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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

#171

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #161
m1sta_ wrote: post #153

App isn't working. I tried to login with Facebook and a new Xperia phone and it just went back to the login screen.

Thank you so much for reporting. Looks like Facebook revoked some permissions! No idea why. Please try logging in with another provider in the mean time.

Upon further investigation it looks like both Facebook and Google auth on Android are not working—and for different, unrelated reasons. My sincerest apologies.

It appears the underlying problem is the volume of traffic has tripped something at both of these providers. Google actually works, just incredibly slowly. Facebook says I need to submit the app for developer review—but I did that a while ago and when I go to https://developers.facebook.com it says I'm all set... I will try to figure out what's going on.

If you're interested in the app, please create an account using a password—you'll be able to add Google/Facebook in "Settings" later.

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

#172

Post by [deleted] »

thih9 wrote: post #145

I really like the idea; congrats on the launch! I noticed the In App Purchase names are "Massive", "Generous", "Enormous"; I think these are donations (based on your comment in this submission), but I wouldn't know that without visiting the HN thread. If they're donations, I'd change the In App Purchase names to something like "Donation: Massive", etc.

[deleted]

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

#173

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

nikolay wrote: post #164

This reminds me of ShortMail.com, but somewhat better. Congrats on the launch! Let us know how we can get verified (like you)!

Thanks you nikolay. The verification process is to be determined. I just wanted to make sure there was a method to distinguish "official" communication at launch. Not sure how useful, but we'll see :).

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

#174

Post by dmitryminkovsky »

wanderingstan wrote: post #169
dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot for the detailed feedback and kind words yumraj. My thoughts: > once a day delivery is going to be problematic. Perhaps a once an hour, or once every 2-3 hours delivery could be supported. I've gone back and forth on this many times myself. To the point where the backend actually does support two deliveries already :). It's been a really tough call! Ultimately I decided to double down on sticking to the…

My instinct is to go the other way: for communication with old friends, I’d enjoy a once-a-week or even once-a-month pace. I approximate that rhythm with many friends now, but there’s always a worry that I’ll drop the ball when life gets busy.

Mine too! That's what my user experience with this thus far has let me to believe, too. I am thinking of creating a way to specify the delivery settings per-thread, such that messages on some threads take 3 days to deliver, or 7 days, or 14. You could have multiple threads with the same people, with different delivery durations. A core goal is to keep correspondence alive and one of the best ways to do that is to make sure enough time elapses so that there's something new to write.

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

#175

Post by rekoros »

Very nice!

Many years ago I lived in a house without a phone - the only meaningful way to communicate with faraway friends was sending and receiving paper letters via post. In many ways, that cadence was a great way to maintain relationships over many years, with minimal mental overhead.

Maybe Pony should send/receive messages once a week/month, instead of daily :-)

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

#176

Post by wanderingstan »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #174
wanderingstan wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My instinct is to go the other way: for communication with old friends, I’d enjoy a once-a-week or even once-a-month pace. I approximate that rhythm with many friends now, but there’s always a worry that I’ll drop the ball when life gets busy.

Mine too! That's what my user experience with this thus far has let me to believe, too. I am thinking of creating a way to specify the delivery settings per-thread, such that messages on some threads take 3 days to deliver, or 7 days, or 14. You could have multiple threads with the same people, with different delivery durations. A core goal is to keep correspondence alive and one of the best ways to do that is to mak…

Nice.

Yes, and these friends also have my phone and email, so they know how to reach me for time sensitive stuff. Good to have a channel that is for deeper and slower connection.

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

#178

Post by mro_name »

dmitryminkovsky wrote: post #70
mro_name wrote: post #11

wonderful

Thank you :))

recently came across thoughts on the contemplative nature of telecommunication in http://viznut.fi/texts-en/permacomputing.html

(via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27199225)

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

#179

Post by godot »

The idea/term of "Outbox" really reminds me of email of the old days (in the 90s) where you have a desktop email client (e.g. Eudora, or Internet Mail and News, or even earlier versions of Outlook Express) that don't do auto-sends, and only connect to your POP3/SMTP servers when you click Send and Receive. This was probably due to internet being on dial-up and being billed by the minutes was common so users limited their internet time (e.g. disconnect from internet if writing a long email response, etc.). I have a lot of nostalgia from those days vs the always-on culture now.

I like that you were able to spot this particular usage pattern as something to narrow in on for your product. I don't know if this would catch on as a trend (for example, like ephemeral messaging did when Snap came out), but I wish you all the best!

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

#180

Post by sflicht »

gaetgu wrote: post #166
sflicht wrote: post #163

I can't be the only one who thinks this idea is terrible. "What if we make the product worse , perhaps people will like it better?"

I somewhat agree. I also think that sometimes going backwards is exactly what people like. For instance, mechanical keyboards are pretty old and largely replaced, but so many people like them so much that they are willing to spend a lot of money on them.

But they are also better. (Just more expensive and/or bulkier, i.e. their pros come with some associated cons.) Whereas delayed send / batch read only has "advantages" in the mind of the user, who could achieve them for himself or herself quite easily.
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