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Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

ponymessenger.com

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Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#111

Post by [deleted] »

animal_spirits wrote: post #77
steelbrain wrote: post #10

Thanks for working on this. It reminds me of a social app called Slowly ( https://slowly.app/en/ ) where you write "letters" to people and they are delivered based on the approximate physical distance between them. It's common for letters across countries to take >12 or sometimes even >24 hours. It's led people to a lot of meaningful relationships/friendships, they publish some as stories: https://slowly.app/en/story…

While an interesting concept, I think it would be much more meaningful to actually write the letter. Make something physical of yourself and send to someone you care about. It's really fun. I love snail mail

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#112

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

tailspin2019 wrote: post #41

Looks really great but E2EE is important to me. Also this: > data is not encrypted at rest [0] I realise this is a one-person startup, but personally I would want more focus around privacy and security for a new messaging app. It’s going to be a key requirement for a lot of people I think. Being a one person startup, this is even more important, as the “company” behind this is likely not to have the same level of sec…

Thanks so much. Sorry for the slow reply!

I'm sorry this doesn't have at-rest encryption, much-less E2EE. I totally understand. As I wrote elsewhere, the best I can do is be transparent about that. I'm a solid fullstack dev, but it would be dishonest to represent to people that I can cryptographically secure their information against a sophisticated adversary. I hope that Pony grows such that I can retain or hire a reputable expert who may be able to assist with that, so that I could market encryption in good faith.

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#113

Post by ajkjk »

neilalexander wrote: post #59
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! I really appreciate it. > However, no mention of monetization strategy. Thanks for bringing this up. I was hoping to give a brief introduction and then to field questions. I will definitely not be selling personal data, or data otherwise. I do have some monetization ideas, and I'm really excited to try them out. They're all going to fit nicely with the core concept of the platform: periodicity. One of them…

> I hope that with enough traction and some investment, I'll be able to hire an expert to help add privacy features that I can advertise in good faith. Now is a really good time to learn. Seriously. libsodium is an excellent example of a library which provides user-friendly APIs that don't require you to roll your own crypto and is very strongly audited by experts — see https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/public-key_cry…

Or they could just not do it because it's not that important to most people... HN comment sections are not representative of the general populace.

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#114

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

r_singh wrote: post #105

Cool concept, wonder which user segment would be passionate enough for the app to overcome the challenges posed by network effects...

It's interesting... I've spoken with a few avid users, and they just seem to be people who enjoy writing and thinking. Usually such "seed" users have gotten one or two other people on who also enjoy corresponding in this fashion, and it's worked out well for them.

I frame he product as "mindful" because it's an well-applicable, widely-understood word, but to my surprise I've not had much traction with the mindfulness community in terms of people who actually use it. But my sample size should be bigger to really get a good feel for the demographics.

And thank you :).

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#115

Post by criddell »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #109
criddell wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome response, thank you! This is probably a dumb question because I don't have much experience with GraphQL, but how important is GraphQL to your project? For example, if your client makes the same dozen or so queries day-after-day, would it ever make sense to use that knowledge to write a more static API? There seems to be a lot of text parsing and object serialization and deserialization with GraphQL and it mak…

You're welcome! It was a pleasure to share. I like GraphQL because it aligns with how I think about frontend queries and data. I had spent a bunch of time with technologies like HATEOS that standardize sorta-similar REST-based approaches, but as soon as I saw GraphQL, in my mind it was immediately like: "THIS! This is it." There's just something about it for me. I can't say that that GraphQL is _important_ technologi…

Thanks again. I didn't know about persisted queries but that sounds exactly like the answer to my question.

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#116

Post by mistermann »

Shared404 wrote: post #107
mistermann wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

demean: cause a severe loss in the dignity of and respect for (someone or something). Is it really that bad? It's plausible, but I'm skeptical. Regardless, it is surely suboptimal. I wonder if there are more optimal approaches than "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" (my Mom's advice)....can you think of any?

> Is it really that bad? It's plausible, but I'm skeptical. Demean was too strong a word, I need to follow my own advice better :). > Regardless, it is surely suboptimal. I wonder if there are more optimal approaches than "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" (my Mom's advice)....can you think of any? The three gates[0] are what I try (and admittedly fail miserably) to implement, though not in t…

I like it.

I would evaluate it thusly:

a) Is it true?

I would say: overwhelmingly.

b) Is it necessary?

In an absolute sense: no.

In a relative sense (say, if one has a specific goal in mind): Certainly maybe, but I would predict: Extremely Likely.

> Is it kind.

I suspect not. But then, I think HN'ers can have thick skin when required (say, if you are trying to optimize The System that we all live within).

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#117

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

animal_spirits wrote: post #77
steelbrain wrote: post #10

Thanks for working on this. It reminds me of a social app called Slowly ( https://slowly.app/en/ ) where you write "letters" to people and they are delivered based on the approximate physical distance between them. It's common for letters across countries to take >12 or sometimes even >24 hours. It's led people to a lot of meaningful relationships/friendships, they publish some as stories: https://slowly.app/en/story…

While an interesting concept, I think it would be much more meaningful to actually write the letter. Make something physical of yourself and send to someone you care about. It's really fun. I love snail mail

I definitely agree in many ways, but a core goal in creating this app was to meet people (including myself) where they are, which today is on our phones and computers.

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#118

Post by spanktheuser »

I long for a corporate messaging service that incorporates deliberate scheduling. Being forced to choose specific business-wide delivery windows, alongside a /discouraged/ urgent option, feels as though it would go a long way to ameliorating the interrupt-driven messaging culture of most organizations.

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#119

Post by toss1 »

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #35
jedimastert wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember this a few years ago...I should get back into it.

No, you won't go back into it! If you remember it, and used it a few years ago, but then forgot about it until some random HN post mentioned it, it's not something with persistent utility (addiction) to you. EDIT: I see I got understood in a way I didn't intend to. Didn't want to say anything about parent, just pointing out that mentioned platform itself lack addictiveness to be considered a good (successful) social…

>>feels more like a chore than joy, something like gym.

If going to the gym feels more like a chore than a joy, then you may be doing it wrong, or inconsistently (some good coaching may help).

Re: Show HN: Pony – a messenger for mindful correspondence

#120

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

criddell wrote: post #115
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're welcome! It was a pleasure to share. I like GraphQL because it aligns with how I think about frontend queries and data. I had spent a bunch of time with technologies like HATEOS that standardize sorta-similar REST-based approaches, but as soon as I saw GraphQL, in my mind it was immediately like: "THIS! This is it." There's just something about it for me. I can't say that that GraphQL is _important_ technologi…

Thanks again. I didn't know about persisted queries but that sounds exactly like the answer to my question.

You're welcome! A small correction: I shouldn't have said that "GraphQL has persisted queries"—they're not part of the spec or something. Just something many tools allow/enable.

And by the way, in 2021, I wouldn't write a GraphQL backend by hand. I think a tool like Hasura/Postgraphile is the way to go. They put up excellent scaffolds that you can augment. In addition Hasura (I don't know about other tools) provides an access control layer that is really nice as well.

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