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You guys need to build more stupid shit

25 points gnarbarian | 5 comments | 03 Nov 25 03:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.718s | source

You guys are way to serious around here. Building stupid pointless shit is fun and it will teach you a lot.
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WarOnPrivacy ◴[03 Nov 25 04:22 UTC] No.45795855[source]▶
I once built an obit scraper to build a db of local recent decedents. It was just to ease some work I was doing for a probate attorney.

I eventually set it to compare against a church roster. It emailed the leadership on matches and they'd follow up to see if it was the same person.

Sometimes they got notified earlier than they would have otherwise. But there were a few matches every year that would have flown under the radar (snowbirds or less active). It allowed leaders to make assistance and support available to the family.

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1. aeonfox ◴[03 Nov 25 04:26 UTC] No.45795872[source]▶
Not stupid or pointless, just difficult (and kinda evil) to monetise. But perhaps that counts as stupid and pointless here?
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2. WarOnPrivacy ◴[03 Nov 25 04:27 UTC] No.45795880[source]▶
It wasn't too hard. Probate firms scan obits to look for their own clients. This made that task less tedious.
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3. aeonfox ◴[03 Nov 25 04:39 UTC] No.45795940[source]▶
'Difficult to monetise' is what I said. But maybe I'm wrong about that.
4. pleasedontman ◴[03 Nov 25 06:02 UTC] No.45796273[source]▶
Not that difficult to monetise, dead people are not known for calling the cops for burglary and funeral homes, estate lawyers etc would pay for leads.

Given the audience on hacker news it's not even the worst thing people here do for cash because it's only one or so victim at a time instead of hyperscale. Old school artisan crime.

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5. aeonfox ◴[03 Nov 25 07:34 UTC] No.45796691[source]▶
IIUC it's specifically for notifying the clergy, which would be a little sketchy to monetise. But the OP did say that probate firms already do this, so I'm guessing it's already a crowded market, which might make it difficult to monetise for other markets.