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Omg.lol – A lovable web page and email address
- cottsak 4y agowhy would you buy a subdomain for $20/y instead of a regular domain?
- geoah 4y agoThe hostname is pretty fun sounding, seems to offer a basic profile page and email forwarding. Assuming the setup is noob friendly I wouldn’t call it a very unfair price. Yes you can do it for cheaper in gandi but seems more daunting a task. The eTLD stuff they mention are interesting, still trying to understand what it actually means though. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Suffix_List https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Suffix_List
- simonhamp 4y agoIt's not just a subdomain. It's the landing page, an email address with forwarding, creation of a Mastodon account on their instance... there's a lot there. $20/year is actually a bargain as it would likely cost you more than that each month to run all of that yourself
- robjan 4y agoThat's great until they get bored of running the service and you've now lost all of the aforementioned which are dependent on their domain.
- simonhamp 4y agoSeems like a bit of fun. I've definitely thought even less about something before parting with $20 on it /shrug
- quickthrower2 4y agoIt is not the $20 that is a the main problem. Backlinks to your profile and contacts with that email address for example.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Volundr 4y agoI mean you could say the same about any business. I fail to see how this is unique in that regard.
- charcircuit 4y agoA DNS server, landing page and email can be had for free. For the rest there are free alternatives like twitter, pastebin, etc.
- derefr 4y agoMany DNS registrars offer very similar sets of value-add services for free for real TLDs people buy through them. Web "parking pages" and vanity email forwarding are table stakes. What wouldn't be table stakes, would be if each of these was its own Mastodon instance, or something else like that that actually had an OpEx cost.
- strokirk 4y agoTrouble is, many registrars do with with way worse UX. I own domains from two registrars and loathe to use their interfaces.
- hot_gril 4y agoI get it, but $20 still seems rather high for that. Anyway, it's a cool website.
- 627467 4y agoInteresting... I share that feeling, yet, if they actually positioned this as: "Pay 20usd/y for your social account in our mastodon instance and get free subdomain, webpage and email forwarding" I would find this totally acceptable, considering the potential costs of actually running a mastodon instance.
- hot_gril 4y agoThere are plenty of free-to-use Mastodon instances. They claim theirs is nicer, but it's hard to tell upfront, so it makes sense to me that they'd focus on the whole personal homepage aspect. If I liked the omg.lol domain name a ton, I'd pay for this.
- tptacek 4y agoWhy would pay you $20/y for a regular domain that doesn't do anything until you spend more money (and time and money) to make it do something?
- quickthrower2 4y agoThe main reason is you have more protection and guaranteed continual ownership of the thing (depending on the TLD you choose, of course). Whereas if this service shut down in 12 months time ... well it wouldn't be buckling any trends by doing so. And if they shut down and let the omg.lol lapse or sell it, someone could then redirect all the subdomains to who knows what. Another reason might be domain trust? If spammers use omg.lol subdomains the entire thing might be blacklisted for email. Domains are easier to resell. I don't think there will be a secondary market for omg.lol and if you sell you business based on an omg.lol it will be a red flag vs. a top level domain. On the other hand if you intent is a personal CV / bio type page, with email (you need fastmail too) and so on, the $20 is a great deal. But I would rather just use a xyz.netlify.com for such a project, then couple that with a free email service.
- derefr 4y ago> Another reason might be domain trust? If spammers use omg.lol subdomains the entire thing might be blacklisted for email. I think that them being on the https://wiki.mozilla.org/Public_Suffix_List https://wiki.mozilla.org/Public_Suffix_List makes that unlikely. (a Public Suffix is a thing like .co.uk — would it make sense to blacklist .co.uk? Not unless you're the type of postmaster who is willing to blacklist entire TLDs like .biz as well.)
- quickthrower2 4y agoOk I didn't know about this list. Feel like I should have known! I always though it was up to countries and top-level operators. I imagined something like .uk publishing somehow that .co.uk is a top level domain, for example. I think the requirements to run a top level domain, like .lol itself are pretty onerous? But I wonder if it is easier to get your subdomain added to the public suffix list, and I wonder what legal guarantees are afforded to someone who registers such a domain.
