Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

A messaging idea - "meta-email"

Author:Andrew Wooldridge
Posted:3/1/1999; 1:27:42 PM
Topic:A messaging idea - "meta-email"
Msg #:3427
Prev/Next:3426 / 3428

I've had this idea kicking around in my head for over a year, and I simply have to finally let it out for critical review. This forum seems to be one that might actually be able to find it to be of some interest.

The idea is simply this - you attach "meta" information to a message that behaves like a newsgroup posting - only it's not posted to any 'group'. Instead when someone wants to read messages, they present a "profile" to the server and the server sends back messages that most fit that "profile" based on the "meta" information.

Sound boring? Well here are some senarios for you -

1) You are an independant contractor looking for work. You log into your meta-email system and present your "work" profile. The server finds all messages of companies looking for work that in some way match your profile - perhaps the rates, or maybe the experience required, etc. Each message may have a high "relevance" on a different aspect of your profile. You scan these messages and find a web designer job that you like and you submit a reply to that company. They in turn visit your "public" profile and see that you have a good track record and they hire you.

2) Your car broke down this morning and you need someone to fix it asap, preferably while you are at work. You send out a message stating in the "profile" the car's status, your location, your time needs, etc. On the other side, car fixit shops have bots which periodically scan for messages of your type. The bots compare the profile you presented and auto-respond with bids to fix the car. Since you required in your post that the shop be within 5 miles, only those shops respond - instantly.

3) You want to get out some product information to customers of a certain type about your new wizzy developer tool. You create a message who's meta information would match closely the types of people who you think would like to know about your product. You send out the post, and on the other side Joe programmer, who doesn't like to get messages of this kind, would not see it when he presents his "programmer" profile for the server to send back message, because his profile has a meta tag fobidding that sort of very "general" message. On the other hand, Bill doesnt mind, and has those messages show up in faded green in his "inbox" when he presents his profile to the server.

Does this make sense? You can now send messages to "kinds" of people or things - but not in a way that spams people who arent interested. The messages never live on the client, because they are just like newsgroup posts, except that they dont live in a specific newsgroup. Users could have many kinds of "profiles" that they build, and can present any of them they like at any time. They are "anonymous" in that messages sent to them don't know their name, just that their profile matches some parameters.

You could dynamically attach "weight" to any of the params of your profile and see different messages basedon that. Perhaps you set your 'age range' to a "high" relevancy - so messages which give a lot of weight to the 'age range:25-30' parameter show up higher on your "results" (what comes back from the server when you present your profile).

I envision this as something sort of akin to a dynamically generated newsgroup that adjusts to your personal perferences. But you could do some amazing things like send messages to everyone (who's interested) who likes anime, or perhaps is into web development, or over 60, etc. etc. It allows readers to have control over what they want to read or not - because the messages aren't going to them personally,but just as "search results" from presenting some kind of profile...

does this make any sense at all? Imagine being able to message "kinds" of things or people, while still keeping the non-obtrusive format like newsgroups.

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