8 ms·

Actually, it wasn't unreasonable. If the guy caused the damage while picking up a sonde, to know who's sonde it was would help identify the culprit.

by ikidd 29d ago

dlgeek 29d ago
Or maybe the sonde continued transmitting and they have data on where the guy took it which would help ID him.
iamnothere 29d ago
Fair, I guess, I just can’t imagine what it’s like getting all these weird requests and demands for a hobby project. Hopefully the author is more entertained than I would be.
- lq9AJ8yrfs 29d ago
  Not a lawyer but as a citizen I generally understand that the courts expect demands from court parties to be met. If meeting the court's (or court parties') demands costs you something you are generally entitled to charge them for it, within reason and with justification. As a hobbyist therefore putting a service offering page together with your preferred rate probably helps establish the nature and parameters of any such service. Bill rates / piece rates, especially, and setting up bounds of what is reasonable to expect, in proportion to your gig and your intended effort level. Quantity and price tiers, turnaround times, what will be included in the deliverable, how it will be delivered, SLAs, etc. Whatever defines your service, esp as it relates to the types of requests you end up getting.
  - iamnothere 29d ago
    If I start listing prices, I may need to ensure that I have a business entity set up for tax purposes and to guard against liability. Especially if I’m listing SLAs. This is not a hobby, it’s a job. This is why all my hobbies are dark web projects, these days.
    - Nextgrid 28d ago
      You only need to have a business entity (which, to be fair, can be yourself, although liability concerns apply) once you're about to actually enter into a contract with someone. Merely listing prices (without an associated automated payment form which could imply a contract was en force upon successful payment) doesn't actually force you to do business with anyone. It would however 1) deter requests for unpaid work by giving them an idea of what it would cost to get what they're looking for and 2) give you an idea of the demand for said services and could give you a warm lead which you can then choose to pursue formally by getting the necessary business structure, legal/business advice, etc.
      - JoshTriplett 28d ago
        > Merely listing prices (without an associated automated payment form which could imply a contract was en force upon successful payment) doesn't actually force you to do business with anyone. In some cases it could. If you want to say "we categorically don't do X for ethical reasons", that can sometimes be more easily defensible in a way that "we have a standard price for doing this, but we don't want to do it for you in particular" may be harder to defend. (Even though I think both should always be possible.)
myself248 28d ago
Or if they'd been foolish enough to log the recovery on sondehub itself, which some of us do frequently (but not after causing property damage!).
walrus01 28d ago
Responding to an email like that has basically no possible benefits for the person running the balloon tracking website, but it does introduce the possibility of some fool paying their lawyer to add you as a respondent in a lawsuit. Costing you many thousands of dollars at minimum in legal fees and travel even if you get the court to remove you from the case. Never respond to something like that unless your lawyer, whom you pay has instructed you to. A person like that sending inquiries to website/API operators demanding data, ignore it. Always. Continue to ignore it until a process server actually shows up on your doorstep and serves you, in which case you know they're at least moderately serious, and then you need to engage your own counsel to deal with it.
- Rovanion 28d ago
  This is such an USA-citizen thing to write. Doing the right thing is never even considered.
  - walrus01 28d ago
    It's all fun and games until you've seen very real concrete examples of people who've spent from $5000 to $100,000 defending themselves from frivolous lawsuits. Never doubt for a moment the absurd nature of US vehicle crash related and insurance industry adjacent litigators.

Actually, it wasn't unreasonable. If the guy caused the damage while picking up a sonde, to know who's sonde it was would help identify the culprit.

by ikidd 29d ago

Actually, it wasn't unreasonable. If the guy caused the damage while picking up a sonde, to know who's sonde it was would help identify the culprit.

dlgeek 29d ago

Or maybe the sonde continued transmitting and they have data on where the guy took it which would help ID him.

iamnothere 29d ago

Fair, I guess, I just can’t imagine what it’s like getting all these weird requests and demands for a hobby project. Hopefully the author is more entertained than I would be.

lq9AJ8yrfs 29d ago
Not a lawyer but as a citizen I generally understand that the courts expect demands from court parties to be met. If meeting the court's (or court parties') demands costs you something you are generally entitled to charge them for it, within reason and with justification. As a hobbyist therefore putting a service offering page together with your preferred rate probably helps establish the nature and parameters of any such service. Bill rates / piece rates, especially, and setting up bounds of what is reasonable to expect, in proportion to your gig and your intended effort level. Quantity and price tiers, turnaround times, what will be included in the deliverable, how it will be delivered, SLAs, etc. Whatever defines your service, esp as it relates to the types of requests you end up getting.
- iamnothere 29d ago
  If I start listing prices, I may need to ensure that I have a business entity set up for tax purposes and to guard against liability. Especially if I’m listing SLAs. This is not a hobby, it’s a job. This is why all my hobbies are dark web projects, these days.
  - Nextgrid 28d ago
    You only need to have a business entity (which, to be fair, can be yourself, although liability concerns apply) once you're about to actually enter into a contract with someone. Merely listing prices (without an associated automated payment form which could imply a contract was en force upon successful payment) doesn't actually force you to do business with anyone. It would however 1) deter requests for unpaid work by giving them an idea of what it would cost to get what they're looking for and 2) give you an idea of the demand for said services and could give you a warm lead which you can then choose to pursue formally by getting the necessary business structure, legal/business advice, etc.
    - JoshTriplett 28d ago
      > Merely listing prices (without an associated automated payment form which could imply a contract was en force upon successful payment) doesn't actually force you to do business with anyone. In some cases it could. If you want to say "we categorically don't do X for ethical reasons", that can sometimes be more easily defensible in a way that "we have a standard price for doing this, but we don't want to do it for you in particular" may be harder to defend. (Even though I think both should always be possible.)

myself248 28d ago

Or if they'd been foolish enough to log the recovery on sondehub itself, which some of us do frequently (but not after causing property damage!).

walrus01 28d ago

Responding to an email like that has basically no possible benefits for the person running the balloon tracking website, but it does introduce the possibility of some fool paying their lawyer to add you as a respondent in a lawsuit. Costing you many thousands of dollars at minimum in legal fees and travel even if you get the court to remove you from the case. Never respond to something like that unless your lawyer, whom you pay has instructed you to. A person like that sending inquiries to website/API operators demanding data, ignore it. Always. Continue to ignore it until a process server actually shows up on your doorstep and serves you, in which case you know they're at least moderately serious, and then you need to engage your own counsel to deal with it.

Rovanion 28d ago
This is such an USA-citizen thing to write. Doing the right thing is never even considered.
- walrus01 28d ago
  It's all fun and games until you've seen very real concrete examples of people who've spent from $5000 to $100,000 defending themselves from frivolous lawsuits. Never doubt for a moment the absurd nature of US vehicle crash related and insurance industry adjacent litigators.