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

monicahq.com

231–240 of 586 posts

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

#231
post #82

I built one of these for myself in 1995 and have been happily using it ever since. Here's the source code: 0 0 19 7 * /usr/bin/mail -s "REMINDER: john T. birthday" me@mydomain.com 0 0 1 8 * /usr/bin/mail -s "REMINDER: MAKE xmas hotel reservations NOW for good pricing..." me@mydomain.com

Switched over to 'remind' personally..

Date calculations are much more flexible and the files can be modular.. and there's printed calendar generation options if you so choose.

https://www.roaringpenguin.com/products/remind

There is also the traditional Unix 'calendar' program as well..

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

#232
post #124

This looks very polished. If only every MVP had such a good UX/design. Personally my calendar with contact notes work pretty well so I won't be using Monica but it was a pleasure trying it out.

This is way beyond MVP, looks like it is started way back in 2014.

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

#233
post #106

I like this idea. :) We could even collaborate if interested. For the very same purposes, plus to organize everything else I want to, I wrote and use OneModel (AGPL), creating inside it a calendar with ticklers, lists of gift ideas or other ideas for activities, etc, all sorted by when I want to see them or how I can most easily find them in a hierarchy. I have created a sort of structure for things I might to rememb…

onemodel looks good. I'd love it as a knowledge graph editor that focuses on information from a personal standpoint. Would be interesting to map the data model to RDF.

Java has many good RDF libraries such as Jena.

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

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what a lot of us who don't hate Zuck's guts actually do use FB for.

It's not that I hate Zuckerberg that I find it hard to use Facebook, but that I trust them less than the other super-presences outs there (justified or not), and I dislike how it changes my perceptions of some of my friends. The constant posting of inane shit starts to look less like keeping in touch and more like an addiction to my eyes. I still like those people, and enjoy their company, but being constantly expose…

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 old systems lost to the new ones that I can't quite name. In the rush to increase communication overall, and build an addictive platform that people feel a need to check often, perhaps too much of the signal has been drowned out in noise. But that doesn't feel a strong description either because the signals become so different, too.

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

#236

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.

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

#237
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know :-/ Sorry about this, I'm trying to find the best way to explain what it does, without using a boring video that sucks, or poetic terms that say nothing. If you have any idea, please, please let me know :-D

I think you could convey this pretty well if you changed the first screen shot on your page a little. Cut out the actual browser window part, and paste that on to an image of an address book/planner with the same information about Jim Halpert. That way it's an instant visual association with an existing non-computer idea.

[deleted]

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

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn it, I broke it. I'll fix it today, or remove it entirely, I still don't know about it. I like the idea of being able to quickly log in, but it's yet another feature to maintain, so...

My personal recommendation is to drop third-party logins and allow users to sign-up via usernames (without emails). That means you need to deal with "lost password with no way to recover" situations and spam but it's still better than third parties controlling the most important aspect of your application.

PLEASE PLEASE have a non-FB option.

I got added by someone else to a Facebook group that eventually went on a troll raid. I rarely go on Facebook and didn't even participate in any troll raids. Just from being in the group, my account was disabled. I have been locked out of my apps for three weeks and Facebook hasn't answered any appeal I sent them.

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

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know :-/ Sorry about this, I'm trying to find the best way to explain what it does, without using a boring video that sucks, or poetic terms that say nothing. If you have any idea, please, please let me know :-D

The product is super cool and useful, although I hope you won't limit it to being a single-user thing because it could actually evolve into an amazing social tool. But I would really lose the word 'manage', it kind of suggests that personal relations are just another kind of task which is apt to make the people being related to feel devalued because they're not important enough to be given space in someone's day-to-d…

You know what I meant. I didn't imply poetry meant nothing. Of course not. But I see SAAS more and more describing their product in ways that are too marketing to me. I prefer to go straight to the point.

Regarding the gender, I don't know what to think about this. It's not by any mean a way to degrade women. I will definitely consider choosing another name because I understand how some people could be offended by that, which is not at all my intention, ever.

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