- noduerme 4y agoI can see a lot of potential here as an alternative for people like me who don't have or want social media accounts. Sometimes I do want to share a profile with people without linking to my business website. But managing a separate domain / server / registration / email / etc. for that purpose hasn't seemed worth it. $20 a year is pretty reasonable. I think the one thing that would stop me from taking up on a service like this would be the "omg.lol" - it's just a little too off-brand for a guy who wears all black and hates texting. But I can see how a lot of people might be into it.
- pc86 4y agoHonestly the dichotomy of that personality type with an "@omg.lol" email is pretty great to me, personally.
- noduerme 4y agoHah! Good point. I might have to give it a shot just for the irony factor. Kinda like a happy face Tshirt. I saw an original one from the 80s (70s ?) in a vintage store for like $500, almost bought it... so in a way, as something you only wear a couple times a year this would be a real bargain ;) I do like the idea of not just a landing page and email, but a little identity package that's not part of a social network.
- factsarelolz 4y ago> it's just a little too off-brand for a guy who wears all black and hates texting. I'm in the boat with style but I threw 20$ at it because I know I'll get a few interesting looks. Might even add it to my "recruiter" resume.
- gglitch 4y agoBummer that .nil and .null are not available.
- avx56 4y ago.undefined
- cirrus3 4y agobecause you can't get omg.lol, it is obv taken. Not saying it is great reason, but that is the reason since you asked.
- denkmoon 4y agoI bought <my-name>.is.gay, because lol (nothing derogatory, I just used it as a link shortener). About 6 months later it stopped working because apparently reselling subdomains isn't allowed for .gay :(
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- personjerry 4y ago"Buy it for $20" omg lol no
- quickthrower2 4y agoThey definitely should have a free version, limited of course. A sneaky one would be free for the first year, pay $20 thereafter to secure it.
- cirrus3 4y ago^ this would have been the right move
- mfkp 4y agoThat sounds like a nightmare with how many spammers you'd get. For $20 fee, that solves the vast majority of the spam problem.
- motoxpro 4y agoI feel like most people either haven't started anything and had to deal with spam, or they think every business should a billion dollar grow at all costs business that loses money. Making it free would have missed out on the probably 2 dozen people that converted from this post.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- yuhc 4y agoIt took me 10s to load the homepage. How long would it take to forward an email?
- intelVISA 4y agoDon't mind the wasm plan9coin miner, you're web3 aren't you?
- lost_tourist 4y agoloaded up instantly for me
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- durpkingOP 4y agowhy not register omg.motorcycles yourself for a discounted $14.99 per year?
- cirrus3 4y agobecause .motorcycles is boring and .lol is fun... what that a real question?
- quickthrower2 4y agomotorcycles.lol?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- scary-size 4y agoDon't tempt me!
- sdfghjkiuyt 4y ago[flagged]
- cirrus3 4y agohuh?
- cirrus3 4y agoWhat kind of strange conspiracy rabbit holes have you dug yourself into? Take a step back and get out asap. It's just a fun subdomain to have... do you _really_ expect this is some secret initiative to start new social platform to rival "twitter/parler/etc" full of only "neoliberals"? oof. Where in the description did you infer this was in any way attempting to become "the ultimate fix for online discourse"?
- nilespotter 4y agoit is obviously on the front page because people are running away from Twitter, now that the dominant, extreme left has lost control of the narrative there.
- WantonQuantum 4y agolol wat?
- hot_gril 4y agoThe "neoliberal" thing again. I remember that article on HN about Iran's firewall using that word, and the confusion in the comments.
- jppope 4y agoThats awesome- made me chuckle. Man I needed a little "old web" today.
- progx 4y agoSlow loading times, 8 bit images, animated gifs, crazy colorful pages, pages optimized for a screen resolution, for a special browser,... no thank you, i stay on the new web ;-)
- mjhagen 4y agoSlow loading times, 8 GB images, animated gifs, crazy dull pages, pages optimized for mobile, for a special browser,... no thank you, i stay on the old web ;-)
- rvz 4y ago[flagged]
- russelg 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34270258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34270258 On another note, what about this caused all these haters to crawl out?
