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I just left 200 fake parking tickets at YC Demo Day...
- colmvp 14y agohttp://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/ http://picturesofpeoplescanningqrcodes.tumblr.com/
- stfu 14y agoThis is always relevant! I can't count the number of times I have shown this url to people discussing QR codes. And I am still waiting for the shiny day I find some creature "in the wild" conducting a QR code scan.
- stephengillie 14y agoThe "process flow" of someone scanning a QR code is longer than taking a photo, and the expectation is to reach a website.
- Monotoko 14y agoI find QR codes useful for getting private keys for my server onto my phone, Google two-factor uses them for the same reason. I might be an edge case, but yeah.. :)
- fudged71 14y agoShort URL > QR
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- jhuckestein 14y agoThe joke is pretty good but it's unfortunate that the startup (Tripl - discover the world through your friends beautiful travel stories) has nothing to do with the ticket. Seems like it would work better for AngelList or some other company.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Xcelerate 14y agoI must admit -- it's an ingenious way to pitch your company.
- antr 14y agosuperb hack. any leads? would be great if you could follow up with any interesting stories that came out of this.
- Axsuul 14y agoHaha pretty creative. You should scale this up to the entire city of Mountain View!
- elq 14y agoNo.
- vnorby 14y agoIt's a funny, well-executed idea, but issuing official-looking city documents with "City of Mountain View" as the header and all of your identifying information is a great way to get written up by the police department.
- protomyth 14y agoI would seriously caution people against making it a close copy (particularly of money) of an official document. Depending on the situation, there are state and federal statues backing up the local ones. // sorry to be a killjoy
- unreal37 14y agoHow close does that actually look to a real parking ticket? It doesn't even say the word "parking" on it or mention a fine $ amount. This is just innovative guerrilla marketing.
- phogster 14y agoI think the word you're looking for is "statutes".
- protomyth 14y agoI think autocorrect felt otherwise :( I really don't get the "word I typed is in the dictionary, but autocorrect thinks it found something better" use case.
- dmor 14y agoOh man, this is either going end very well or very badly - there is no middle ground.
- PythonDeveloper 14y agoInteresting idea, and I hope it works out for you! Sadly, it's almost certainly against municipal code. All it takes is one jerk to make a smart street team effort go bad by complaining to the police or mayor.
- gergles 14y agoHow is someone being a 'jerk' for reporting someone for littering and impersonating the police?
- joshlegs 14y agoI don't know that 'impersonating' would really be a good description here. The rest of the 'ticket' makes things pretty clear that it is not an official communique of the city's.
- PythonDeveloper 14y agoWell, placing papers on cars is legal in most cities, and is not littering unless the recipient (or weather) places it on the ground after it's been placed on the car. All one has to do is discard it. To go the extra mile to trudge down to the police station or Mayor's office and make a stink about it appearing to be a ticket would indeed make the person a vindictive jerk. Now, as an aside, the mindset of one who sees a "ticket" on their car from a distance is probably not conducive to a positive response to the pitch. The fact that the poster here clearly calculated the weight of his actions versus the impact of the preceding event the on the attendee was what I thought was interesting. It's a calculated risk, and one or two pings of interest is clearly worth the possible fine. Again, in my opinion.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- raverbashing 14y agoI just want to say something: NOBODY CARES ABOUT QR CODES Yeah, I can go to tripl.com or whatever, also add your twitter/fb/G+ page otherwise you'll just look like some bozo stuck in Web 1.0 (contact by phone?!)
- cheald 14y agoDo you not have a smartphone? They're a very common way to install apps. Heck, I sometimes scan QR codes right off my monitor.
- amateurguru 14y agosaid no one... ever.
- potatolicious 14y agoI've been in continuous ownership of at least one smartphone since the iPhone 1. I have yet to scan a QR code "in the wild" (i.e., while not testing software that's QR-code related). I'm willing to bet I can tap the install button for a given app faster than you can scan the equivalent QR code and hit install. The challenge is for iOS. The workflow for scanning and actioning on a QR code is tediously slow. Unlock your phone. Page over a few times (because let's be honest, QR code scanner is not getting front-page placement on my home screen), open the app. Wait for it to initialize. Hold over QR code. Nope, closer/further. Ah there we go. Bam. Now tap on something to visit site. Wait for site to load. Oh wait, it's a redirect to the App Store. Wait for App Store to load... Sweet God. A sufficiently short and easy to spell URL can be entered much, much, much faster than all of the above. If it's app-related, a sufficiently short and easy to spell app name will convert me faster than a QR code any day of the week.
- lancewiggs 14y agoThere are plenty of effective scanner apps are out there. The one I use snaps the image almost instantly and away you go. It's not something that I use much, but it works when I need it. And yes - why not have a visible url as well.
- imadrin 14y agohacker news just jumped the shark. peace dudes.
- earbitscom 14y agoThis is the next Obama-Os. It might be unappreciated by some, but you definitely just got looked at by some investors.
- kurtvarner 14y agoNo, this is the next Obama-O's http://hungerboard.com/ http://hungerboard.com/
- nathanb 14y agoAre windshield flyers now called "fake parking tickets" in order to sound less like spam?
