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I've spent the last two years building a new email client

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Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#521

Post by privacypoller »

nobodyaccount wrote: post #488
lisper wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. In a world where publishing is essentially free, reputation is an extremely valuable commodity. The ask here is not trivial.

Yes, it is trivial. You have a warped perspective of importance if you think giving the nod to a new mail app is some holy thing. I tell my friends about new apps, startups, and projects all the time. None of them think I'm staking my reputation when I shitpost about some new thing in Slack.

and yet to make this comment you do it from an account created just for this purpose... why? to protect your reputation?

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#522

Post by JonasJSchreiber »

colde wrote: post #509
nobodyaccount wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it is trivial. You have a warped perspective of importance if you think giving the nod to a new mail app is some holy thing. I tell my friends about new apps, startups, and projects all the time. None of them think I'm staking my reputation when I shitpost about some new thing in Slack.

I don't think the parent is claiming its a holy thing. But I certainly feel the same way. My reputation is worth more to me, than trying to get higher up in a queue to a product i haven't tried. I don't share things with people lightly, and there are clearly a bunch of us out there. Any certainly, nobody is advocating that our view of the world is the correct one, just that we hold that view.

This is an awesome debate and one of the reasons I love HN

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#523

Post by haylem »

saagarjha wrote: post #499
mful wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid someone spend thousands of hours building a free app in the tech stack they are familiar/productive with...how inconsiderate!

If their tech stack isn't appropriate for the job, then they shouldn't be using it for. We don't have people writing software for space probes in Python.

Yes, but:

- we're not talking about space probes, - this is just one dev who thought "I want to write an email client" and make a tech choice based on his/her own proficiency with that stack and his/her project constraints (time, cost, quality, scope).

It seems unfair to rant so much about it. If it's feature full and good and perf becomes an issue, consider it an MVP and a stack change is doable. If the thing blows, trash the MVP.

Personally I'm far more worried about the first noted limitation about email forwarding with attachments not being available. I'd have wanted that before most of the showcased features, none of which I find particularly interesting. But I applaud the effort and the Polish, and the approach to build the tool that you want/need when. You can't find one.

(Second worry would be: if it's not open source, please make so.)

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#524

Post by JonasJSchreiber »

corndoge wrote: post #449
kemiller wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not alone in this attitude, so don't take this personally, but I'm going to reply to you because you're the top comment. This is an incredibly destructive point of view. Promotion is essential to any software project, even open source, and in the vast majority of cases, word of mouth is not enough. This is an ethical, up-front, straightforward ask that costs you and anyone you might contact very little and is…

"Incredibly destructive" Incredibly hyperbolic

Extremely redundant and reductive

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#525

Post by tomc1985 »

reaperducer wrote: post #483
tomc1985 wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way I see it, user's resources (and their experience related to these factors) aren't part of the calculus that goes into how most companies choose their platforms. To be fair, things have always been this way -- people have been writing good-but-bloated software in shitty frameworks since forever -- but I can't recall a time that one framework so bloated is so heavily in vogue. (edit: Flash, maybe? Though people…

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that sees being thrifty with bandwidth and processing as very important. We have regular audits to find ways to make things lighter/faster, and therefore better. Occasionally "flashier" mandates from on high override those considerations, but so far it's been specific and rare. It's probably because our target audience isn't developers.

Funny, following that logic one would think that developers would be the most picky about performance...

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#526

Post by tomc1985 »

saagarjha wrote: post #499
mful wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid someone spend thousands of hours building a free app in the tech stack they are familiar/productive with...how inconsiderate!

If their tech stack isn't appropriate for the job, then they shouldn't be using it for. We don't have people writing software for space probes in Python.

But if NASA let startup hackers write their code, we would be!

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#527

Post by khedoros1 »

sciurus wrote: post #512
s73v3r_ wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel the developer used what they felt was best for this app. I feel they used what was best for them.

Assuming the best platform for an app was even something that you could objectively determine, why would you expect a solo developer to write an app in a platform that isn't the best for them ?

To write something that's best for the customer, of course. The goal of development shouldn't be to build something that's easy for the developer but suboptimal for the customer.

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#528

Post by c0smic »

appleiigs wrote: post #490
untog wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what am I endorsing? I haven't tried the product myself yet. It's not unethical, but it's also simply not something I'm prepared to do - I will not recommend something to anyone without having been able to evaluate it myself first.

Then don’t refer anyone. Or maybe only send to your friends who a new email client would interest? Is “hey, saw this on HN, this looks interesting” really going to hurt your reputation? He’s a dev trying to market, that’s all.

I was going to say this.

It's totally optional to invite more people, so if it goes against your ethical views, just don't.

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#529

Post by theyinwhy »

jacquesm wrote: post #81
collyw wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can kind of see why. There is a lot of convenience in being able to log into any computer and access your mail. Plus Gmail search beats the search in native clients most of the time.

Mobile Imap clients are a thing. And gmail isn't your mail, it's Google's mail. A mailserver that you host yourself is your mail.

This is often heard but I don't think there is legal justification for it. It is pretty clear that it is your data, hosted on someone else's server that you pay by looking at ads and allowing them to read your mail. It is your mail nevertheless.

Additionally, if we are really picky, only mail written by you is your mail. All mail received is normally copyrighted by someone else and belongs to the sender or/and his/her company. Very strictly speaking in some countries you are not legally allowed to forward someone else's mail if it bears any artistic value.

Yes I know, it is off topic. But it was fun, thanks for the spark!

Re: I've spent the last two years building a new email client

#530

Post by c0smic »

muszc-master wrote: post #380
loceng wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike tricks like this too, especially because in the end you're still going to get access to it. If a product is good enough, as you said, then I'll tell everyone about it. I think technical or non-business people see this kind of trick and perhaps don't think of the deeper consequences of it - it's not quite a dark pattern, though it feels manipulative.

I'm sorry if it came across as manipulative. One of the reasons for having it like this is also so it can give me a metric on who in the waiting list are most interested in the program. And of course also to offer an incentive to share it.

An interesting question might be, what other ways could you allow people in the queue to jump up in position, without requiring them to share with others?

Maybe a quick survey with questions like, - what email client do you use now? - what is your favorite/least favorite feature of said client? - how often do you check your email? etc

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