- braingenious 4y ago> Is this the new nadir of snake oil grifting? The A16Z crypto fund announcement must be open in another tab
- tux2bsd 4y ago[flagged]
- jhanschoo 4y agoThis looks like fun, reminds me of SDF but with an ability to provide more services due to the annual fee. edit: now that I revisit it, SDF does appear to provide more services, though probably with less commitment to reliability than omg.lol
- jvanderbot 4y agoAhh sdf. I think I still log in occasionally even. Never did anything useful.
- 2b3a51 4y agoI set up an account and made a small donation for the 'verified' account thing. I can use my sdf email address for email newsletters and such. I also log in (as another poster mentioned) and use the text mode browser for checking on Web sites from outside my local and national network. Finally the system is a nice example of netbsd in action. I have not joined in any of the forums &c yet. I might play with gopher and gemini for lutz
- vatys 4y agoThank you for reminding me that SDF still exists. I just logged into my account there for the first time since 2005, and it still works.
- themodelplumber 4y agoWow, and I was embarrassed to log in again after ~3Y. Awesome that it still works. I have been meaning to check in again, so this thread is a great reminder.
- mike_d 4y agoI still use SDF all the time, and it is amazing. Great for when you need to test "does this work not from my network."
- j1elo 4y ago
- fareesh 4y agoThe real price isn't $20, it's the cost of everything you lose when the service shuts down
- tptacek 4y agoYou mean, like every other service anybody stands up ever? The ones that charge money are the ones that stand any chance of surviving. https://archive.is/7LxAh https://archive.is/7LxAh
- Gigachad 4y agoThe longer something has existed, the longer it is likely to continue existing. Going with Gmail or a custom domain is a really safe bet. There is no way I’d use an email service that’s less than 10 years old now. My gmail account from when I was a kid is still active and working while most of the vanity/foss/privacy focused ones I signed up for have since died.
- verrp 4y ago> The longer something has existed, the longer it is likely to continue existing. aka the (postulated) Lindy Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_effect
- kortilla 4y agoJust a different way of looking at survivorship bias (“all of these old buildings were built really well!”).
- speedyapoc 4y agoWith the way Google and other providers have shutdown accounts with impunity, it’s hard to think of anything but a custom domain being a safe option.
- IgorPartola 4y ago
- paultopia 4y agoSomeone tried to make Geocities meets Wordpress meets early Facebook
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- footlose_3815 4y ago[flagged]
- devin 4y agoI would kill to know how many people converted despite these comments.
- djsavvy 4y agoI did!
- lost_tourist 4y agoI suspect much like reddit the ratio of link lurkers to commenters on HN is about 19:1 like reddit.
- kortilla 4y agoI think that’s way too high (for commenter count). Lurkers are 90%, 10% have accounts, and 10% of those with accounts comment. This was the breakdown of some major subreddits maybe 6 years ago.
- blakewatson 4y agoI did!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Backing5890 4y agoAdd me to the list. I just think it's neat.
- babyoil 4y agoI did. It's fun and offers cute little things that I wouldn't pay for individually (a hassle) but use often enough to appreciate.
- maxbaines 4y agoI did https://maxbain.es https://maxbain.es
- hahamrfunnyguy 4y ago
- sturmeh 4y ago$20 a year for a subdomain I can't control (dns records), sounds like a great deal.
- 627467 4y agoIf this was positioned as "20usd/year mastodon account on our cool instance and - BTW - you get free webpage and email forwarding" would get much closer to the audience. I sense the point of this funny domain is the community, and community is centered on mastodon instance which btw, is not cheap to run as soon as it grows beyond a few hundred people. (I'm including potential moderation costs)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- motoxpro 4y agoI don't use mastodon but would love all the rest of it.
