5 ms·

Show HN: An automatic email endpoint for any domain

7 points by fiatjaf 12y ago

Khao 12y ago
When was the last time you absolutely needed to contact a website owner that had no contact information at all on their website? The idea seems well executed, but it tries to fix a non-existing problem in my opinion.
- pzxc 12y ago
  On top of that, you are required to keep a valid contact email in your domain's DNS configuration, or you risk losing your domain. (ICANN rules) However, just because someone doesn't reply to an unsolicited email sent to their domain contact address, doesn't mean it isn't working. It just might mean they think you're a spammer, or simply aren't interested in what you have to say. This product tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist, and doesn't solve it particularly elegantly, IMHO.
  - billpg 12y ago
    What's more, if you send anything to the email listed in my whois, I'm going to think you're trying to con me before I've even read a single word.
- pbreit 12y ago
  This isnt for when you "absolutely need" to but for when you merely might like to.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  I'm absolutely sure this is a non-existing problem for most criteria of existence you consider, but still I think it could be useful in various cases for various different people and uses. That, however, doesn't mean these people will find the service and understand it. Anyway, here is it.
discreditable 12y ago
What if I manage my organization's domain and don't want to stick a social media link with rel="me" on the homepage to use IndieAuth?
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  I'm thinking about that. There's always the option of placing some key, a PGP key, for example, as a DNS record. But I don't know if that would be satisfying. Do you have any suggestion? Please tell me. Also, IndieAuth supports PGP login (so you don't need to associate the organization's domain with your Twitter profile): https://indieauth.com/gpg https://indieauth.com/gpg
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
untilHellbanned 12y ago
Cool project overall. The IndieAuth part is especially intersting. Hadn't heard of that before. Any metrics on its adoption?
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  There are probably more than 200 people using it, as this list shows: http://indiewebcamp.com/irc-people http://indiewebcamp.com/irc-people
notum 12y ago
It would be really funny if all messages sent there were actually /dev/null-ed, and this only served as a (rather effective) outlet for those rare occasions where you have a comment itch you just can't get rid of :-) A sort of an universal shadow ban, if you will.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
gradschool 12y ago
I was blocked by a captcha page from cloudflare, probably because I'm using tor. The captcha isn't visible, probably because I'm using the google disconnect plugin for firefox. Completing the captcha correctly probably wouldn't help because I've disabled cookies. There may also be issues due to the no-script plugin but I haven't gotten that far. It might interest you to know that you have lots of company. This seems to happen with about 10-20% of the links I follow from HN these days. Don't be too surprised if nobody notifies you via the cloudflare feedback form because it demands an email address.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  Thank you for your time explaining these issues.
mike-cardwell 12y ago
Logged in. Whenever I click on a received email nothing happens. If I middle click the links to open in a new tab, it says: "An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please try again in a few moments."

7 points by fiatjaf 12y ago

Khao 12y ago

When was the last time you absolutely needed to contact a website owner that had no contact information at all on their website? The idea seems well executed, but it tries to fix a non-existing problem in my opinion.

pzxc 12y ago
On top of that, you are required to keep a valid contact email in your domain's DNS configuration, or you risk losing your domain. (ICANN rules) However, just because someone doesn't reply to an unsolicited email sent to their domain contact address, doesn't mean it isn't working. It just might mean they think you're a spammer, or simply aren't interested in what you have to say. This product tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist, and doesn't solve it particularly elegantly, IMHO.
- billpg 12y ago
  What's more, if you send anything to the email listed in my whois, I'm going to think you're trying to con me before I've even read a single word.
pbreit 12y ago
This isnt for when you "absolutely need" to but for when you merely might like to.
fiatjaf 12y ago
I'm absolutely sure this is a non-existing problem for most criteria of existence you consider, but still I think it could be useful in various cases for various different people and uses. That, however, doesn't mean these people will find the service and understand it. Anyway, here is it.

discreditable 12y ago

What if I manage my organization's domain and don't want to stick a social media link with rel="me" on the homepage to use IndieAuth?

fiatjaf 12y ago
I'm thinking about that. There's always the option of placing some key, a PGP key, for example, as a DNS record. But I don't know if that would be satisfying. Do you have any suggestion? Please tell me. Also, IndieAuth supports PGP login (so you don't need to associate the organization's domain with your Twitter profile): https://indieauth.com/gpg https://indieauth.com/gpg
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

untilHellbanned 12y ago

Cool project overall. The IndieAuth part is especially intersting. Hadn't heard of that before. Any metrics on its adoption?

fiatjaf 12y ago
There are probably more than 200 people using it, as this list shows: http://indiewebcamp.com/irc-people http://indiewebcamp.com/irc-people

notum 12y ago

It would be really funny if all messages sent there were actually /dev/null-ed, and this only served as a (rather effective) outlet for those rare occasions where you have a comment itch you just can't get rid of :-) A sort of an universal shadow ban, if you will.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

gradschool 12y ago

I was blocked by a captcha page from cloudflare, probably because I'm using tor. The captcha isn't visible, probably because I'm using the google disconnect plugin for firefox. Completing the captcha correctly probably wouldn't help because I've disabled cookies. There may also be issues due to the no-script plugin but I haven't gotten that far. It might interest you to know that you have lots of company. This seems to happen with about 10-20% of the links I follow from HN these days. Don't be too surprised if nobody notifies you via the cloudflare feedback form because it demands an email address.

fiatjaf 12y ago
Thank you for your time explaining these issues.

mike-cardwell 12y ago

Logged in. Whenever I click on a received email nothing happens. If I middle click the links to open in a new tab, it says: "An error occurred in the application and your page could not be served. Please try again in a few moments."