6 ms·

If you don’t use apple, I just built this as a stand-alone product: https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co

by albertgoeswoof 7y ago

nextos 7y ago
There is also spamgourmet, which is free and has been around for 20 years.
- albertgoeswoof 7y ago
  Unfortunately they’re not accepting new signups
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    Is there by chance a Firefox add-on on your product roadmap? This looks interesting
    - albertgoeswoof 7y ago
      Thanks! It’s already available as a Firefox and chrome add on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/idbloc/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/idbloc/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/idbloc-secure-and-unique/jhjhmcgfjgfnbolmedfhbbjeidjpmajl?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/idbloc-secure-and-...
  - nextos 7y ago
    Oh, I hadn't noticed. Your service looks nice, and if spamgourmet is not taking new signups it does make even more sense.
bglusman 7y ago
This looks a lot like 33mail (https://33mail.com/ https://33mail.com/) which I've been using pretty happily for 4-5 years now (and paying I think $10-15 a year for, so a lot less than this on a per month basis, but they're not strictly unlimited)
- albertgoeswoof 7y ago
  33mail is cool but the domain being the same & unique for each user removes the privacy element, and it asks users to make up their own addresses (and remember them), which can be dangerous. For example you might create facebook@dave.33mail.com, so it’s very easy to guess what Dave’s twitter login is or other target. With Idbloc (and apple sign in) the address is completely random and untraceable, and it’s impossible to tell which addresses belong to which users.
golem14 7y ago
From the web page, I cannot tell what pricing is going to be - looks like you go out of your way to not scare off potential users. I can't find pricing information at all via Google searches, either. That's something I really dislike. Perhaps it's a necessary evil.
- albertgoeswoof 7y ago
  It’s at the bottom of the landing page: https://idbloc.co/#pricing https://idbloc.co/#pricing The goal is to explain the concept ahead of the pricing as I think it’s quite novel to most users.
  - prepend 7y ago
    I pay $30/year for a cpanel host that includes unlimited mail forwarding for any address on any domain. This is a byproduct of what I really do which is host a bunch of sites. $48/year for email scrubbing seems like a high price. I think it’s great, and use it a lot. Just wonder how you got to that price vs like $10/year.
    - albertgoeswoof 7y ago
      Pro users subsidise the free ones, unfortunately. Assuming a 1% conversion rate to pay server costs and 1-2 devs full time at 4 usd/pro user/month you need 2500 pro users, which is 250,000 users. That and people pay 4 bucks for a coke these days so it’s not really much. Also cPanel is most definitely an expert tool. I might make it paid only soon and reduce the price but at present there’s not much option to get real feedback and user traction.
      - criddell 7y ago
        Once it's up and running, does it really take 2 full-time people to keep it running?
      - prepend 7y ago
        Thanks, this helps me understand and I appreciate you going into cost model for something that’s really up to you to decide. $4 is not very much, you’re right, but that doesn’t mean that it should be spent unwisely otherwise it adds up quickly. It seems unlikely that this would need a full time dev to operate and seems more like a “4 hour workweek” type business once it’s set up that would have pretty minimal maintenance, or a super bored developer waiting around for a bug to patch. Do you think you’ll drop the price once you no longer need a dev?
jiveturkey 7y ago
the super annoying "can i help you?" popup after 10s is revolting. i closed the tab immediately without learning more. it's cheesy, pushy, and seems antithetical to a service that offers privacy. i recommend you turn that thing off.
- albertgoeswoof 7y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I’ll try to tone that thing down a bit. The thing is, some people LOVE the chat widget. Especially for those users who don’t want reveal their real email address but have a quick question. I’ve had at least 3x more chats on there than support emails.
  - somecallitblues 7y ago
    Chat is awesome. Personally I love it. You get to talk to someone in real time. What's not to like about it. I'm not sure why the OP is so revolted by it. Maybe remove the sound but leave the popup and chat.
    - jedikv 7y ago
      When you're trying to read the site for yourself, it can be distracting and a bit obnoxious.
    - dahart 7y ago
      > You get to talk to someone in real time. Except it’s not real time until a support person is notified and responds minutes or sometimes hours later. Chat pop ups feel like a lame trick these days every time I try to use them; they pretend like they’re going to be fast and then make you waste your own time waiting. The last one I used the other day made me wait more than 10 minutes, so I did something else, and when the support person responded and asked a follow up question and I didn’t answer in 5 seconds, they closed the support ticket, making me start over. I’d rather use email.
  - bscphil 7y ago
    Maybe just have a chat button or a link to the chat on your support page? I'm in the strange position of both liking the chat approach (I've used it on Dell's site, probably others), and also very much disliking chat popups. It feels like it's really there so that someone can convince you to buy something. It's even worse when there's a fake initial message - "Hi there, I'm Jen. Can I help you?" - it seems especially imposing.
sxates 7y ago
Great! I used a service like this many years ago and they shut down after a few years. Have been looking for the same thing for years but seems like nobody's been doing it, or at least not in a user friendly way. Will give this a try.
bestnameever 7y ago
I like it! how long have you been around? Do you think Apple's product might bring more awareness to yours?

