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Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email
- kossnocorp 7y agoYesterday Paul Graham asked for an email diary service (https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176 https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176): > Is there an easy way to build, or a startup that offers, something that will email you once a day asking "What's happening?" and then accumulate the replies? I did just that! Let me know what you think.
- johnwheeler 7y agoIt looks classy as hell and I think the verbiage on the front page is very strong. There is a back button issue on iOS that needs to be resolved. When you visit the Open Diary link, you can’t get out using the back button. It might be just me. My iPad has been acting wonky lately.
- kossnocorp 7y agoThanks! I'll take care of the back button. It must be my buggy router code!
- johnwheeler 7y agoYeah, this thing feels right on so many levels. Use your email client which is optimized for writing. Sign up by sending an email.
- gpickett00 7y agoI love that someone followed through and got it done. I bet a lot of people thought about it. I bet that there's even someone seeing this right now pissed off that they didn't finish first. Great design. Where'd you get your little illustrations?
- kossnocorp 7y agoThank you a lot, I got the illustrations on https://craftwork.design https://craftwork.design
- workthrowaway 7y agothanks!!
- misiti3780 7y agoI have never heard of that service (looks pretty interesting actually), but at the bottom it says trust by Uber, Pinterest, Google, etc. Does this mean these companies are outsourcing their graphics, mock ups, etc.?
- applecrazy 7y agoLikely not. All these companies have dedicated design teams. I believe it means that they use the asset library within their projects.
- misiti3780 7y agothat is what i thought also.
- 1123581321 7y agoIt (maybe) means someone with one of those email addresses signed up once, or might have used an asset on an internal blog or something. It can mean more but that’s typical for SaaS bragging.
- kossnocorp 7y agoI don't know that, but I would assume that just someone with @google.com or @uber.com signed up at the service ;-)
- ska 7y ago
- alfonsodev 7y agoHe also wrote > Unfortunately, though, in this one case I can't promise that if you build it, I'll use it. Unless I know you, I can't trust that you won't read my emails. (I trusted the previous startup that did it because we'd funded them.) How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ? I've seen the statement in your website: > Your data stored and transferred securely. No one will ever read or process your notes even the staff. Your data belongs to you and can be easily exported in preferable format by request. But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an already trusted company in order to start off the business ?
- Angostura 7y agoAccording to PG's Tweet, it seems quite simple - just fund them.
- netsharc 7y agoHaha, clever way to get PGs funding...
- birdyrooster 7y agoAlmost like VC extracts rent from their investments while minimizing any risk they are exposed to.
- zaptheimpaler 7y agoDo you do anything different in your own 401k?
- kossnocorp 7y agoI addressed it in a comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 > But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an already trusted company in order to start off the business ? Also, I understand the concern and that Paul most likely will not trust their secrets to anyone. The problem is that's not a business, but a beautiful hobby project that I honestly love, so it's unlikely that I will ever spend time rewriting it and then paying Google $15K (https://www.gmass.co/blog/google-oauth-verification-security-assessment/ https://www.gmass.co/blog/google-oauth-verification-security...) so they could vet me.
- rodolphoarruda 7y agoI was thinking -- this morning -- about this type of proactive system that asks questions to stakeholders in a project; especially about their expectations. This is a killer feature that I have never seen in my 18 years as a PM. PM tools still pose high barriers for adoption, in general, since you have to login, navigate, find elements you are related to, analyze them and then feedback. That's a long path if you are not fully allocated into the project. I think there is a lot of room for "feedback automation" via email in Pm tools.
- entrep91 7y agoI've spent 3 years iterating on this idea and it was inspired by the product PG mentioned in his tweet. Any feedback is appreciated! https://www.friday.app https://www.friday.app
- rodolphoarruda 7y agoThis is it! Thank you! =)
- drsozesakamoto 7y agoSounds similar to monday.
- vagab0nd 7y agoYou built this in a day? That's very impressive.
