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25 points gnarbarian | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | 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 ◴[] 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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aeonfox ◴[] 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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WarOnPrivacy ◴[] 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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1. aeonfox ◴[] No.45795940[source]
'Difficult to monetise' is what I said. But maybe I'm wrong about that.