- kinggencha 4y agoAll of it is already available on the web, often on a variety of hosts, though
- pprotas 4y agoI think you are overestimating how many people care about Mastodon
- tptacek 4y agoI think you're probably underestimating how many people are going to care about Mastodon.
- MrOwnPut 4y agoI think we should average out what you are both estimating.
- elromulous 4y agoThis. Reminds me of [1]. Although I never finished reading it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
- braingenious 4y agoThere are a lot of negative folks in the comments here but I think this is kind of neat. I helped a buddy set up a little art boutique site using a .lol domain and the overall feedback was that people liked the whimsy. Combine that with the fact that that TLD was heavily discounted on porkbun at the time and it all made reasonable business sense! I hope this works out for you and your users.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- splatzone 4y agoI love it. Well done, hope you make a mint
- yeldarb 4y agoBought one for my kiddo. He’s just a baby but still needs a unique email for me to create him accounts (eg frequent flyer, global entry) and I had previously been using a +variant on my gmail. Having a vanity email alias seems more fun.
- mastax 4y agoA lot of services don't let you change your email address. Could cause some pain if this service doesn't exist in 20 years.
- matt-attack 4y agoInteresting. Can you name an example of a service that doesn't permit an email change?
- omarfarooq 4y agoMethinks a service that hasn't had a codebase update in 20 years.
- pishpash 4y agoAnd even if they did, some need your old email address to approve a change of email address, essentially locking you out. DocuSign is one.
- theschmed 4y agoI saw the same need, but I've actually purchased domains for all of my children, so that when they get older, I can transfer ownership to them. 10-18 years is a long time window, so I felt that purchasing a domain was more appropriate than setting up an address at a service which may or may not still be available in decades. Thank goodness for services like Purelymail[1] and Forward Email[2] that offer free or cheap forwarding from various domains! [1]: https://purelymail.com/ https://purelymail.com/ [2]: https://forwardemail.net/ https://forwardemail.net/
- anoncow 4y agoA refreshing project. I hope this does well. We need more of these to succeed.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- aklemm 4y agoThe negativity here is bizarre. This looks just about exactly like the first steps we need to create good spaces for social networking and publishing online. The guy is already taking feedback about subdomains and looking at selling domains, which obviously would give people a little more control and assurance they can own their stuff.
- cddotdotslash 4y agoThe readership of this site is for some reason primed to immediately surface negative feedback for almost anything creative that gets posted. It happens for basically every “Show HN.”
- tptacek 4y agoWhich is why we have special rules for "Show HN" threads (this thread isn't one of those) that forbid that behavior.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- lucasyvas 4y agoI expected to hate this and walked away thinking it was a pretty ok idea. Good job! The idea of curating alternate services together and offering it as a product feels novel - does anyone else do this? I'd love to see hosting offered for curated open source services that are interoperable. Sort of like all those WordPress hosts of yore (and today!). Edit: omg.lol, is it AOL?? :D Edit 2: The price is even the same! $19.95 vs $20
- lgeorget 4y ago> The idea of curating alternate services together and offering it as a product feels novel - does anyone else do this? It's a different but related concept: Framasoft in France (https://framasoft.org/fr/ https://framasoft.org/fr/). It's a non-profit that provides open-source alternatives to common cloud services. They also teach people how to install and configure these tools on their own server instead of relying on providers reselling their data.
- mananaysiempre 4y agoThey also used to host quite a lot of stuff before they decided it went both beyond their means and contrary to their goals.