- kossnocorp 7y agoSorry to disappoint you, but I did not. I was just quick to react and reply ;-)
- mc3 7y agoIt's very polished. I was expecting something much more rougher looking.
- artfulhippo 7y ago>Private and Secure It’s as private as your email...which probably means not private. Like most people, I depend on an advertising company to host my emails. But I wouldn’t share my private diary with them.
- kossnocorp 7y agoRight, I didn't think of users' email servers spying on people. But to be fair, there're privacy-focused services, so it's possible.
- 1stcity3rdcoast 7y agoGmail has an autocomplete function which means it’s inherently reading everyone’s email (for training).
- Legogris 7y agoFeature suggestions: PGP Self-hosting
- cosmojg 7y agoSolution: use one of the hundreds of alternatives to Gmail.
- thepete2 7y agoPlease don't break the back button. I like my back button.
- timvisee 7y agoYes! For reference, when clicking "Open Diary" linking to https://diaryemail.com/diary https://diaryemail.com/diary and redirecting when not authenticated breaks my back button.
- Waterluvian 7y agoI love that you took the programmer equivalent of a writing cue and ran with it. And I think this is a really cool idea to explore. I know it's largely a one person experiment and not a real business, but some feedback > I won't sell your data and will be very personal with you. This isn't good enough anymore. You need to promise that my data won't ever _ever_ be sold. Especially since you're asking me to share my diary with you. I'm not sure if this kind of promise can be made though. Maybe we need some legal apparatus you can declare that gives me peace of mind that no future owner of your company can change their mind.
- basch 7y agoSelling the company should count as selling the data unless the data gets scrubbed on company sale.
- kossnocorp 7y agoThank you for your feedback and I understand your concern, but I'm not sure how to pull it off. I don't have a fancy lawyer that could customize such thing to me, nor I have a budget for it. Here're some facts that could help you to find peace of mind. First of all, I operate in the EU, so I can't simply sell your data. Also, it costs me virtually $0 to maintain the service (thanks to Firebase and Mailgun), so I won't be forced to sell out to keep it afloat. At last but not least I use it myself with my close friends so we're in the same boat.
- oefrha 7y agoNo "promise" will make me share my diary with a stranger, not even a legally enforceable one, unless I self-censor my diary. Honestly not sure why anyone would entrust their diary to some web service, unless they take a nothing-to-hide approach with their diaries. Although, a web service to share notes with friends is probably okay.
- Waterluvian 7y ago"Diary" usually means personal and private. But it can mean a lot of things. I can imagine cases where people are okay with that. I've managed a personal "diary" that's on Github publically. It's really just a reference of tech stuff I've learned.
- rahuldottech 7y agoHonestly, I love it! A very related project, that focuses on being a "social network" through email: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853667 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853667 Edit: I'm getting errors with the login functionality. Please check it out.
- kossnocorp 7y agoThanks! What browser do you use?
- k_ 7y agoGot the issue too, it was not related to my browser but more likely to my email client that replaced more & with & than needed and broke the link. Edited the link manually and it worked.
- kossnocorp 7y agoOuch! Firebase generates links for me but I'll take a look at what I can do.
- samdung 7y agoCongrats. This is cool. Quick question. Did you pull this off in one day (after PG's tweet)? If yes, that is mighty impressive.
- nestorherre 7y agoThis. Pretty well done OP, congrats and good luck.
- kossnocorp 7y agoSorry to disappoint you, but I did not. I built it some time ago, but I was quick to reply, so there's a chance that Paul tried the service. I'm such a fanboy, haha.
- jwbaldwin 7y agoWas wondering the same thing. Either way, a clean and well-designed landing page and service. Well done OP.
- overcast 7y agoLooks like they built it at least 8+ months ago, it was posted HN around that time.
- rognjen 7y agoI just email myself ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ e: Also, I used to use https://750words.com https://750words.com which is quite similar.
