Member-only story
I Invented a New Kind of Newsletter
The pitch
We want to stay informed, but we get too much email. What if we reversed the way newsletters work? What if it only responded back to you as a auto-response instead of spamming your mailbox every week?
How email newsletters work today
Today, people write me at newsletter@lot23.com if they’d like to join my newsletter. Once a month, I send an email explaining some cool things I’ve been up to. I feel bad spamming people, and they feel bad that they don’t have time to read it.
But on the other hand, these people did ask to be informed about things I’m working on. So I’d also feel bad not sharing. So much guilt!
The better experience I’m going to build
Once I build this, you won’t receive anything from me. But if you do write to the newsletter, you’ll get an auto-response back. That email will contain a list of everything new since the last time you checked in.
Once I have it working, I could imagine having a lot of fun with it. Secret words. Games. Mystery!
Wait, why?
Because it’ll be fun and I’m curious what I’ll learn!
Call for help
I have my own server, but I don’t know how to write an auto-responder. If you have any suggestions or are willing to pitch in, please let me know! Otherwise, wish me luck. I’ll eventually figure it out.
