Comment 1ES Re: Virtual Email

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Pipecode source released

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Thanks (Score: 3, Interesting)

by dustin@pipedot.org on 2014-05-05 12:14 (#1CM)

Thanks for sharing your hard work Bryan. Does pipedot have a strategy for paying for hosting pipedot.org when it gets more popular?

Re: Thanks (Score: 3, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-05-05 17:22 (#1D4)

Likely an optional subscription (around a dollar per month or so.)

As a reward, subscribers would get certain "heavy" features activated like an IMAP email account and extra storage for the blog.

Re: Thanks (Score: 2, Informative)

by reziac@pipedot.org on 2014-05-06 02:55 (#1DQ)

Thanks for releasing your code (I am curious as to why you picked GPL3). I read the install/config instructions and sounds like anyone could get it working, starting from basic knowledge. Contrast to slashcode which works fine for the user, but (per the Chronicled Adventures of Soylent) setup is definitely not for the faint of heart.

The one feature I wish for right now on Pipedot is a daily mailer, or weekly if there aren't enough stories to warrant daily. Cuz otherwise I forget Pipedot exists. :( Usually I only remember to come here when someone mentions/sigs it on SN!

I just discovered the email doohickey, that's a nice feature ... gave it a try, but so far it doesn't appear to be working. "Sent" mail vanished into the aether, and what I tried to send myself here produced this bounce:

SMTP error from remote server after RCPT command:
host mail.zenbi.net[69.164.201.49]:
550 5.1.1 [reziac@pipedot.org]: Recipient address rejected: User unknown in virtual mailbox table

Dunno if that's useful but thought I'd report it.

Just for the record, I've had a paid Slashdot sub since... 2001, I think (maybe before) and it amounts to $5 every 3 years or so.

Virtual Email (Score: 3, Informative)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-05-06 08:51 (#1DZ)

The in-site virtual email is, for the moment, not connected to the traditional SMTP/POP3/IMAP mail protocols of the Internet. Instead, it is a mechanism to allow users to send each other private messages without giving away their "real" email address. It also allows the system to send you a notice when, for example, you get a comment reply.

Although I did create a tie-in of the system to my "real" Dovecot/Postfix email server, I have left it disabled for now. Potential problems of such a system include:
  • Incomming Spam - real email addresses get lots of spam and, although my system piped the messages through SpamAssassin, some messages would still get through and cause some inconvenience
  • Outgoing Spam - controls and limits would need to be made to prevent users from sending spam and adding to the global spam problem
  • Heavyweight Service - Each user connected to IMAP creates a new Dovecot process. If several hundred users all set their mobile phone apps and desktop clients to use the IMAP service, my poor little mail server would experience some real resource limits.

Re: Virtual Email (Score: 1)

by reziac@pipedot.org on 2014-05-07 03:07 (#1ES)

Ah. I like the idea of being able to talk privately to other users that way.

Yeah, you didn't build this site to be an email host, so no worries there (was mostly wondering if my fearsome ability to break anything was at work).

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