (pdf and mp3), so you're never locked in. I spell this out at www.storyworth.com/privacy.

These stories are really important to people, so it's really important to me that people don't lose access to them.

You should probably let people know up front that it's a $49/yr paid service after 30 days.

Hi chasb, thanks for the feedback. The two links in the header are 'pricing' and 'privacy', because those are the two questions that come up most often.

What I've found is that if people sign up (a) either their parents start writing stories, in which case the price is not an issue or (b) their parents don't write stories, in which case they can just let the trial expire. Because of this, I'm optimizing for trial sign-ups so people can judge the value for themselves.

Ok. Interesting. You guys were YC W11, right? What happened between 2011 and April, and how have things been going since April?

Some easy way to capture a written reply would be good too. Voice is personal; email not as much. Handwriting is personal for me. Maybe it's a smart phone app that makes it simple to take a picture of a letter or note card. Maybe it makes sense to suggest replying on a 3x5 card or something (instead of a a full sheet of paper) and maybe that simplifies the photo issue. The digital record is captured and then a physical one can be kept. It can also be extended to have your parents take a picture of a picture of their favorite memory

Hi joebo, I like these ideas. In fact, one of my friends uses a service called Presto that prints out the question emails for his grandmother, and she answers on the back and mails them to him!

I still think you get a lot of the personality through the writing, and people can also add pictures when they reply. Another thing I'm thinking about is encouraging people to record voice-versions of the stories they write in text, so you have both (and of course transcription for the other direction)

This would be a nice way to collect bank security questions.

Excellent service, great way to get to know your folks better.

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