
Here is a Basic Private Messaging Tool for news.yc Users - whacked_new
http://news.ycombinator.withmsg.com/
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whacked_new
Here's a sort of proof of concept for an interesting URL usage; augment by
snap-on, versus plugin.

This is a simple little utility that sends browser requests using PHP/cURL,
and puts/fetches stuff from a mysql database, meant to provide a
substitutional private messaging function for news.yc users who want PM
functions.

"Login" with your news.yc account information. It will relay this information
to news.yc and check the headers for pass/fail. Your password is discarded
after the relay; if the test passes, it saves your username and uses that to
post to mysql. The target user with the matching username will be able to
check for "messages." You can reply, or delete messages. Messages older than a
week are automatically deleted. The login source code is publicly viewable...
for now, just in case you want to see when the password variable is discarded
(lines 29 and 30). If there are huge problems, do tell.

Also, if you care to use this, the auto-refresh is done using a META refresh
every 5 minutes. Type fast and short, I guess.

Again, this is just a rudimentary tool which I hope some people will find
useful (and msg me if you want) until pg decides to add PM functions (or
demands a takedown) :-)

~~~
usablecontent
really nice

------
BrandonM
This seems like an interesting way to tack on community functions to any web
site on the Internet. The hard part is to get users to trust you with their
username and password, but perhaps the spread of OpenIDs could help that
situation for you.

Have you given any thought to turning this idea into something more? The
withmsg.com domain name should work great for any site.

~~~
whacked_new
I thought about the "more" part a little, just a little; there are some
important problems to think through before carrying this further. First of
all, it only provides a substitute functionality; if news.yc gets PM then this
is totally unnecessary. For more features, there are more ambitious projects
like medium (I'm not sure if they're in the same category).

Second, being an unofficial product degrades credibility by a lot; there's no
reason why a user would expect to find messages for them on an external
server. I imagine this as a disposable tool, like mailinator, in case some
people want to trade emails or other non-public data without having to write
here or disclose anything personal. Post and delete. For this specific purpose
I do think its useful, but how much further beyond the audience especially
concerned about privacy, I don't know.

Third, loading an external page in a frame can confuse and annoy users, so I
think it's not a good practice. news.yc users might tolerate this kind of hack
because they know what's behind it, but I can't say for sure.

Of course, if you have other thoughts/suggestions, do let me know, publicly or
privately :)

