01
Hold the unfamiliar.
When an unknown sender emails you, the gateway archives their message and labels it in_review. People you already know and senders on your whitelist pass through.
Your inbox. Your attention.
Make senders
mean send.
Your time deserves more than a mass mailing list. Ask unfamiliar senders for a small payment before their email reaches your inbox.
Works with Gmail. Keep your address. Start with your email.
A little space to breathe
Your inbox Protected
THE ATTENTION GATEWAY
A small signal of intent.
1 token to reach your inbox.
Trusted people flow through. New people show intent.
Attention
is valuable.
is valuable.
Small friction.Clearer intent.More space for you.
The inbox equation is broken
Sending takes a second.
Attention takes you.
AI can write a thousand convincing emails in the time it takes you to read one. Creating another message costs almost nothing. Deciding whether it matters still costs your time.
Filters try to recognize the noise after it arrives. Pay Attention changes the invitation: an unfamiliar sender makes a small commitment first. Thoughtful outreach has a way in. Indiscriminate outreach becomes less attractive.
A gateway, not another inbox
Three steps.
A better reason to send.
Keep using Gmail. Pay Attention asks new senders to demonstrate that reaching you matters.
02
Ask for a little intent.
An automatic reply gives the sender a payment link. The default delivery fee is one token, worth one cent. A small choice that makes sending less automatic.
03
Welcome the committed.
Once paid, the message returns to your inbox on the next gateway check. Your dashboard keeps the hold, payment, and balance in one place.
Attention is the point. Tokens stay inside Pay Attention; recipients cannot cash them out. Protecting your inbox should not become a reason to attract more spam.
Your Gmail, with a front door
Set up your
attention gateway.
A small Google Apps Script runs in your own Google account. Follow these four steps to get your auto responder working.
01
Sign in with your email.
Use the Gmail address you want to protect. Open the login link in your email to access your dashboard. No password to remember.
The same account works when you send and receive.
02
Download your Gmail script.
From your dashboard, choose Download Gmail script. The file is personalized for your account. Keep it private.
Your whitelist, held messages, payments, and tokens in one view.
03
Paste it into Apps Script.
Open Google Apps Script with the same Google account. Create a New project, replace the contents of Code.gs with your downloaded script, and save.
Illustrated Apps Script guide. Google's interface may vary.
04
Authorize. Then automate.
Select payAttentionTick and click Run. Review and grant the Google permissions. Then run createTimeDrivenTrigger once to check your inbox every five minutes.
Illustrated Apps Script guide. Run the trigger setup only once.
You are ready. Add trusted addresses or domains to your whitelist. New unfamiliar messages will receive your payment reply and wait under in_review. To pause the gateway, delete its trigger in Apps Script.
Coming soon
Your rules. A little more intelligence.
Personal AI filtering is in the works. For now, your gateway uses trusted senders and the attention fee. AI filtering is disabled.
Less noise. More intention.
Your attention is finite.
Let your inbox reflect that.
Set up Pay Attention A small barrier at the source of unsolicited email.