My Response to Shoeboxed.com

Someone at Shoeboxed.com has written the strangest review of My Receipts.

I attempted to respond to the Shoeboxed article on their site using the "Comments" feature on their blog, but I guess my comment was not approved.

Shoeboxed is one of many companies offering receipt management solutions. NeatReceipts is probably the best known maker of this type of product, though it differs from Shoeboxed in many ways.

With no disrespect to either NeatReceipts of Shoeboxed, I have no use for such a service. This is why the Shoeboxed article about My Receipts is so strange. It seems to portray me as a competitor or unworthy participant in the world of receipts management.

I would think that even a casual glance at My Receipts would reveal that the project is not an effort to organize or catalog my expenses. For lack of a less pretentious description I guess we could call it an art project.

My reasons for continuing the receipts project all these years are mine and mine alone. I feel no need to explain myself. I have avoided any public explanation partly because people do "get it," but also because I believe artists' attempts to voluntarily explain themselves is usually self-serving.

At any rate, if a casual glance at My Receipts does not convey the spirit of the project then a not-so-casual glance at the rest of my web sites might reveal a few clues: Randomness, as I have said many time and in many places, is everything to me. Without randomness and without chaos of ideas there is nothing.

I take issue with Shoeboxed.com's assertion that My Receipts site makes "a strong case for the existence of a site such as Shoeboxed."

This statement lacks merit as my site exists for reasons entirely different from those of Shoeboxed. Using me as an example does not validate their business plan or accomplish anything productive, and I can not help but be a little piqued at being laid out to dry in this preposterously misguided manner.

Someone at Shoeboxed claims:

"... the security and organization are lacking with Thomas’ method."

This is, simply, like comparing apples to oranges. "Security" has a different meaning in the context of my project, and is a marginal priority. "Organization" was, is, and never will be part of the spirit of this project.

"At the same time, with a personal and secure account, Thomas would not have to put all his receipts on display to everyone."

I do not "have to put all [my] receipts on display to everyone." There is no compromise occurring here. In fact that statement in particular is so puzzling to me that I will not attempt a meaningful comment.

"Shoeboxed can work for him ..."

No. It can not.

Read the whole review here and make up your own mind about My Receipts.