I've been using Circa for the past few months (maybe even up to a year?), and I much prefer it to email.
I've come to associate email with either personal correspondence, technical support, or spam.
The thing about a website or an app is that it's segmented. I have to actively decide, "Now's the time for this activity" instead of an email deciding for me.
Also, I didn't know theSkimm was a young-women's thing. My girlfriend (a young woman) gets it, but I didn't think it was specifically "for" her.
The thing about a website or an app is that it's segmented. I have to actively decide, "Now's the time for this activity" instead of an email deciding for me.
That's what filters and labels are for. I follow a few medium-traffic mailing lists, but I don't let them flood my Inbox, they go straight to the label which I can peruse later.
Nowadays even "noobs" are using them, thanks to Gmail recent tabbed interface. We just need a new for News and this service would fit right in.
Filters and labels do nothing for this problem at all, because the email still either says, "I'm here, look at me" in some way, or it doesn't, and is entirely forgotten.
The solution would be to incorporate checking the folder every time I want to read some news, which involves way more gestures/taps and intent than if I want to read news in Circa (one tap).
Yes, I was thinking about checking the label when you want to read the news. I'm not criticizing your approach if it works for you, I'm just saying that email doesn't have to be pre-emptive and force an activity upon you; you can shape it.
The solution would be to incorporate checking the folder every time I want to read some news, which involves way more gestures/taps and intent than if I want to read news in Circa (one tap).
Well, I guess it depends on your OS/email client. Gmail on Android has a widget for opening a specific label directly from the home screen, so it would be just one tap as well.
I use K-9, which I don't think has the same feature, but two taps (open client, click on folder) is good enough for me :)
I'm usually more frustrated by the restrictions imposed by apps. Can't copy-paste, can't adjust text size, can't export the list of stories read or archive them, can't apply my own filters, can't use it on my desktop, etc.
For example, I can't use Circa, due to [1]. With email, this kind of stupid restrictions just don't exist. Though I agree that email is not the best platform for this activity: I prefer RSS/Atom.
Yes emails tend to be associated with all the bad things. Usually though if a user subscribe and expects it everyday, it'll unlikely get marked as spam / unsubscribe
And yeah that's their target market. I forgot where I read this but they "aim to change the way young female professionals read the news". Don't quote me on that though.
Yeah, what is it that makes theSkimm specifically for young women? The woman in the logo? I read theSkimm and I'm a young woman, but my impression is that it's written for the busy general public.
How is "young women" more niche a target than male techies or, say, ops developers?
I've come to associate email with either personal correspondence, technical support, or spam.
The thing about a website or an app is that it's segmented. I have to actively decide, "Now's the time for this activity" instead of an email deciding for me.
Also, I didn't know theSkimm was a young-women's thing. My girlfriend (a young woman) gets it, but I didn't think it was specifically "for" her.