If you don’t use apple, I just built this as a stand-alone product: https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co

nextos 7y ago

There is also spamgourmet, which is free and has been around for 20 years.

albertgoeswoof 7y ago
Unfortunately they’re not accepting new signups
- dvtrn 7y ago
  Is there by chance a Firefox add-on on your product roadmap? This looks interesting
  - albertgoeswoof 7y ago
    Thanks! It’s already available as a Firefox and chrome add on: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/idbloc/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/idbloc/ https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/idbloc-secure-and-unique/jhjhmcgfjgfnbolmedfhbbjeidjpmajl?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/idbloc-secure-and-...
- nextos 7y ago
  Oh, I hadn't noticed. Your service looks nice, and if spamgourmet is not taking new signups it does make even more sense.

bglusman 7y ago

This looks a lot like 33mail (https://33mail.com/ https://33mail.com/) which I've been using pretty happily for 4-5 years now (and paying I think $10-15 a year for, so a lot less than this on a per month basis, but they're not strictly unlimited)

albertgoeswoof 7y ago
33mail is cool but the domain being the same & unique for each user removes the privacy element, and it asks users to make up their own addresses (and remember them), which can be dangerous. For example you might create facebook@dave.33mail.com, so it’s very easy to guess what Dave’s twitter login is or other target. With Idbloc (and apple sign in) the address is completely random and untraceable, and it’s impossible to tell which addresses belong to which users.

golem14 7y ago

From the web page, I cannot tell what pricing is going to be - looks like you go out of your way to not scare off potential users. I can't find pricing information at all via Google searches, either. That's something I really dislike. Perhaps it's a necessary evil.

albertgoeswoof 7y ago
It’s at the bottom of the landing page: https://idbloc.co/#pricing https://idbloc.co/#pricing The goal is to explain the concept ahead of the pricing as I think it’s quite novel to most users.
- prepend 7y ago
  I pay $30/year for a cpanel host that includes unlimited mail forwarding for any address on any domain. This is a byproduct of what I really do which is host a bunch of sites. $48/year for email scrubbing seems like a high price. I think it’s great, and use it a lot. Just wonder how you got to that price vs like $10/year.
  - albertgoeswoof 7y ago
    Pro users subsidise the free ones, unfortunately. Assuming a 1% conversion rate to pay server costs and 1-2 devs full time at 4 usd/pro user/month you need 2500 pro users, which is 250,000 users. That and people pay 4 bucks for a coke these days so it’s not really much. Also cPanel is most definitely an expert tool. I might make it paid only soon and reduce the price but at present there’s not much option to get real feedback and user traction.
    - criddell 7y ago
      Once it's up and running, does it really take 2 full-time people to keep it running?
    - prepend 7y ago
      Thanks, this helps me understand and I appreciate you going into cost model for something that’s really up to you to decide. $4 is not very much, you’re right, but that doesn’t mean that it should be spent unwisely otherwise it adds up quickly. It seems unlikely that this would need a full time dev to operate and seems more like a “4 hour workweek” type business once it’s set up that would have pretty minimal maintenance, or a super bored developer waiting around for a bug to patch. Do you think you’ll drop the price once you no longer need a dev?

jiveturkey 7y ago

the super annoying "can i help you?" popup after 10s is revolting. i closed the tab immediately without learning more. it's cheesy, pushy, and seems antithetical to a service that offers privacy. i recommend you turn that thing off.

albertgoeswoof 7y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I’ll try to tone that thing down a bit. The thing is, some people LOVE the chat widget. Especially for those users who don’t want reveal their real email address but have a quick question. I’ve had at least 3x more chats on there than support emails.
- somecallitblues 7y ago
  Chat is awesome. Personally I love it. You get to talk to someone in real time. What's not to like about it. I'm not sure why the OP is so revolted by it. Maybe remove the sound but leave the popup and chat.
  - jedikv 7y ago
    When you're trying to read the site for yourself, it can be distracting and a bit obnoxious.
  - dahart 7y ago
    > You get to talk to someone in real time. Except it’s not real time until a support person is notified and responds minutes or sometimes hours later. Chat pop ups feel like a lame trick these days every time I try to use them; they pretend like they’re going to be fast and then make you waste your own time waiting. The last one I used the other day made me wait more than 10 minutes, so I did something else, and when the support person responded and asked a follow up question and I didn’t answer in 5 seconds, they closed the support ticket, making me start over. I’d rather use email.
- bscphil 7y ago
  Maybe just have a chat button or a link to the chat on your support page? I'm in the strange position of both liking the chat approach (I've used it on Dell's site, probably others), and also very much disliking chat popups. It feels like it's really there so that someone can convince you to buy something. It's even worse when there's a fake initial message - "Hi there, I'm Jen. Can I help you?" - it seems especially imposing.

sxates 7y ago

Great! I used a service like this many years ago and they shut down after a few years. Have been looking for the same thing for years but seems like nobody's been doing it, or at least not in a user friendly way. Will give this a try.

bestnameever 7y ago

I like it! how long have you been around? Do you think Apple's product might bring more awareness to yours?