- codetrotter 4y ago> provides open-source alternatives to common cloud services This includes, among other things, PeerTube. PeerTube is a federated alternative to YouTube. https://joinpeertube.org/ https://joinpeertube.org/ I love PeerTube. Been running an instance of it of my own for a few weeks. I currently have only two videos on it so far. The subject of the videos on my instance are computing and music. My instance does not allow others to sign up, but I would like to invite other creators to host videos about computing and music on my instance. I tried to reach out to one person that was currently using YouTube and who was making videos about computing to ask them if they wanted to host their videos on my PeerTube instance instead. Didn’t hear back from that person yet. I would like for about ten to one hundred people who have a history of creating videos about computing or music to join my instance. The goal being that we would be enough people on the instance so that every week there is 1 to 2 new videos posted, while still being few enough people so that we are not flooded with many videos, and while also maintaining a strict focus on videos whose topics are restricted to one or more of the following three: - computing (by this I mean programming, software engineering, computer science and such) - music (includes music videos for music created by the person, as well as videos about music theory and videos about music production) - electronics (meaning things like microcontrollers, soldering, PCB design, etc) Essentially, to create a small and focused community. Still not sure how to actually get other people to join though. For now my strategy will be to continue making videos of my own, and occasionally reaching out to others to ask them personally if they want to join the instance when I see someone that makes content of a similar nature as the kind that I host on my instance.
- dcchambers 4y agoI've been a happy omg.lol subscriber for years, originally as a fun little joke but it's actually pretty useful and I use my profile as my "link in bio" for twitter and other social sites. The founder, Adam, is a genuinely good dude. He just keeps adding more features and the service gets better and better.
- roywashere 4y agoIt seems like a very nice service. It is great to hear that they are already around for quite some time. And remember: if you’re not paying, you are the product. This seams both very reasonably priced and also priced high enough that if you take a little care at running things well it can be sustainable
- karaokeyoga 4y ago> if you’re not paying, you are the product I guess you could also be both though, no?
- nigamanth 4y agoYou could definitely, in this our happiness is the service/product of buying omg.lol
- input_sh 4y ago> I've been a happy omg.lol subscriber for years Interesting, how many years would you estimate it's been around? I see their Mastodon server is pretty new (since last July) and wayback doesn't have the homepage archived at all. Can't think of another way of checking.
- soco 4y agoThe domain was registered in 2019 and work started later - as they say on their "About" page. So "subscriber for years" where years <= 2.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- memorable 4y ago<rant> Idk why but why are people getting mad at stuff that literally affects every other type of services online (like the chance of it shutting down)? 20$/year also doesnt sound all that expensive, thats 1.6$ per month! I rarely ever pay for things online, but I know damn well that anyone who pays for this service and then not use it would probably forget that they are paying because its so cheap! Sigh Hacker News moment I guess. Criticising harshly for something thats suppose to be fun.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- fareesh 4y agoThe difference here is you are sharing email addresses, domains, feeds, networks, etc. none of which you will ever own if the service shuts down. Other services can shut down but this type of entrenchment isn't there when my cloud notes shuts down, or when my hosted collaborative kanban shuts down. They can give me my data and I can go elsewhere. I don't have to get the world to update contacts and bookmarks and other stuff like that.
- wlonkly 4y agoYou can bring your own domain.
- blakewatson 4y agoYou get a surprising amount of functionality for $20. I just got an account and I've been poking around for about an hour. I'm seriously impressed. You get: - a webpage - DNS - email forwarding - a statuslog - url shortener - a pastebin - a weblog - an optional Mastodon account - optional IRC/Discord - and probably some more stuff I missed And all of this stuff is much more configurable than it would typically be on other services. It is ripe for creative integrations. Oh and the whole thing can be interacted with through an API. Pretty cool for $20. Definitely not the same as "just getting your own domain." https://bw.omg.lol/ https://bw.omg.lol/
- zacwest 4y agoWorth noting many of the services on omg.lol support custom domains, e.g. https://zwe.st/omglol https://zwe.st/omglol is on the URL shortener. I extensively use the API for pastebin and URL shortener. It's very much a selling point for me -- love being able to control things on the command line with a few simple scripts. Great package of tiny little web apps for a good dollar amount and a great author. https://zac.omg.lol/ https://zac.omg.lol/
- beebmam 4y agoIt's not $20. It's $20 per year. I know that might be semantic for some people, but for much of these services, I wouldn't want it going away after 1 year if I'm unable to pay that cost again. And for that reason, I think it's worth noting.
- bmitc 4y agoDomain registration has to be renewed, either per year or per <x> years if you buy a bunch of licenses up front. So what's the alternative to this then? A lot of domains can cost around $20 per year.
