5 ms·

Show HN: Your Twitter mentions and DMs in an email on a schedule that suits you

44 points by benhowdle 10y ago

theDoug 10y ago
This page doesn't show anything, but maybe examples of what the email looks like, or how the schedule is controlled, would.
- benhowdle 10y ago
  Hey, have now added a couple of screenshots on the homepage!
  - r3bl 10y ago
    Could you add an indication of the pricing model somewhere? It seemed to me that the service is free until I actually checked the comments here.
    - rmlewisuk 10y ago
      From the home page: > A one-off $5 payment activates your account for life
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
icco 10y ago
Oh neat! I've been wanting to build something like this that emails me this plus all tweets by people in a list.
- jnpatel 10y ago
  Nuzzle (http://nuzzel.com/ http://nuzzel.com/) is a great option for email digests of articles that several of your Twitter followers have shared. I haven't looked into how much customizability they give you over the content/frequency of the emails though.
dantiberian 10y ago
Just signed up for an account. This looks like just what I was looking for, as I block Twitter in my hosts file, and on my iPhone with https://freedom.to https://freedom.to, but I still want to know if I do get a DM or mention.
soulchild37 10y ago
Great idea! I am curious how you are able to sustain the server fees by just charging one off fees. My thought is that your server have to continuously check for tweets from user timeline and send any mentions to their email everyday / 2-day/ week. There is a daily cost for each user and it will only increase as more user uses your service.
- benhowdle 10y ago
  You'd be wise to think that, but I actually use Heroku's "Scheduler" add-on, so they just fire up a one-off dyno once a day and run my script. This script just checks the database for the user's it needs to check (paying && valid email) and fires off Twitter API requests for them. If there's @mentions/DMs that fit in with the frequency the user has selected, the email is fired off through AWS SES. Honestly, the server costs for this will be quite low for quite some time. If it takes off big time, sure, I'll re-evaluate the pricing model.
averagewall 10y ago
I want to use this but I'm afraid it circumvents Twitter's advertising and they'll surely shut it down. I guess $5 for now until shutdown is still worth it.
bangda 10y ago
I like the idea but i think you can do better with a different revenue model. I think you should go for a yearly subscription model. That way users can pay a very small amount yearly and if you hang in there for very long, you will be in benefit .If you shut down early , users wont be pissed off.
- IanCal 10y ago
  I think this is a good idea. Also, I'm not sure I'm particularly sensitive to a price difference between $5/year and $5 once. Particularly since we're talking about a tech thing that could fade from relevance a few years from now.
  - benhowdle 10y ago
    Very true. I figured it was a low enough fee that if Twitter cut me off/it became irrelevant, it's not the biggest loss for the paying user (obviously sucks, but didn't feel it warranted yearly subscriptions)
    - IanCal 10y ago
      I think that's fair, I just also think that the price to me feels about the same ($5/year or $5 for some unknown number of years), and would give you some ongoing money rather than a block at once then regular maintenance, while at the same time limiting the runway you'd need to give people while still fully providing them with the service they paid for / you could always refund the last year and it wouldn't wipe out everything.
eps 10y ago
Why is it asking for the _write_ access to one's Twitter account?
- davidbwire 10y ago
  Twitter API does not currently provide a way to request read only permission to access direct messages.
AJRF 10y ago
I made this exact same tool during a Hackathon recently and called it Disconnect. Life is curious.
- benhowdle 10y ago
  What is life...
onion2k 10y ago
I get the idea and I can see why you might want a service like this, but unless you're famous (for some value of 'famous') wouldn't disconnecting from Twitter by not looking at it and not posting mean you won't get actually any DMs or mentions any more? This service won't actually do anything after a month or two.
- benhowdle 10y ago
  For sure, and the I fully appreciate the irony of me promoting this on Twitter (if everyone used this, no-one would see my tweet). I feel like this can just aid a certain way of using Twitter, ie. by being broadcast-only (maybe posting from a 3rd party app), and just being selective on what you reply to (based on the email Disconnect Today sends you).