- kossnocorp 7y agoIt works well too! Too bad is not easy to fetch history.
- rognjen 7y agoIn Gmail you can search by dates. And for convenience I've a filter for from me to me with journal title. Stats wouldn't be possible (of the top of my head) but I don't care about that much.
- brootstrap 7y agoThe app is cool man good work! old school boy here made an vi alias to my journal.txt file and have been using it for 5+ years. alias opens the file in edit mode on a newline at the bottom. VI search lets me find whatever i need quickly all from the keyboard! This whole 'email yourself as diary' seems like overkill to me when you could just write something yourself. Unless you are cool with sharing your diary with 3rd party services. Anyways it's still a cool little thing, just throwin my two cents.
- mmahemoff 7y agoI use the Gmail "+" hack to mail myself on different topics. name+ideas@ for app ideas name+notes@ for random notes name+writing@ for article ideas (edit: formatting)
- reikonomusha 7y agoIsn’t that just an email hack?
- Retr0spectrum 7y agoNo, it's a gmail-specific "feature". Other mail services may also implement it, I guess.
- komali2 7y agoI really like the layout of the page and your manner of speaking. Both are web design ideals I strive for. I also want people to write more :) Little nitpick - try out your signup page on Firefox mobile and you will see a one character width input field for the email input box :)
- nicklovescode 7y agoA few days ago a weekly letter I wrote myself called Dear Nick that I BCC a few close friends. I love doing it now Please steal the idea if you like! http://nickcammarata.com/writing/two-experiments-2019 http://nickcammarata.com/writing/two-experiments-2019
- moona3k 7y agoI loved the Dear Nick idea, the weekly script, and sharing the most intimate notes with your closest friends. Good work.
- _august 7y agoI 100% read "Dairy Email" until the page loaded. I thought you figured out how to email me milk.
- kossnocorp 7y agoHaha, I actually figured it out. You just ship plant-based milk lol.
- saalweachter 7y agoFor some reason, when I read it aloud too many times, it begins to sound like something less desirable to be mailed.
- moralsupply 7y agoDo you store the diary in plain text?
- kossnocorp 7y agoI stored it as sanitized HTML along with the original HTML so I can resanitize it after I improve the parser or find an error in it.
- haxiel 7y agoI use a service named Penzu for keeping a journal. It's primarily web-based, but you can make it email-based if you wish to. Basically, you'd set up a daily reminder at a specific time, and you can reply directly to that email to make a new entry. I should point out that Penzu is not a completely free service. There is a basic free tier, and then there are paid plans with additional features.
- kper1337 7y agoWhy do you exactly need to know my age to store my data?
- kossnocorp 7y agoAs I'm based in the EU, I can't store personal data of children without the consent of a parent. So to make sure I added the form.
- kper1337 7y agoWhy exactly do you need to store my age to store my data (in the signup process)?
- kossnocorp 7y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045902 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045902
- bad_user 7y agoThe service that Paul Graham mentioned is probably this one: http://ohlife.com http://ohlife.com Shutdown announcement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8345881 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8345881 I used it and loved it. It was cool while it lasted. Unfortunately it's just one more example for why I don't trust startups. Also you probably don't need a service, personally I can just send email to yourself, PGP encrypted. The only bit that's missing is a periodic reminder, to which you can reply. But I can probably set that up as a cron job.
- kossnocorp 7y agoFunnily enough, I also used and loved it, and it was the inspiration to build Diary Email. > But I can probably set that up as a cron job Almost every app could be replaced with email, a cron job or a spreadsheet ;-)
- bad_user 7y agoI'm glad to see someone retry building something similar, but the problem is that OhLife is a service launched 10 years ago [1]. Many of us were not aware of privacy issues then, plus we were naive enough to think that the services we adopted would survive if cool enough. I loved OhLife, but now 10 years later I wouldn't subscribe to a clone. Fool me once etc. I wish you succeed though. It's a cool project and your landing page looks good. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1613137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1613137
- opencl 7y agoThere are a few other similar sites that are still running: https://www.dailydiary.com/ https://www.dailydiary.com/ https://ahhlife.com/ https://ahhlife.com/ https://www.trailmix.life/ https://www.trailmix.life/ And an open source self-hostable one that was started right around the time ohlife shut down: https://github.com/einaregilsson/MyLife https://github.com/einaregilsson/MyLife
- dsaavy 7y agoNon-technical users could just use something like Zapier or Automate.io to email them reminders that they can reply to.