- thepangolino 4y agoThe thing with a domain registration is that you know if you pay for ten years in advance, you WILL have it for ten years. With most SaaS, you have absolutely no guarantee this is going to be the case.
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- gnarbarian 4y agoThis is a great idea and I absolutely love it. The only thing I don't like is the branding. It seems to have some political undertones to it. I think combining this with a product like crypt pad is a great start towards creating a more independent Google workspace competitor. (and I'm flagged lol, way to prove my point)
- camdenlock 4y ago[flagged]
- Kerrick 4y agoI hadn't heard of Transhumansim before so I looked it up. Wikipedia says: > Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Is that the word you meant to use? It doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your list/comment.
- camdenlock 4y agoI mean it in the sense of rejecting the “constraints” of our nature and seeking to move beyond them as far as possible.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- climb_stealth 4y agoWhere do you pick up political undertones? I'm genuinely curious. I read the whole landing page and it is all lighthearted and friendly, and I pick up on nothing that makes me think otherwise.
- bobsmooth 4y agoThe example profile includes pronouns.
- raziel31 4y ago$20 for a subdomain? absolutely no. some have mentioned the mastodon instance of omg.lol but who cares about that? it's a desert with only 500 people.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- kaushikc 4y agoI own a shorter domain that this one. Only if I knew how to make a multi-tenant sub-domain registering application.
- fsflover 4y agoDid you know that Mastodon has federation?
- raziel31 4y agookay so whats the point of joining omg.lol's mastodon instance if i can already access contents from another server? whats the special?
- Duralias 4y agoAlmost all instances are run by volunteers, in this case you'd be using an instance you pay for, which should mean it will be more reliable and won't suddenly disappear. But if it does then you can just migrate almost everything over (was something left behind that I cannot remember, but everything important is moved over).
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- abbbi 4y agogives me the tripod/myspace feels (in a good way) :)
- lebronlee 4y ago[dead]
- zagrebian 4y agoGen Z is probably asking why there’s no .yolo domain suffix yet.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- throwaway742 4y agoI thought YOLO was more of a millennial thing.
- zagrebian 4y agoIt’s probably somewhere in the middle. When YOLO became popular a decade ago, most millennials were already in their mid-twenties, and the way I see it, new internet slang always “belongs” to the youth, and that was Gen Z at that time.
- programmarchy 4y agoDamn, like.omg.lol was already taken.
- hidelooktropic 4y agoHa. I used to own paste.lol. So funny to see it used for something fun after I stopped paying for it.
- toephu2 4y agoAnyone remember hey.com from a couple of years ago? Offered a chance to get a email at a 3-letter domain dot com....yeah and how many people are still using their hey.com email today? This is also similar to about.me links people were posting from a couple of years ago.
- mongol 4y agoA difference I think is that this site has a kind of personality to it. The others seem quite generic. I think it is actually quite a differentiator
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dotcoma 4y agoSo, people have quit using hey.com ? It’s not what the 37 Signals guys are saying…
- drdec 4y agohey.com is $99/yr, this is $20/yr
- leke 4y agoAm I dreaming? There seems to be something weird about this post and its comments.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- antipotoad 4y agoAre you implying AI-generated astroturfing? We’re rapidly approaching the scenario depicted in XKCD 810 [1]. Edit: OK, on actually reading the comments I agree. Something weird. Hmm. [1] https://xkcd.com/810/ https://xkcd.com/810/
- Dave3of5 4y agoIt defo screams astro-turfing. This post is filled with sock puppets who think this weird service is worth $20 and are completely ignoring all the downsides.
- lillecarl 4y agoIt's 20$ per year, I would assume you make more in half an hour, at least an hour. For me it could be worth it just to explore what's available, how it works. If you live in poverty then it might be too steep. I'd recommend checking out eu.org for free domains.