- grecy 14y agoI've always wondered if there is a law you could invoke against someone messing with your vehicle like this. Is it legal for a random person (not law/parking enforcement) to pick up the wiper and but whatever garbage they want under there? Can I put my used McDonald's bag under someones wiper?
- 7402 14y ago"California Vehicle Code 10852. No person shall either individually or in association with one or more other persons, willfully damage or tamper with any vehicle or break or remove any part of a vehicle without the consent of the owner." This is an all-purpose section that, for example, makes it possible to arrest someone who is walking down the street trying the handles on car doors to see if they are unlocked - even if they don't find any that are unlocked. I guess it would probably apply if someone broke off a windshield wiper while putting a pamphlet there. If someone was sufficiently irate, it might even apply to a used McDonald's bag being put under someone's wiper.
- grecy 14y agoInteresting. Thanks.
- bdcravens 14y agoSo any pitch day attendees who didn't like this, you know what to do: while they didn't get caught in the act, pretty sure posting on HN will allow you to press charges as they've confessed to the crime. My recommendation: the judge should order the culprit to work 6 months at a non-social-media startup with a real business model.
- Dylan16807 14y agoThe word 'tamper' can seriously be applied to checking if a door is locked and causing no change whatsoever? I hate legal speak.
- tomkit 14y ago[Update] Ha! Apparently it's tripl.com and not tript.com. If you checkout his site at tript.com it's either poorly designed or people are already spamming his site under the 'Latest Travel Advice' section.
- mmalik 14y agoIt's tripl.com, not tript.com Huge difference in UI!
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mratzloff 14y agoWent to the website. It looks pretty enough but maybe you should show screenshots of what it actually does, since it's completely ambiguous unless you click on the tiny "Learn More" button at the top.
- fabricode 14y ago"You have illegally been subjected to make..." "Try the new app right now, its beautiful:" As clever as it is, it would have been far more effective if you had checked your grammar before printing two hundred flyers.
- xb95 14y agoYup, I came here to note the "its" problem. I won't try the app or look any further, because anybody who can't be bothered to use proper grammar on a publicity stunt sure as hell isn't going to release a quality product.
- matznerd 14y agoThat is not a just correlation. Someone who is creative enough to come up with something like this, probably has a creative app as well. It is nearly impossible to put out a product without any minor mistakes.
- lancewiggs 14y agoAttention to detail matters, especially when it comes to being trusted to run a business with someone else's money. Regardless - I'd be quietly reprinting and replacing.
- xb95 14y agoI don't consider this creative, personally. People have been littering my car with leaflets for many years. Every single time, I get annoyed and throw them away.
- shock3naw 14y agoThere's a huge gap in the complexity of getting your product perfect and not making grade-school level grammar errors on a 20 line 'parking ticket.'
- MikeCampo 14y agoThat's pretty harsh. I understand that it's silly to not proofread very carefully when doing a stunt like this, but language mistakes aren't a sign of incompetence.
- austenallred 14y agoPeople (both on HN and potentially IRL) or going to get a little frustrated with you for doing something like this. It's a little self-confident (maybe even pushy), will be very controversial, and walks the thin line between awesome and illegal. Which is exactly why I love it. Heck, let people call the police, go to jail for a couple of days or pay a fine, make a big ruckus about it, and make sure your company gets mentioned in all sorts of PR. Well done all the way around.
- ajasmin 14y agoI'm not sure how distributing flyers is perceived in California but I'd be really surprised if anyone ends up in jail for this. At least it shows these hackers are willing to go out and some promote their ideas.
- nessus42 14y agoPersonally, I would be rather peeved to be advertised to in this way. I wouldn't find it clever or cute--I would just find it annoying. I would not end up with a good impression of the company, and I wouldn't want to do business with it. One reason why I don't find it particularly clever, is that it's really not all that different from all the physical junk mail I receive that tries to visually mimic some sort of important government notice.
- unreal37 14y agoImagine you're an investor, and you drive to "YC demo day", and listen to 30 pitches of small startup companies, go out to your car, and see a flyer in your windshield pitching another startup company... Are you really going to be pissed at that, or is that just one more pitch (that some on here think shows hustle)? Doubtful investors are going to be pissed at this, and ... so what if they are. A couple of hundred people just visited their web site, most of them with money to invest... Like handing your CV outside a job fair instead of paying to go in. Those people are there for this very reason and won't be too upset by it. pg and team might be pissed however...
- nessus42 14y agoAll I can imagine is the sinking feeling I get when I see a ticket on my car. I start fuming about the nice meal I might have eaten for that $50. Maybe if I were a VC, I'd be rolling in so much money that I'd never think twice about $50. On the other hand, I really don't have to worry about $50 either, and yet my stomach still sinks. If I were a VC, my stomach might sink over the time I'd have to waste writing the check for the ticket and remembering where I put the stamps. Then when I noticed that it was just a "cute prank", I would resent whoever it was who was responsible for causing that sinking feeling. Why would anyone want to associate their company with that?
