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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

#121

Post by myself248 »

weird-eye-issue wrote: post #86
ISL wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ability to edit really is a wonderful feature. I find that I perpetually tweak forum/social media/Slack posts a minute or two after posting, just to improve clarity. The idea of email (even if it carries with it some versioning history) that is editable is really nice. Is there a way to interface Pony with email directly, so that an app isn't required? I can imagine giving ISL@ponymail.com out to people with the…

It drives me crazy when people post in Slack and then often edit their message after sending. Just edit and then send. Otherwise people will have to basically ignore your first message and try to remember to check back in a couple minutes when you are done editing...

I wonder if you could write some sort of filter that would let you, as a reader, not see messages right when they arrive. Maybe let them "fade in", and only show up as unread when they've solidified a little while.

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

#122

Post by causasui »

panzagl wrote: post #15
foodstances wrote: post #5

You've reinvented UUCP

Earlier in the week we had discussions on how various social networks were just replacements for finger, so maybe he's on to something.

Someone once told me the key to a successful startup is to pick a protocol of one of the well-known ports and bring it to the browser.

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

#124

Post by procinct »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #61
locallost wrote: post #56

It's very smooth to use, or at least to onboard. Did not try to actually send a message yet, but will try soon. That brings me a bit to maybe my first issue: not really sure how to use it since nobody I know uses it yet. I'd be ok with some way of people to discover me, at least in this early stage where nobody is spamming :-). Also, if I get some people to try it, I'm pretty sure some will raise questions about the…

Thank you, that's really good to hear. > not really sure how to use it since nobody I know uses it yet. I'd be ok with some way of people to discover me Yeah I haven't been sure what to do about that except having people naturally invite other people and connect that way. What are other ways for people to discover each other? I'm reluctant to have people upload contacts, for example. > I'm pretty sure some will raise…

Maybe give people a place to post a small bio of themselves on some sort of virtual pin board so users looking for a pen pal like relationship can get in contact?

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

#125

Post by mabub24 »

spanktheuser wrote: post #118

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.

What client are you using for messaging/email?

Not that I'm a huge fan of Outlook, but it has a "delayed delivery" option that schedules when the emails leave your outbox, and an "Urgent" option that highlights the email in the receiver's browser. I don't know if I would want those features in a messaging/chat app. The whole scheduling aspect seems to lend itself to the asynchronous aspects of email. Unless you tailor the notifications in your messaging app, everything is basically "urgent".

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

#126

Post by criddell »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #120
criddell wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Funny you should mention access control. One of the stumbling blocks for me when I did a bit of GraphQL work was adhering to the best practices listed here: https://graphql.org/learn/authorization/

That says authorization should not be in the resolver but putting it elsewhere often resulted in much more complicated code. It makes sense if GraphQL is coexisting with REST or other end points because they could all share the same authentication code, but for pure GraphQL projects it seems arbitrary.

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

#127

Post by neilalexander »

ajkjk wrote: post #113
neilalexander wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Do you know this with reasonable certainty or are you assuming this to be the case? Either way, it’s arguably better to design defensively and build in better security than you think you will need up front rather than have worse security and be in the headlines for the wrong reasons later.

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

#128

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

ISL wrote: post #47
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hadn't seen Slowly. That's awesome—thanks for sharing. I really like how it's tied to physical distance. I really want to add more delivery modes, with geographical distance being one possible factor. For me a big deal is not just the slow delivery, but the inability to instantly send as well. The presence of a send button has this effect of making me send things that aren't ready. I don't intend Pony to encourage…

The ability to edit really is a wonderful feature. I find that I perpetually tweak forum/social media/Slack posts a minute or two after posting, just to improve clarity. The idea of email (even if it carries with it some versioning history) that is editable is really nice. Is there a way to interface Pony with email directly, so that an app isn't required? I can imagine giving ISL@ponymail.com out to people with the…

Sorry for the slow response!

I also tweak a bit after posting, and that Pony helps with that. I don't usually edit and edit forever, but it helps me get the message how I want it.

> Is there a way to interface Pony with email directly, so that an app isn't required?

Right now there is not, and I'm not sure it makes sense to add one. The first version of Pony was actually an email service, because I wanted it to be as accessible and useful as possible. It turned out that because email comes with its own set of norms and expectations, many people perceived the email version of Pony to be anti-social if not even borderline hostile. It was pretty disappointing because I wanted to make something that was pro-social. With everyone on Pony, everyone is on board and the expectations are totally clear.

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

#129

Post by mlangenberg »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #74
malfist wrote: post #7

I love this thought process. I've gotten into the habit of only checking my email at work when I sign in and when I leave for the day. I know you don't integrate with email because of some time critical messages, but I wonder if you could still integrate as an email/sms app and allow temporary overrides (kinda like how pihole let's you pause it for 5 minutes). That'd be downright awesome

I'm retired now but for quite a few years I made it a habit to not open my email until lunch time. That way I could work all morning, my most energetic time of day, on things that had been discussed the day before without being distracted or having a bad conscience about not immediately acting on new requests. Anyone who needed my attention immediately could use the telephone and hardly anyone ever did.

That is also my approach. It takes some courage to do, but makes for a much calmer workday.

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

#130

Post by feanaro »

pbourke wrote: post #42
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…

> While I consider myself a really solid full stack developer and believe that Pony's infrastructure is secure, I do not have the requisite experience with cryptography to honestly represent to people that this is a private platform. It would be great if this existed as an infrastructure-level service. Something like the Signal “API” that allows apps like yours to be built on top.

What you're describing is exactly what Matrix is aiming to be.
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