- the-printer 4y agoThe service itself is interesting. The branding…is not to my taste. I think that some people may be able to get behind the service by virtue of its usefulness alone, and either are unbothered by the branding or are even attracted to it. And then there are some people who are totally put off by the branding for various reasons, be it because they perceive certain political/ideological undertones behind it or just think that it’s immature and are even aghast that other HN users (who are predominantly middle-aged men, presumably) find it appealing. To criticize the branding, puts one’s self in a position where one can either make a statement that can either be perceived as “politically incorrect” or insensitive, or reconciliatory (“I understand why people like it, but it’s not for me, I should’ve kept my opinions to myself and let people have their fun.”)
- woofwoofwoof 4y agoThat’s pretty cool, glad to see good old internet services being sold in a neat package without hiding them down behind proprietary APIs and things like that.
- Aissen 4y agoIt's in fact a really nice service. I think addressing the portability issue with a bring-your own DNS might appease some people (and still bill $20, or even more). BUT, if I had a Product Owner hat on, this is not something I would prioritize as a one-man show.
- freddyym 4y agoHave been using this for 7/8 months and its honestly great. The community is really wholesome, the admin is very helpful and the product is far more than just a silly webpage. Glad to see it getting attention on HN!
- gadders 4y agoIf anyone wants a miserable domain to use as the anti omg.lol, I have fullofcr.app.
- HNBRN 4y agoI wouldnt use it myself, but definitely have ideas of people I could offer a new email adress to.
- gadders 4y agoYeah. I was thinking politicians, corporate customer service departments etc. Put a header on each email saying "This email was sent to [politician name]@fullofcr.app"
- badcppdev 4y agoI don't love that 100% but the general theme has potential. I can imagine choosing to go with something that's not quite as twee as omg.lol, etc
- SpaghettiX 4y agoHow reliable is the `lol` TLD? What if the DNS records go down, or any of the application services provided by omg.lol go down?
- setuids 4y agoConsidering that .lol is a gTLD, it's going to be owned by one of the big registries. It's very unlikely that something will happen to it
- Transisto 4y agoUnlike what extention? Dot kiwi?
- wlonkly 4y agoOwned by Uniregistry who is in turn owned by GoDaddy. Like all gTLD registrars, they have to meet all of the ICANN accreditation requirements.
- berry_sortoro 4y ago[dead]
- varispeed 4y agoHow do you maintain a site like that today? Won't it need an army of moderators? Had a mate starting some sort of a pastebin / blog site and it wasn't long before people started posting questionable content and he had to be on top of it so that the hosting provider doesn't suspend his account. That took majority of his time and he basically couldn't get time for anything else and site wasn't bringing enough money from ads to hire staff. On top of that common theme was someone posting adult content and then reporting to Google so that they would block ads. I guess having paid accounts keep people who are up to no good slightly at bay.
- mongol 4y agoModeration must be ripe for AI.
- nailer 4y agoAuthor: Edge displays: https://home.omg.lol/ https://home.omg.lol/ is displaying unsafe content from https://social.lol/@adam/109186339855398190/embed https://social.lol/@adam/109186339855398190/embed
- fmisle 4y agoEdge is flagging the social.lol mastodon instance, the owner already submitted a reclassification to Microsoft
- xeddit 4y agoSeems cool except I refuse to use the "omg" acronym, you're all free to, but for me I don't find it very tasteful. Even "lol" is pretty dated, it's the complete polar opposite of a domain I'd put next to my name. Will you still like this domain in 20 years? It's like getting a batman tattoo.
- 082349872349872 4y agoomg is ~40 years old, lol ~30; chances are they'll be about as cool in 20 as cool (~90) may be.
- ralston3 4y agoJust subscribed. Looks useful!
- _heimdall 4y agoDoes omg.lol support any indieweb features like webmentions? Would be a great fit since every user already gets a (sub)domain and homepage!
- Rudism 4y agoHow do these email addresses do against spam filters? In my experience trying to send an email from any domain on a non-standard TLD (regardless of properly configured SPF and DKIM) gets heavily penalized and almost always ends up going straight to the recipient's junk mail folder.
