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Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#11

Post by crowdhailer »

smt88 wrote: post #5

I may be in the minority, but there's no way I'm using this if it's cloud-based and requires access to my full inbox. When your main inbox is also your second factor of authentication for many services, your backup to your work accounts, and a repository of lots of financial and medical information, it's too scary to share with a cloud service. You could have 100% great intentions and still get hacked.

We do not require any access to your inbox, messages sent directly to your email do not pass through our service.

Messages within Plum Mail, are stored on our servers. Central coordination is what enables us to offer features like concluding a conversation and pins that show the same state to all participants.

It is a fair concern, one that always needs to be considered when using a cloud service, it is certainly possible to have the convenience of Plum Mail for some conversations and keep financial/medical sent directly to your email for peace of mind.

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#12

Post by richardesigns »

WiF3cap7ShUth4 wrote: post #8

Look like "The messenger - Delta Chat".

Similar in that you can contact anyone with their email address without that person needing to 'sign up'. This openess is important.

The format in Plum Mail is more longform rather than chat as such. Delta Chat is a cool service.

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#14

Post by richardesigns »

crispyporkbites wrote: post #9

Does this use SMTP under the hood? I.e. can I join in a group conversation without signing up to a proprietary system?

SMTP is not used under the hood. You can send messages to anyone with an email address. That person may not have accessed Plum Mail before. In that case, the message sent to that person is sent as an email with the option to reply.

So you can stay within your email to take part in that conversation or you can access it in Plum Mail for the full feature set.

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#15

Post by crowdhailer »

anderspitman wrote: post #10

> email is great, because everyone has an email address I've been thinking lately that the ability to send messages is perhaps the less interesting role of email. The real value comes from providing globally unique, federated identities. It's not perfect but it's pretty dang good. If for no other reason, this is why Slack or any other closed system will never supplant email. Even the biggest walled gardens like GOOG…

Not setting up another walled garden is really important to us. Otherwise we just end up with the situation of another competing platform, as is well explained in this xkcd comic. https://xkcd.com/927/

We hope people will like being able to keep using their email address but get more features they are used to in other more modern platforms.

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#16

Post by portmanteaufu »

Some feedback for you:

* The features you're advertising are compelling! Pinning and conclusions are very interesting.

* As I read through this announcement, perused the website, and watched the demo on YouTube I was nearly driven to madness trying to understand how Plum Mail relates to email. It's not email, but it uses email addresses, has an inbox, and lets me email people. The cognitive dissonance I experienced reminded me of the old SNL sketch That's Not Yogurt[1]. If this truly isn't email, I suggest trying to be crisper about what why that's the case.

[1] https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/thats-not-yogu...

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#17

Post by richardesigns »

ffpip wrote: post #13

Congratulations on the launch! You're trying to fix the very thing I hate about email - It sucks when it involves more than a single entity, be it conversations, sharing stuff. It's only good when it's a single email (login, newsletter, etc).

Thank you. Keen to agree with the point that email is useful and good at in the right place but groups certainly needs work!

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#19

Post by crowdhailer »

portmanteaufu wrote: post #16

Some feedback for you: * The features you're advertising are compelling! Pinning and conclusions are very interesting. * As I read through this announcement, perused the website, and watched the demo on YouTube I was nearly driven to madness trying to understand how Plum Mail relates to email. It's not email, but it uses email addresses, has an inbox, and lets me email people. The cognitive dissonance I experienced r…

Thanks for those points, we're trying hard to succinctly explain what we do.

We start by saying it's not email because it's easy to think plum mail is yet another email client, which it isn't.

plum mail hosts the conversations so it can manage the state of pinning, conclusions etc.

email addresses are just a user identifier it will email people if they are not on plum mail, so we don't require someone to be on plum mail for you to start talking to them.

Re: Launch HN: Plum Mail (YC S20) – Email alternative for group conversations

#20

Post by crowdhailer »

arrty88 wrote: post #18

A feature rich google group? Awesome!

We offer more features than would be possible with an email group. plum mail hosts the conversation and certain features like pinning require a user to interact with the conversation within plum mail.
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