- kldavis4 7y agoI used http://ohlife.com/ http://ohlife.com/ until they shut down. After that I just switched to using a Google Doc. The service mostly just provided me a daily reminder, but after you get into the habit it isn't hard to keep it up without that.
- kossnocorp 7y agoI also did. The memory of it inspired me to build Diary Email.
- obiefernandez 7y agoI wrote and maintain AhhLife as a replacement for OhLife. Been going for many years now. Thousands of active users.
- nif2ee 7y agoIt's pointless to say the least to claim "Private and secure" without at least having client-side AEAD of some sort.
- drharby 7y agoshut up and ship it I love the simple sourcing of requirements. Good job!
- matt_the_bass 7y agoNice work. FYI pricing tables are not readable on my iPhone 8 in safari
- mariocesar 7y agoHow do I update my Full Name? or change the newsletter subscription options? ∞?
- kossnocorp 7y agoSorry, there are no settings for that yet. Please mail me to koss@nocorp.me, and I'll do it for you.
- Dyaz17 7y agoGreat job. Here is what I propose to make it more secure and prevent you from being able to read anyone diary... I propose that each day a link/token is sent to your email. The link then ask for a password that is handled only with client side javascript and does the encryption of the data before sending it do the server. Look at what Blockhain.info or myetherwallet is doing for client side encryption. Maybe also propose provide all the front end as opensource and provide a way for people to host their own front (a few HTML, JS files where you input the link or token sent to you by email...)
- kossnocorp 7y agoThank you! My goal wasn't to create a 100% secure diary. If you need that, you probably should not store your data in the cloud. That's unlikely that I will ever try to make it happen. But even if I would, there're so many ways to screw it over anyway, so I won't ever try to make this promise. However, I will consider open-sourcing it. Also see my comment where I addressed the privacy issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670
- jlelse 7y agoOpen sourcing it (and allowing to self-host it for personal and private use) would be awesome!
- aerovistae 7y agoWhy doesn't the guy just write a python script to mail himself that prompt everyday? Sometimes I think if Paul Graham tripped he would start wondering if there was a start-up aiming to put an end to uneven ground.
- the_watcher 7y agoPG writing a script to email himself every day doesn't create value for anyone but himself, someone deciding to build a company out of it does.
- mc3 7y agoIt could be released as free & open source software. That would be valuable.
- gist 7y agoExactly my thought. But further I love when some well off VC (Fred Wilson does this type of thing often) will ask the community for something they could simply pay someone to write that fills 100% the need they have and is tailored toward them specifically with features that they want. Or just hack it together themselves. Much easier generally (for this type of thing) than having to trust and use a product with bells and whistles that may not matter to you. I mean I get the trying to push a startup in a direction (so they can invest potentially) but somehow I don't think that is what is going on.
- NicoJuicy 7y agoI dogfood handle.sapico.me , I used to email it to myselve though.
- athenot 7y agoThe very humble Notes app on macOS/iOS fulfills this for me. I just start typing, the minimalistic interface gets out of the way. Timestamping is on last modification instead of creation date but I add one manually. That's about my only drawback. Some features I find compelling: - I can start a train of thought on the mac, continue it on the phone and complete it on my mac. - It's not mined by some advertising company, no subject to the viability of some business. - Being so simple, the contents can be exported to some other format very easily. - Works offline (only background sync requires connection). - And search is near instant since everything is stored locally.
