4 ms·

It's not open source at the moment no. You make a very good point, and I see where you are coming from. I personally have a hard time trusting other products

It's not open source at the moment no. You make a very good point, and I see where you are coming from. I personally have a hard time trusting other products with my data too. That's why I'm trying to be as transparent as possible with DarwinMail. If I were to make the product open source, would you consider using it then?

teleclimber 7y ago
Yes, if you make it Open Source and possible to self-host it goes from DOA to definitely possible. Would have to explore more, like how it's written, the community around it, etc... before I really commit. Hopefully you can still make a living. I suspect "open source + commercially hosted" is a good model for something like this?
- 1123581321 7y ago
  You are asking him to do a ton of work and commit to never charging you for anything on the off chance that you might condescend to use his software. It seems like it would be easier for you to just not evaluate new mail clients.
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    It is so kind of you to defend my position. Thank you so much. I'm so happy that you understand as it can be difficult for a creator to explain such things :) I really appreciate it!
  - teleclimber 7y ago
    I'm just suggesting that a service that touches email would benefit from being easier to trust. I never said he should commit to never making money or anything close to that. Like you literally invented that. In fact I suggested he look into the open source + hosted business model. Ghost seems to be doing alright with it: https://blog.ghost.org/5/ https://blog.ghost.org/5/ > It seems like it would be easier for you to just not evaluate new mail clients. There are plenty of OSS mail clients. I was just looking at RoundCube the other day. It's actually pretty slick as far as traditional email clients go. https://roundcube.net/ https://roundcube.net/
    - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
      You have certainly given me plenty to think about. I thank you :) I love receiving new 'outside of the box' ideas that will increase DarwinMail's appeal :)
    - 1123581321 7y ago
      You said “Yes, if you make it Open Source and possible to self-host it goes from DOA to definitely possible.[...] Hopefully you can still make a living. I suspect "open source + commercially hosted" is a good model for something like this?” That means that you would not consider using by it unless you could use it for free, presuming you wouldn’t qualify for a commercial license. I only summarized what you said.
      - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
        It can be difficult to make a living from your projects as an indie developer. Thank you for understanding :)
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  I see the merits of open sourcing DarwinMail. It would open up the platform to develop on it from people all over the world. They would fix bugs for themselves and others and perhaps write mini-features. However, if I open source this code, I may never be able to make any profit on this tool I have spent so much time building :( How will I be able to pay my bills?
  - teleclimber 7y ago
    > How will I be able to pay my bills? That's why I mentioned the OSS + hosted version. It would allow to be more open while still making money on the hosted version. Those who are very concerned about privacy can self-host, and those who think self-hosting is too hard (that's many people) can pay to use your hosted version. See Ghost as a success story that works that way: https://blog.ghost.org/5/ https://blog.ghost.org/5/
    - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
      Thank you for the follow-up. That's quite an interesting concept! It would alleviate users concerns :) I like it! Ghost has done very well in recent years. I will read up on this.
uniformlyrandom 7y ago
That was my biggest concern as well. I am sure you do not do that, it it would have been so easy to funnel my data (or metadata) to your servers. Open-sourcing and authenticating the client code would resolve this issue for me.
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  That is an interesting point and I very much appreciate your opinion. I will think about it :)

teleclimber 7y ago

Yes, if you make it Open Source and possible to self-host it goes from DOA to definitely possible. Would have to explore more, like how it's written, the community around it, etc... before I really commit. Hopefully you can still make a living. I suspect "open source + commercially hosted" is a good model for something like this?

1123581321 7y ago
You are asking him to do a ton of work and commit to never charging you for anything on the off chance that you might condescend to use his software. It seems like it would be easier for you to just not evaluate new mail clients.
- DarwinMailApp 7y ago
  It is so kind of you to defend my position. Thank you so much. I'm so happy that you understand as it can be difficult for a creator to explain such things :) I really appreciate it!
- teleclimber 7y ago
  I'm just suggesting that a service that touches email would benefit from being easier to trust. I never said he should commit to never making money or anything close to that. Like you literally invented that. In fact I suggested he look into the open source + hosted business model. Ghost seems to be doing alright with it: https://blog.ghost.org/5/ https://blog.ghost.org/5/ > It seems like it would be easier for you to just not evaluate new mail clients. There are plenty of OSS mail clients. I was just looking at RoundCube the other day. It's actually pretty slick as far as traditional email clients go. https://roundcube.net/ https://roundcube.net/
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    You have certainly given me plenty to think about. I thank you :) I love receiving new 'outside of the box' ideas that will increase DarwinMail's appeal :)
  - 1123581321 7y ago
    You said “Yes, if you make it Open Source and possible to self-host it goes from DOA to definitely possible.[...] Hopefully you can still make a living. I suspect "open source + commercially hosted" is a good model for something like this?” That means that you would not consider using by it unless you could use it for free, presuming you wouldn’t qualify for a commercial license. I only summarized what you said.
    - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
      It can be difficult to make a living from your projects as an indie developer. Thank you for understanding :)
DarwinMailApp 7y ago
I see the merits of open sourcing DarwinMail. It would open up the platform to develop on it from people all over the world. They would fix bugs for themselves and others and perhaps write mini-features. However, if I open source this code, I may never be able to make any profit on this tool I have spent so much time building :( How will I be able to pay my bills?
- teleclimber 7y ago
  > How will I be able to pay my bills? That's why I mentioned the OSS + hosted version. It would allow to be more open while still making money on the hosted version. Those who are very concerned about privacy can self-host, and those who think self-hosting is too hard (that's many people) can pay to use your hosted version. See Ghost as a success story that works that way: https://blog.ghost.org/5/ https://blog.ghost.org/5/
  - DarwinMailApp 7y ago
    Thank you for the follow-up. That's quite an interesting concept! It would alleviate users concerns :) I like it! Ghost has done very well in recent years. I will read up on this.

uniformlyrandom 7y ago

That was my biggest concern as well. I am sure you do not do that, it it would have been so easy to funnel my data (or metadata) to your servers. Open-sourcing and authenticating the client code would resolve this issue for me.

DarwinMailApp 7y ago
That is an interesting point and I very much appreciate your opinion. I will think about it :)