- brnt 4y agoThey don't. Because new TLDs are default on many blocklists, not necesarily blocked but you're one or two mistakes away (shouty title, short body) that you'll be thrown on the blocklist eventually.
- SpencerOMG 4y agoFelt like making an account here just to say how much I've been enjoying this service. I got a lifetime license awhile back and love how it just keeps giving. The shortened email is cool enough, but all the extra goodies are just really tasty icing on the cake. The simple status social media site is fun because it's so low friction, you don't worry about anything other than just creating a stream of little updates. I'd love to see this entire concept become the new way we web. Like instead of giant conglomerate companies trying to do everything, we have a bunch of smaller little services that interact with each other (a la fediverse or something similar) and they occasionally add a new little set of tools. Feels very "old-web" like. Like a modern BBS. Great work so far Adam! Keep it up :) Much love from spencer.omg.lol
- shmatt 4y ago...Also your lifetime account is basically worthless if more people don't sign up and pay. As there is no reason for the owner to lose money giving you services
- alimov 4y agoIs that not the same situation as with every other service out there?
- SpencerOMG 4y agolol yeah, like most digital things have a lifespan, that doesn't make them worthless just like a car isn't worthless even though it's not indestructible. I factored in the usefulness, uniqueness, and possible untimely-deathness and found the lifetime license worth it. It's nice to support stuff like this.
- sphars 4y agoOh man, I just tried to see if spencer.omg.lol was available and it looks like I'm already too late! This was my first time hearing about omg.lol, so congrats on beating me to the punch :D
- jrib 4y agotheir status page is https://broke.lol/ https://broke.lol/ . This is great.
- aklemm 4y agoHonestly, for a good personal homepage, a full suite of managed open source / self-hosted apps, and a decentralized social network I’d pay $20 per MONTH.
- unobatbayar 4y agoWait, this is really cool.
- zquestz 4y agoActually pretty neat, but it would be substantially nicer with a lifetime account option, even if it was expensive. Having to renew is inconvenient, and makes it possible to lose your name.
- public_defender 4y agoLooks like lifetime memberships (mentioned in sibling comments) are a special offering. https://home.omg.lol/info/lifetime-addresses https://home.omg.lol/info/lifetime-addresses
- ZhangSWEFAANG 4y ago[flagged]
- Dwedit 4y agoWhen you get an email address from someone, you need assurance that they'll be around in 5+ years. Hotmail and Gmail aren't going anywhere.
- avree 4y agoWhen Gmail launched, people were writing this exact same comment about how Yahoo and Hotmail aren't going anywhere.
- twinwing 4y agoAnecdata: My Yahoo and Hotmail address are still up and running.
- hanspeter 4y agoGoogle was a $23 billion at the time they launched Gmail. Not sure why an email service from Yahoo or Microsoft - which were not the primary focus of either company's business - would be more likely to persist.
- robjan 4y agoMy Hotmail account from the 90s is still receiving emails
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- b1gtuna 4y agoLOL. I like it. I paid for it. Well worth $20 / year for the fun of it.
- NoblePublius 4y agoIME custom TLD emails get marked as spam a lot, especially when received by anyone with a data protection policy.
- TurkishPoptart 4y agoThe fact that "they/them" is the default user frustrates and saddens me.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- TheHappyOddish 4y agoThe "code of conduct" is also quite offputting.
- lexluthor1791 4y agoI'm sorry to ask this, I am on a 5 minute break at work where was this that you got what sounds like an amazing deal? I would love to tinker around a bit.
- recursivequine 4y agoThese comments seem very GPT to me
- Transisto 4y agoSurprised nobody brought up an alternative to set this up yourself. I guess it may not exist or it's called managed hosting and the feature set and complexity is too overwhelming?
- rsynnott 4y agoI'd have some concerns about the idea of a paid Mastodon or IRC account, in that it kind of produces a perverse incentive for moderation; if you have a misbehaving user who's paying you, well, what do you do? Though, doing the SomethingAwful approach ($10 one-off membership fee, extremely strict moderation, if you get banned that's another $10) would be an interesting experiment!