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Comment by nchuhoai | Hacker News Reader

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

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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.

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