Rails - Feb 2006 - 9cays - A Rails app for Group Email

Even though it''s a little OT, I thought I''d announce the free
public
beta of a new Rails app that I''ve been working on for a while:

      http://9cays.com

Think of it as mini-mailing list software. For a lot of smallish  
conversations, normal mailing list are too heavyweight (requiring  
setup, moderation, admin, etc.), but group email is a pain because  
messages fly everywhere, people miss out on some, other people don''t  
want them but keep getting them...

The description of how to start a new 9cays conversation from the web  
site:
> First of all, you need to sign up to 9cays if you haven''t already.
>
> Then just email the people you''d like to include in the  
> conversation, and add the email address go@9cays.com in either the  
> To or Cc field.
>
> 9cays will create a new email address for the conversation, and set  
> up a web page to hold all the messages. We''ll then email you with
> the conversation details, and send an invitation to each of the  
> participants.
You can invite more people just by Cc-ing them in on any email to the  
conversation''s address, and there''s a link in the bottom of
every
email that lets you leave the conversation whenever you want.

It''s still a little rough around the edges, but I''d love to
hear any
comments from anyone who wants to give it a try.


One thing worthy of note: there''s an obvious comparison to be made  
with CampFire. You could say that 9cays is for email what CampFire is  
for instant messaging. The interfaces even look remarkably similar.  
(For those who are wondering, we started work on 9cays about six  
months ago, and I hadn''t seen CampFire until a few days ago, so it is  
just a case of converging design for similar apps, and 37signals  
ideas generally influencing our design.) I''d like to think that  
CampFire and 9cays will compliment each other quite well.


And finally I''d like to say a big thanks to 37signals, DHH, and the  
Rails community in general. I don''t think I''ve ever enjoyed  
developing apps this much.

Cheers,

Pete Yandell

Nice work!

b

Pete Yandell wrote:
> Even though it''s a little OT, I thought I''d announce the
free public
> beta of a new Rails app that I''ve been working on for a while:
> 
>      http://9cays.com
> 
> Think of it as mini-mailing list software. For a lot of smallish  
> conversations, normal mailing list are too heavyweight (requiring  
> setup, moderation, admin, etc.), but group email is a pain because  
> messages fly everywhere, people miss out on some, other people
don''t
> want them but keep getting them...
> 
> The description of how to start a new 9cays conversation from the web  
> site:
> 
>> First of all, you need to sign up to 9cays if you haven''t
already.
>>
>> Then just email the people you''d like to include in the 
conversation,
>> and add the email address go@9cays.com in either the  To or Cc field.
>>
>> 9cays will create a new email address for the conversation, and set  
>> up a web page to hold all the messages. We''ll then email you
with  the
>> conversation details, and send an invitation to each of the  
>> participants.
> 
> You can invite more people just by Cc-ing them in on any email to the  
> conversation''s address, and there''s a link in the bottom
of every  email
> that lets you leave the conversation whenever you want.
> 
> It''s still a little rough around the edges, but I''d love
to hear any
> comments from anyone who wants to give it a try.
> 
> 
> One thing worthy of note: there''s an obvious comparison to be made
with
> CampFire. You could say that 9cays is for email what CampFire is  for 
> instant messaging. The interfaces even look remarkably similar.  (For 
> those who are wondering, we started work on 9cays about six  months ago, 
> and I hadn''t seen CampFire until a few days ago, so it is  just a
case
> of converging design for similar apps, and 37signals  ideas generally 
> influencing our design.) I''d like to think that  CampFire and
9cays will
> compliment each other quite well.
> 
> 
> And finally I''d like to say a big thanks to 37signals, DHH, and
the
> Rails community in general. I don''t think I''ve ever
enjoyed  developing
> apps this much.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Pete Yandell
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails

Bit of an assumption, but spammers will likely target the emails:

conversation-([0-9]+)@9cays.com

with messages. Curious if and how you might have solved this?