44 points by benhowdle 10y ago

This page doesn't show anything, but maybe examples of what the email looks like, or how the schedule is controlled, would.

benhowdle 10y ago
Hey, have now added a couple of screenshots on the homepage!
- r3bl 10y ago
  Could you add an indication of the pricing model somewhere? It seemed to me that the service is free until I actually checked the comments here.
  - rmlewisuk 10y ago
    From the home page: > A one-off $5 payment activates your account for life
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]

icco 10y ago

Oh neat! I've been wanting to build something like this that emails me this plus all tweets by people in a list.

jnpatel 10y ago
Nuzzle (http://nuzzel.com/ http://nuzzel.com/) is a great option for email digests of articles that several of your Twitter followers have shared. I haven't looked into how much customizability they give you over the content/frequency of the emails though.

dantiberian 10y ago

Just signed up for an account. This looks like just what I was looking for, as I block Twitter in my hosts file, and on my iPhone with https://freedom.to https://freedom.to, but I still want to know if I do get a DM or mention.

soulchild37 10y ago

Great idea! I am curious how you are able to sustain the server fees by just charging one off fees. My thought is that your server have to continuously check for tweets from user timeline and send any mentions to their email everyday / 2-day/ week. There is a daily cost for each user and it will only increase as more user uses your service.

benhowdle 10y ago
You'd be wise to think that, but I actually use Heroku's "Scheduler" add-on, so they just fire up a one-off dyno once a day and run my script. This script just checks the database for the user's it needs to check (paying && valid email) and fires off Twitter API requests for them. If there's @mentions/DMs that fit in with the frequency the user has selected, the email is fired off through AWS SES. Honestly, the server costs for this will be quite low for quite some time. If it takes off big time, sure, I'll re-evaluate the pricing model.

averagewall 10y ago

I want to use this but I'm afraid it circumvents Twitter's advertising and they'll surely shut it down. I guess $5 for now until shutdown is still worth it.

bangda 10y ago

I like the idea but i think you can do better with a different revenue model. I think you should go for a yearly subscription model. That way users can pay a very small amount yearly and if you hang in there for very long, you will be in benefit .If you shut down early , users wont be pissed off.

IanCal 10y ago
I think this is a good idea. Also, I'm not sure I'm particularly sensitive to a price difference between $5/year and $5 once. Particularly since we're talking about a tech thing that could fade from relevance a few years from now.
- benhowdle 10y ago
  Very true. I figured it was a low enough fee that if Twitter cut me off/it became irrelevant, it's not the biggest loss for the paying user (obviously sucks, but didn't feel it warranted yearly subscriptions)
  - IanCal 10y ago
    I think that's fair, I just also think that the price to me feels about the same ($5/year or $5 for some unknown number of years), and would give you some ongoing money rather than a block at once then regular maintenance, while at the same time limiting the runway you'd need to give people while still fully providing them with the service they paid for / you could always refund the last year and it wouldn't wipe out everything.

eps 10y ago

Why is it asking for the _write_ access to one's Twitter account?

davidbwire 10y ago
Twitter API does not currently provide a way to request read only permission to access direct messages.

AJRF 10y ago

I made this exact same tool during a Hackathon recently and called it Disconnect. Life is curious.

benhowdle 10y ago
What is life...

onion2k 10y ago

I get the idea and I can see why you might want a service like this, but unless you're famous (for some value of 'famous') wouldn't disconnecting from Twitter by not looking at it and not posting mean you won't get actually any DMs or mentions any more? This service won't actually do anything after a month or two.

benhowdle 10y ago
For sure, and the I fully appreciate the irony of me promoting this on Twitter (if everyone used this, no-one would see my tweet). I feel like this can just aid a certain way of using Twitter, ie. by being broadcast-only (maybe posting from a 3rd party app), and just being selective on what you reply to (based on the email Disconnect Today sends you).