- the_watcher 7y agoAgreed that this works well for some workflows. That said, part of pg's "design brief" was the workflow: receive an email and reply to it, his reason for replying being "to get it out of my inbox".
- graeme 7y agoIf a phone or ipad notification would be acceptable, I figured out that part in a comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22046379 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22046379
- DeusExMachina 7y agoSince macOS Catalina, you can also sort notes by creation date. So the information is there, even though it's kept hidden.
- ryanjm33 7y agoOn the Mac, if you click the date, it will flip between creation/updated dates.
- j45 7y agoThe email workflow is slightly different. It prompts you in email not having to change applications. This is good for people who like inbox zero and are in their emails all day anyways.
- latortuga 7y agoThis used to exist, it was called OhLife. They would email you every day and say "What's happening in your life" and "Hey do you remember this?" with one random email from your history included. I always liked this service and was sad when they shut down. Pretty sure I started using it due to a post right here on HN.
- obiefernandez 7y agoThe OhLife replacement I wrote is called AhhLife and I have maintained it as a personal side project for many years now. https://ahhlife.com https://ahhlife.com
- j45 7y agoAhhlife seems pretty capable except it doesn’t seem to handle photo attachments or logins only via gmail.
- obiefernandez 7y agoAny google mail works. I'm thinking maybe replacing the whole login system with email-only authentication like DailyDiary uses.
- j45 7y agoSorry, typo - I meant to say email logins weren't possible which you picked up. Email only authentication would presumably outlive any provider. I bought into the MyOpenID SSO excitement once, it worked pretty well until it went away. After that, back to email accounts, identity providers like Google/MS/Twitter don't end to know everytime you're logging into your app.
- the_watcher 7y agoThe shutdown of OhLife caused the "hole in [his] life" that spurred PG's request.
- Pyrodogg 7y ago
- macleginn 7y agoA hard limit of 30 friends is a bit annoying.
- obiefernandez 7y agoHey HN I have exactly this and have maintained it for years as a replacement for OhLife: https://ahhlife.com https://ahhlife.com Thousands of active users. Very (very) slowly enhancing and monetizing with additional features, but it's far down on my priority list.
- the_watcher 7y agoHave you replied to PG's original tweet? This looks like exactly what he was looking for.
- obiefernandez 7y agojust did, thanks. kicking myself that I didn't think to email him about it sooner.
- bergie 7y agoThat's a great idea, can write on any device! In the early 2000s, I had a setup where I could blog by either email or SMS. By default emails would become new posts. SMS would append to the latest entry, or I could create a new one with a keyword (NEWPOST title, I think). This was a nice way to create and update travel journals before mobile internet and smartphones were widespread.
- crtlaltdel 7y agohonestly, this feels like a great feature for today, especially with the prevalence of smartphones and the mobile web! now we have devices that are mostly easier to type/compose messages on and the fierce rush to build an app for everything has imo reduced the "cool factor" of a bespoke native app. i hate installing a new app to use a service if the app is buggy and the workflow could be done some other way (even responsive webapp). personally, i really enjoy sms based UX.
- eerrt 7y agoHow do you handle the security?
- XnoiVeX 7y agoIsn't this exactly like https://posthaven.com/ https://posthaven.com/?
- marta_morena 7y agoCool, so people post their diary to an email service? Interesting. Why not just post on Facebook? It's about as public as it gets.
- mnemonicsloth 7y agoA lot of people would rather keep their diaries private. Montaigne wouldn't have been Montaigne if he was writing for other people.
- wtetzner 7y agoI don't think it's supposed to be public. The idea is that you get an email each day asking about what's going on, you reply, and the service tracks your replies in a way that you can retrieve them.
- cryptozeus 7y agoGreat job, very fast. One more person delivered this on Twitter thread...https://nom.blue/ https://nom.blue/
- disiplus 7y agoI stumbled on a "lets call it a bug". If i register with a plus sign using my gmail something+diaryemail@gmail.com i cannot send emails from that email address and so it wont work for me.