-Nb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Nathaniel S. H. Brown                           http://nshb.net 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org 
> [mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Ben Munat
> Sent: February 13, 2006 5:48 PM
> To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> Subject: Re: [Rails] [ANN] 9cays - A Rails app for Group Email
> 
> Nice work!
> 
> b
> 
> Pete Yandell wrote:
> > Even though it''s a little OT, I thought I''d announce
the
> free public 
> > beta of a new Rails app that I''ve been working on for a
while:
> > 
> >      http://9cays.com
> > 
> > Think of it as mini-mailing list software. For a lot of smallish 
> > conversations, normal mailing list are too heavyweight (requiring 
> > setup, moderation, admin, etc.), but group email is a pain because 
> > messages fly everywhere, people miss out on some, other 
> people don''t 
> > want them but keep getting them...
> > 
> > The description of how to start a new 9cays conversation 
> from the web
> > site:
> > 
> >> First of all, you need to sign up to 9cays if you haven''t
already.
> >>
> >> Then just email the people you''d like to include in the  
> >> conversation, and add the email address go@9cays.com in 
> either the  To or Cc field.
> >>
> >> 9cays will create a new email address for the 
> conversation, and set 
> >> up a web page to hold all the messages. We''ll then email
you with
> >> the conversation details, and send an invitation to each of the 
> >> participants.
> > 
> > You can invite more people just by Cc-ing them in on any 
> email to the 
> > conversation''s address, and there''s a link in the
bottom of every
> > email that lets you leave the conversation whenever you want.
> > 
> > It''s still a little rough around the edges, but I''d
love to
> hear any 
> > comments from anyone who wants to give it a try.
> > 
> > 
> > One thing worthy of note: there''s an obvious comparison to be
made
> > with CampFire. You could say that 9cays is for email what 
> CampFire is  
> > for instant messaging. The interfaces even look remarkably 
> similar.  
> > (For those who are wondering, we started work on 9cays about six  
> > months ago, and I hadn''t seen CampFire until a few days 
> ago, so it is  
> > just a case of converging design for similar apps, and 37signals  
> > ideas generally influencing our design.) I''d like to think
that
> > CampFire and 9cays will compliment each other quite well.
> > 
> > 
> > And finally I''d like to say a big thanks to 37signals, DHH,
and the
> > Rails community in general. I don''t think I''ve ever
enjoyed
> > developing apps this much.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > 
> > Pete Yandell
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rails mailing list
> > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

Nathaniel,

On 14/02/2006, at 2:34 PM, Nathaniel S. H. Brown wrote:
> Bit of an assumption, but spammers will likely target the emails:
>
> conversation-([0-9]+)@9cays.com
>
> with messages. Curious if and how you might have solved this?
Conversations aren''t open. We only process email to a
conversation''s
address from registered participants of a conversation, and the only  
way you can become a participant is to have an existing participant  
invite you.

Pete Yandell

Sweet :)

Meant to say this before my question, but it looks like a really nicely done
app.

-Nb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Nathaniel S. H. Brown                           http://nshb.net 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org 
> [mailto:rails-bounces@lists.rubyonrails.org] On Behalf Of Pete Yandell
> Sent: February 13, 2006 7:43 PM
> To: rails@lists.rubyonrails.org; Nathaniel S.H.Brown
> Subject: Re: [Rails] [ANN] 9cays - A Rails app for Group Email
> 
> Nathaniel,
> 
> On 14/02/2006, at 2:34 PM, Nathaniel S. H. Brown wrote:
> > Bit of an assumption, but spammers will likely target the emails:
> >
> > conversation-([0-9]+)@9cays.com
> >
> > with messages. Curious if and how you might have solved this?
> 
> Conversations aren''t open. We only process email to a 
> conversation''s address from registered participants of a 
> conversation, and the only way you can become a participant 
> is to have an existing participant invite you.
> 
> Pete Yandell
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

On 14/02/2006, at 3:00 PM, Nathaniel S. H. Brown wrote:
> Meant to say this before my question, but it looks like a really  
> nicely done
> app.
Thanks! It''s certainly coming along. We''re using it as a base
to test
some ideas and build up some useful code that''s going to go towards  
some other projects, so stay tuned. (We should have a blog set up  
pretty soon.)

Pete Yandell

Hi,

On 2/14/06, Pete Yandell <pete@notahat.com> wrote:
>
> > First of all, you need to sign up to 9cays if you haven''t
already.
> >
> > Then just email the people you''d like to include in the
> > conversation, and add the email address go@9cays.com in either the
> > To or Cc field.
> >
> > 9cays will create a new email address for the conversation, and set
> > up a web page to hold all the messages. We''ll then email you
with
> > the conversation details, and send an invitation to each of the
> > participants.
> You can invite more people just by Cc-ing them in on any email to the
> conversation''s address, and there''s a link in the bottom
of every
> email that lets you leave the conversation whenever you want.

This is really really nice! I was thinking about the same kind of
interaction for a small application I''m going to build so
it''ll be nice to
view how the two compares in the end.

What is important of such approach is that it is a good way to capture many
of the casual interactions which  happens so frequently on the net. Ease of
use and low barriers to partecipate are too often overlook in many  systems.


bye
Luca
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060215/caa92880/attachment-0001.html

On 15/02/2006, at 9:57 PM, Luca Mearelli wrote:
> This is really really nice! I was thinking about the same kind of  
> interaction for a small application I''m going to build so
it''ll be
> nice to view how the two compares in the end.
>
> What is important of such approach is that it is a good way to  
> capture many of the casual interactions which  happens so  
> frequently on the net. Ease of use and low barriers to partecipate  
> are too often overlook in many  systems.
Thanks! That''s exactly what we''re going for: trivial setup and
no admin.

As an experiment to make it even more trivial to start a  
conversation, we''ve made a plugin for Mail.app on OS X that adds a  
button to the toolbar. (It also does a couple of other things behind  
the scenes to make the experience nicer for those you invite into the  
conversation.)

For those who use Mail.app on OS X 10.4, you can grab the plugin here:

http://homepage.mac.com/yandell/9caysPlugin-0.1.dmg

Cheers,

Pete.