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Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

monicahq.com

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Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#321

Post by WorldMaker »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #297
WorldMaker wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still sometimes wonder if anyone else has a good name for what Facebook lost somewhere in the switch between the much more ephemeral "Status" system of 2004's TheFacebook to today's "Posts" and their littered, ad-filled home the "News Feed". Even the "Notes" system in the middle of the transition was more "opt in" than firehose and a bit more rare and curated by the fewer users using it. There is a spirit to the ol…

I wonder if you have a slightly over-romanticized view of the old FB. I got on FB sometime in 2007 and for a few years it was overrun with quizzes and games and such spam. It was a different kind of spam from ad-spam but today's FB seems much more streamlined in many senses.

2004 when I first joined was a year or so before a lot of the quizzes and games and such spam. At the time the "spam" was a large collection of "Groups" that had silly in-joke names specific to your College/University. That time "Groups" were more like a list of hobbies than the "Groups" of today. "Photos" also didn't show up until a few months after I first joined.

I'm not saying we should romanticize the incomplete, under-developed TheFacebook of 2004, but only that the things that made it viral on college campuses in 2004 are very different from those that made it viral among the masses in 2014. I'm not sure which one is better or worse, it's definitely complicated. But there's definitely that feeling that Facebook is not TheFacebook any more. Not just branding, but in... spirit, maybe? Like I said there's word missing that I'm curious to find.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#322

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #236
tryitnow wrote: post #200

Quick note to the founders: You need to add more genders. A lot of early adopters in the Bay Area have friends who are non-binary or are non-binary themselves. I don't want to be forced to mis-gender people who don't identify as male or female.

I'd argue that Monica should also accept leaving out the gender field all together. I couldn't tell from the front page if it allows this already. I rarely need a reminder of my friends' gender, even if they have an non-gender-specific name. Do the same for marital status if it's not already optional.

What kind of info is it for keeping track of then?

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#324

Post by robinhood »

radarsat1 wrote: post #304

I love this. I want to stick it on an RPi and keep it on at all times.

If you do find yourself in a position where you do need to do specific things related to Rpi in order to make this work, feel free to submit a pull request with instructions, so others can also install it as well. https://github.com/monicahq/monica

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#325

Post by [deleted] »

robinhood wrote: post #48
wink wrote: post #35

Call me cynical, but I find the term CRM pretty wrong. Yes, I understand what it does, people have been keeping track of this stuff (if I read the intro page correctly) for ages, and still I find this borderline creepy and overengineered. Disclaimer: I am using e.g. Facebook's "On this day" feature to reminisce about old stuff with friends, I also keep birthdays in a calendar. Maybe just the professional spin puts me…

I understand what you mean. I don't like it either, but I've yet to find another way of explaining quickly what it does. A CRM for friends is very explanatory. But I dislike the creepiness of it.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#326

Post by robinhood »

tompetry wrote: post #267

@robinhood it won't let me save birthdays before 1967? Need to add people born in the 50's and 40's :)

Sorry about that. A fix is in the pipeline, but I don't want to update the production right now, because of the traffic I get from HN.

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#327

Post by jackarg »

danielvf wrote: post #115

My uncle died suddenly this year. He was unbelievably caring - and not just to family - but to everyone he ever met. His funeral was jam packed with everyone from homeless people to executives of multi-billion dollar companies. I always thought that his ability to always have you, and whatever you had last talked about with him, on his mind at any moment was some kind of supernatural gift. I was surprised to find out…

If you want to become a generous person such as him, when do you know when you've reached a limit in compassion? Would someone like your uncle ever think, for someone who is excessively rude, uncaring, disagreeable, unfriendly: "he is not worth my time, I should move on?"

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#328

Post by robinhood »

vxNsr wrote: post #249

Love this! Definitely gonna be using it from now on! Adding a way to import contacts would be super cool, though I like the idea of slowly going through all my contacts and making sure data is current, etc (something I haven't done ever, since I first got my phone 10 years ago). Only thing I just noticed is that when I try to add a gift idea, it conks out, with a: "Whoops, looks like something went wrong." message. B…

Damn. Sorry for this error. I will check the log to see why this happened.

About the contact import, yes it's high on the list :-D https://github.com/monicahq/monica/projects/1

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#329

Post by robinhood »

gyrgtyn wrote: post #208

I have some org-mode files that kind of do this. I never open them or my agenda anymore, so they don't help, but they're there. I guess I need to hook org-mode to twilio or something?

I don't understand what you are trying to say. What's org-mode?

Re: Show HN: Monica, an open-source CRM to manage friends and family

#330

Post by liamcardenas »

robinhood wrote: post #5

Founder here. Here to answer any questions you might have. The site is not perfect, it's not mobile optimized, there are probably bugs, there is a gazillion features missing, no APIs but it's a labour of love, open-source and I hope it will help people other than me. I want to grow this product but I need to know what you need, people. Edit: sorry for the bugs I see on my server popping here and there. Didnt expect t…

Thank you so much! I've been looking for something like this (and even contemplated making this myself despite not having any spare time to do so).

My one concern: Can you please make all of your contact information downloadable and backupable. My biggest fear would be putting so much precious data in your app and then having you guys go under... then I would lose everything. Also, I don't want vendor lock-in for something as important as this.

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