- kossnocorp 7y agoRight! But I'm afraid I can't fix that. When I receive an email, I associate it with the address that GMail reports to me,, and when you sign in as something+something@gmail.com, the email address differs (as you might already guess). I know that I can safely remove +something but I can't be sure that it will work the same for every email service and ensure security. Please use something@gmail.com, I won't send you anything unless you explicitly ask for it.
- esjeon 7y agoTBH, I don't think this is anything practical, but I love the design.
- Freegile 7y agoWhy does this need a service? Isn't the only thing that needs to be accomplished to auto-mail you every day "Whats up?" from you+diary@youremaildomain.com? Then you just reply and have your diary in that inbox?
- vi-mode 7y agoPG is a smart mind with a long track record of achievements. Still people shouldn't follow him in a cult-like manner or turn him into a voodoo-kind role model, 'PG tweeted he needs a pink phone, I made him one'. While the initial email idea is tempting, it's nonsense from a security perspective especially with this use case.
- tlackemann 7y agoAlternatively, jrnl.sh. It's tiny, allows you write using your favorite editor, and can be backed up or replicated with simple git. It's even encrypted. Maybe I'm not the target demographic for services like these but I would never trust my personal thoughts with a service like this.
- tossmeaside1 7y agoIt is a popular conceit to assume that anyone cares about your thoughts or that they carry some significant, intrinsic value. This happens to me all the time. It takes reflection to realize that most of the crap that people generate is just that, crap. Sure, it may be crap that can incriminate you in a court proceeding or crap that could be developed into patented intellectual property, but it is crap none-the-less. Its that tendency people have to assume things like "I got super stoned in the late 90's and sketched out designs for Photovoltaic Solar Roofing systems, that Musk guy stole my idea". No, odds are that Musk guy didn't steal shit from you. Your diary wasn't hacked, your sketches were not secretly photographed and your phone isn't bugged. Your idea was in some way obvious. In the PV example it was obvious and requires money and influence to develop, two things that if you had them you wouldn't be making claims that "so and so stole this idea" or "I invented that first".
- oefrha 7y agoNo one gives a crap about your nude body. Still, you probably don’t shower in the open.
- cbanek 7y agoI recently converted to jrnl.sh a few months ago and I am loving it. I used to run my own private wordpress, and it was nothing but headaches, and fear of dataloss. I use jrnl.sh on mac, and I can easily have it in my documents folder and sync it up to iCloud. I also back it up to a few other places, and since it's encrypted, I don't worry too much about people being able to peek. The format being very simple has made it easy to hack up python scripts which allowed me to bring all my old livejournal entries, medium entries, and wordpress entries together into one diary.
- Swtrz 7y agoI do this with my own mail account using a filter that drops messages with an @NoteToSelf tag in the body into a particular folder. I hate to be that guy, I think Paul thought too hard about this one.
- davnicwil 7y agoOn seeing this tweet I wondered who would be the first to do it, and how long it would take. Congratulations, from a fellow hacker - what's it been, 2 days? That's really impressive speed, especially considering it's nice looking. A lot of people would confidently assume they could knock this out in a couple of days no problem, but it'd actually take them a few weeks at minimum. I had a post on the front page a few weeks ago on the topic [0], perhaps you saw it - I could learn a lot from you :-) [0] https://boxci.dev/blog/why-it-took-12-weeks-to-ship-an-mvp-I-thought-would-take-3 https://boxci.dev/blog/why-it-took-12-weeks-to-ship-an-mvp-I...
- mtlynch 7y agoOP mentioned in a comment that this tool existed before the tweet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045528
- davnicwil 7y agoAh, good spot. Well, I'm still pretty excited for the OP at the right place right time nature of this. I mean, imagine browsing twitter and noticing that Paul Graham asks for someone to build the very product you're sitting on fully formed :-) Kind of a perfect case study of the adage that you need to work really hard to prepare in order to be lucky!