- jonnathanson 14y agoTo me, this would work beautifully if the startup were actually involved in solving traffic or transportation problems. Ridejoy, for instance. If Ridejoy had pulled this stunt, it would have been very cute. That said, I'll give the man his props. This is ingenuity. Perhaps it's misdirected, to an extent. Perhaps it'll backfire. But it's something different. It is clever, regardless of whether we find it enjoyable or annoying. EDIT: Minor nitpick, but I wouldn't have made so many grammatical errors in the fake ticket. They're pretty glaring. Especially for a first impression.
- meatsock 14y agowow this promotional idea combines all the fun of physical spam with the temporary terror of possibly going to jail. I understand their next promotion will involve donning ski masks and breaking in to your apartment while you shower. good work.
- jere 14y agoI think it works because the joke is clear by the second line. Any further and I bet people would be pretty pissed. I had a friend do something similar to another friend just as a prank. Everything about the "ticket" looked official except for small print at the very bottom, which gave it away. They actually bought a disposable camera, took photos of the parked car (it wasn't illegally parked), and went to develop the photos before the joke was revealed.
- mchannon 14y agoThe psychology of a car spam victim (flyer for a local garage band's performance, real parking ticket) is pretty funny to observe. When they pull it off their windshield, some will put it in their vehicle (to throw away later), some will toss it onto the ground (even if seem like they'd never litter any other time), and some will double-put it onto the adjacent vehicle (yes, even with real parking tickets). I think you just left 118 pieces of litter (blowing off the parking lot into adjacent properties) at YC Demo Day. Hopefully you'll perform some sort of "green litter offset" trash pickup to mitigate the environmental impact. Perhaps that may be assigned to you if you're unlucky. Still, some people actually do pay money for the fake v!@gra to keep spammers in business. The difference here is the other 99.99% of spam victims can't physically locate the spammer to clobber or harangue them. A 6-months-later update to recount the results of this experiment would be a real service to entrepreneurs as either an inspirational or cautionary tale.
- fusiongyro 14y ago> to mitigate the environmental impact Paper's biodegradable. This is just littering.
- DigitalSea 14y agoIt's a novel idea that can sometimes have a great effect. This sort of marketing trick has been used too many times to count. I remember a few years ago there being an ideas festival in my city and someone came up with the idea of using fake looking city issued traffic infringements like yourself that resembled authentic tickets pretty closely that said something like, "A $250 fine for not doing what do you want in life" or something along those lines. What happened next however is the organisers behind the campaign were slapped with a littering charge, warned that it's actually highly illegal to impersonate a traffic fine even if you put a disclaimer on the fake infringement ticket. I don't recall what else they were fined for besides the littering charge, but I am pretty sure it cost them a small fortune combined with the other charges. Be careful, this kind of gimmick could cost you dearly. City councils love a good opportunity to extort money out of people.
- threepipeproblm 14y agoThis would be pretty brilliant, if it didn't amount to characterizing the people you're trying to reach as stupid and/or bamboozled into wasting their time.
- jrockway 14y agoSo many grammar errors...
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- mukaiji 14y agothe thing i hate about windshield fliers is that there rarely is a trashcan nearby. Thus, being respectful of the wonderful bay area we live in, i end up folding it up and putting in my backseat or cup holder. It stays there for weeks until i go through the annoying stage of picking up all the miscellaneous stuff laying around in my car.
- yozmsn 14y agoWho didn't immediately go to tripl.com?
- pbhjpbhj 14y agoI received an email from a company that I did business with that said "urgent: [...]" as the title. The email was a sale information message. I complained to them immediately and haven't done any business with them since. Indeed this sort of dishonesty gets me to avoid as much as possible any support for a company. The message was not urgent in the least. An antisocial attempt to con people in to paying more attention to your company: Hate is a word I seldom use but it seems valid here. Presumably next up you'll be doing something like standing up in movie theatres shouting "fire!" so that people will exit past your friend holding an advertising board ...
- allardschip 14y agoPraise from me for the naughty tactic regardless of execution. If you're note sure if you did the right thing then find some consolation in the fourth point on this page: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://paulgraham.com/founders.html Let us know how it goes.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- dclowd9901 14y agoI like this idea because it's polarizing. All risky ideas are, and I think you can get at least one person behind you (appreciating that ballsiness), even at the risk of alienating everyone else. If that's all you need, go for it!
- peterwwillis 14y agoCongratulations! You're an asshole!
- bdcravens 14y agoI probably wouldn't respond this way, but: if I see you touching my car, my personal property, and you're not wearing a law enforcement uniform, it would be well within my right to respond as if you're stealing or vandalizing my car. I can't speak to SF, but in many areas, when the police respond to the physical altercation, they'd be asking me if I want to press charges.
- jack-r-abbit 14y agoAs annoying as it can be to come out and find someone has placed a flyer on my car, I very, very, seriously, highly doubt that I would NOT be charged for assault if I was to beat them up for it. But I'm willing to look at evidence in the contrary.
- bdcravens 14y agotl;dr for the flyer text: "We weren't good enough to get into YC, but want to piggyback off of pitch day. Please please please visit our site! kthxbai"