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So, a proprietary service to reinvent email aliases and folders or tags, with no hint of why I'd not just use email aliases and folders/tags. I can't see anyth

by vidarh 2y ago

So, a proprietary service to reinvent email aliases and folders or tags, with no hint of why I'd not just use email aliases and folders/tags. I can't see anything that tells me why I shouldn't just have multiple emails aliases instead of trying to convince everyone to use a new service, and having to explain to everyone that this email like address isn't an email address.

echoangle 2y ago
I agree with your point but the similarity of your comment to the Dropbox comment here on HN is funny ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 )
- vidarh 2y ago
  They were all legitimate concerns, though. Making Dropbox "work" required overcoming all of those issues, and they did. Maybe Relaybeam can make it, but he'll need to have answers for those issues, and much more to do so. EDIT: In fact, they have far more to overcome: Dropbox didn't have to overcome negative network effects. E.g. people will ask why they can't email instead, whereas giving people a url to get at a file did not make things worse.
- from-nibly 2y ago
  I'm pretty tired of the Dropbox line. it's not like some sort of logical fallacy to say that something that can be built with existing products isn't viable as a huge company. Dropbox smoothed a bunch of edges on a VERY thin interface: files. This is creating a very thick interface out of thin air for something that already exists and works. Also Dropbox wasn't the 4000th ding dong to try to "fix" email.
- immibis 2y ago
  When Dropbox was new, I tried it for a bit, but the only real use it got was for free website hosting. Now that I know how corporations fuck us all over and have $5/month to spend on a VPS, I would definitely share files using something self-hosted instead. I think for my use cases, any web-server works fine, for the peace of mind of not getting fucked over unpredictably in the future (which Dropbox did, when they stopped doing free website hosting)
- remram 2y ago
  I agree with you in general but I really don't see it here. This app looks exactly like an email client.
supritgandhi 2y ago
Hi, thanks for your comment! But, people who are not much familiar or used to with email might find it very difficult and not so user-friendly to use email aliases and folders.
- vidarh 2y ago
  That's an argument for writing an email client, not for writing a proprietary service that requires them to learn an entirely new system and convince all their contacts to move. Put another way: Nobody but me needs to understand or change behavior to make vidar+work@hokstad.com work, and I don't have to configure anything - I can just make them up whenever I want (everything after the +) and set up a rule of/when I decide I want them in another folder, or want to do other things with them. There's a case for better UI for that. There's not a case for a messaging system that isn't email, that requires my contacts to change behaviour, to do that.

by vidarh 2y ago

echoangle 2y ago

I agree with your point but the similarity of your comment to the Dropbox comment here on HN is funny ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 )

vidarh 2y ago
They were all legitimate concerns, though. Making Dropbox "work" required overcoming all of those issues, and they did. Maybe Relaybeam can make it, but he'll need to have answers for those issues, and much more to do so. EDIT: In fact, they have far more to overcome: Dropbox didn't have to overcome negative network effects. E.g. people will ask why they can't email instead, whereas giving people a url to get at a file did not make things worse.
from-nibly 2y ago
I'm pretty tired of the Dropbox line. it's not like some sort of logical fallacy to say that something that can be built with existing products isn't viable as a huge company. Dropbox smoothed a bunch of edges on a VERY thin interface: files. This is creating a very thick interface out of thin air for something that already exists and works. Also Dropbox wasn't the 4000th ding dong to try to "fix" email.
immibis 2y ago
When Dropbox was new, I tried it for a bit, but the only real use it got was for free website hosting. Now that I know how corporations fuck us all over and have $5/month to spend on a VPS, I would definitely share files using something self-hosted instead. I think for my use cases, any web-server works fine, for the peace of mind of not getting fucked over unpredictably in the future (which Dropbox did, when they stopped doing free website hosting)
remram 2y ago
I agree with you in general but I really don't see it here. This app looks exactly like an email client.

supritgandhi 2y ago

Hi, thanks for your comment! But, people who are not much familiar or used to with email might find it very difficult and not so user-friendly to use email aliases and folders.

vidarh 2y ago
That's an argument for writing an email client, not for writing a proprietary service that requires them to learn an entirely new system and convince all their contacts to move. Put another way: Nobody but me needs to understand or change behavior to make vidar+work@hokstad.com work, and I don't have to configure anything - I can just make them up whenever I want (everything after the +) and set up a rule of/when I decide I want them in another folder, or want to do other things with them. There's a case for better UI for that. There's not a case for a messaging system that isn't email, that requires my contacts to change behaviour, to do that.