- lancer 7y agoA friend and I had the same need for an email diary service in 1998. DailyDiary [0] has been online ever since :) [0] https://dailydiary.com https://dailydiary.com
- agentofoblivion 7y agoAmazing speed/execution. Kudos!
- haberdasher 7y agoIf anyone wants to give a multi-year journal (5-year Journals are popular in print form) chrome extension a try: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-vision-board-g/egbpmmfglhgciocgillbpooejgfajmng?hl=en-US https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-vision-...
- F_J_H 7y agoThank you for the suggestion. Played around with it a bit an it looks interesting. Curious as I am not familiar with Chrome Extensions - where is the actual data stored?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- foobarrrrrr 7y agokiss ass much?
- foobarrrrrr 7y agoKiss ass much?
- wodenokoto 7y agoWhat do you use for sending and reading emails? I’m looking to build a simple script that can send out some emails and respond to simple replies.
- qntty 7y agoThis is a newer feature of Day One (but you have to pay to get it).
- tossmeaside1 7y agoNews Flash: - Rich person muses about things they want - Some number of people, reading of said musings assume it is a viable business because "PG wants this..." - Someone rushes it to market - Turns out the rich guy wanted something that is largely already available (if not exactly to "spec") in a myriad of offerings from a companies large and small - Rich guy goes on, unconcerned that his whims just wasted several hours of several people's lives - Several people who did not ship this "solution" watch, waiting for the next kernel of greatness the rich guy will drop for the peasants race towards note: - I don't know PG - I don't know (many) Rich Guys - I do understand why people hang on the words of people like PG and Musk, it's just not something that I do myself - I have nothing but admiration for someone who can hear a suggestion and execute on it with any degree of precision and quality this is not a skill I possess
- dang 7y agoSubmitted title was "Show HN: Paul Graham requested an email diary service, so I shipped it", which isn't a bad thing, but given that the post is now high on the front page I think we should do the usual edit and take out the celebrity name.
- sandeeps_ 7y ago@kossnocorp How long did it take for you to build this?
- kop316 7y agoFor a different thought of how to do it, I self-host a Wordpress site that is essentially a diary. However, right now the scope is to keep track of recipes that I have made, if I liked them, and where I found them. While I could have made a notes app, this allows my fiancée to look at it, comments on it, or make her own posts to give her thoughts too (though she hasn't used it). I have thought about expanding it into a more general blog (technical or otherwise), I haven't gotten to that step yet. Thinking about it, I could make a cron service on it to ask me "what's going on" with a link to make a new post as well, and make it optionally private (so only I or who I choose can see it).
- deadmetheny 7y agoPaul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham. Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham? Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham! Paul Graham.
- groovybits 7y agoContext? And why is this rated second in this thread?
- austenallred 7y agoYou're literally typing those words on a website that Paul Graham created.
- deadmetheny 7y agoPaul Graham.
- vallas 7y agothis guy is making art by the way
- ngngngng 7y agoPaul Graham?
- dang 7y agoPlease don't do this here. It literally adds to the thing you're complaining about. Btw, pg hates cult of personality stuff as much any of us.
- Aperocky 7y agoI uses good old terminal and vim, with a single command to enter current diary: https://github.com/Aperocky/termlife/blob/master/diaryman.sh https://github.com/Aperocky/termlife/blob/master/diaryman.sh Writing diary has been so much easier! (though probably will be hard to extend to people who don't know/like terminal editors, or command line itself)
- juandazapata 7y agoWhat’s the difference between this and using...your email? I’m genuinely confused.
- racuna 7y agoalso: https://www.maildiary.net/v2/ https://www.maildiary.net/v2/
- kazinator 7y agoprivate@diaryemail.com is an oxymoron. Why would I write an e-mail to some random address at a domain I don't own, and pretend that it's private, when I could send it to <myalias>@<mydomain>, where it ends up on a server under my desk?
- johnnyballgame 7y agoClick "Open Diary". Click back button. Nope.
- reaperducer 7y agoWhy does this need to be a "service?" Why not just write the e-mail in your current e-mail client and then store the draft in its own folder? People have been doing that for centuries. They'd write a letter to themselves and then store it in a box somewhere instead of sending it. Some people took it a step farther and would write the letter, and then burn it if they were angry. Very cathartic.
- taneq 7y agoThis was my first response, too. Just email yourself with subject "diary", then the next day, reply to that email, etc. You can even have multi-user versions by sending it to someone(s) else and everyone just replies all. If you self-host your email then it's fairly secure, and has all of the advantages but none of the disadvantages.
- josephwegner 7y agoThis is a real "Dropbox is just rsync" sort of comment, but I personally use a small CLI util for this[1]. It automatically creates a new text file for each day that I use it and stores it in a dated folder/file. I can look at notes by day, or grep around in that directory fairly easily. And it syncs to wherever, so I can also just search within my file storage service. I use this for both regular "diary" sort of journaling as well as notes around what I was doing on a particular day. It's wildly useful keeping daily notes on things, for questions like "Hey, do you remember that bug we dealt with last year...?" [1] https://gist.github.com/josephwegner/677ce82556fcbde6ae626a85d125a512 https://gist.github.com/josephwegner/677ce82556fcbde6ae626a8...
- kissgyorgy 7y agoI have a big problem with this: You can't seem to edit the post after it has been sent. A typo staying there forever would drive me crazy :)
- nausher81 7y agoI use an App called Daylio [https://daylio.webflow.io/ https://daylio.webflow.io/] as a personal diary and mood tracker. It has a single notification per day which is directly actionable (Asks for your mood for the day). Data is stored locally on the phone and can be backed up to your iCloud/Google Drive. I have found this app to be more habit forming in terms of creating a micro-diary, rather than sitting down and jotting thoughts.
- EllieEffingMae 7y agoMy personal solution to this is using http://itty.bitty.site http://itty.bitty.site You can write a lot on one page. And I wrote some bash functions to store the links when you close your browser, and then give you the option of opening one based on the title.
- cyberferret 7y agoThis thread makes me miss the old Posterous service. I used to enjoy emailing shot blog posts, and only having a few friends of mine knowing what my blog address was. It was a form of journalling that I enjoyed until they inexplicably shut the service down.
- mc3 7y agoThe codeless way of doing it: Set up a daily recurring event on Google Calendar, with an email reminder saying "Wazzaaaap?" then you reply to it. To accumulate, use Gmails search functionality.
- JamesAdir 7y agoLooks great. I've gone through the comments but might missed it - Could you share a bit on what you used to develop this? language? frameworks? thanks!
- ohsik 7y agoFunny when I came to post my diary app, I saw this haha https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22058792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22058792
- stewfortier 7y agoI built and maintain Writing Amigo, which does exactly this. It emails you a fun, daily writing prompt that you can reply to directly in your inbox. It also provides a free dashboard with writing stats and a built-in text editor for refining posts. https://www.writingamigo.com/ https://www.writingamigo.com/ Here are some sample screenshots: https://twitter.com/stewfortier/status/1216969455734931457?s=21 https://twitter.com/stewfortier/status/1216969455734931457?s...
- maxpv 7y agoI use a dedicated email address and send emails to myself. Much private, you can make threads ect.. Using protonmail by the way.
- tectonic 7y agoI've been doing this for myself for a couple years now with a little service I wrote that just sends me an email each day that I reply to. It's archived in my email history and in a simple, searchable web UI. It's been super useful for figuring out when I did something a few years ago, medical notes, etc.
- overcast 7y agoOut of curiosity, how are you preventing spoofed email spam? It looks like you're accepting everything to one generic email address, and posting via the senders address?