
Show HN: Write a private diary using good old email - kossnocorp
https://diaryemail.com
======
kossnocorp
Yesterday Paul Graham asked for an email diary service
([https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176](https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176)):

> Is there an easy way to build, or a startup that offers, something that will
> email you once a day asking "What's happening?" and then accumulate the
> replies?

I did just that! Let me know what you think.

~~~
alfonsodev
He also wrote

> Unfortunately, though, in this one case I can't promise that if you build
> it, I'll use it. Unless I know you, I can't trust that you won't read my
> emails. (I trusted the previous startup that did it because we'd funded
> them.)

How do you solve the "won't read my emails" problem ?

I've seen the statement in your website:

> Your data stored and transferred securely. No one will ever read or process
> your notes even the staff. Your data belongs to you and can be easily
> exported in preferable format by request.

But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you
consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an already
trusted company in order to start off the business ?

~~~
kossnocorp
I addressed it in a comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670)

> But once the data leaves the browser there is no way to know, wouldn't you
> consider to partner with Gmail(or others) and appear as an addon to an
> already trusted company in order to start off the business ?

Also, I understand the concern and that Paul most likely will not trust their
secrets to anyone. The problem is that's not a business, but a beautiful hobby
project that I honestly love, so it's unlikely that I will ever spend time
rewriting it and then paying Google $15K ([https://www.gmass.co/blog/google-
oauth-verification-security...](https://www.gmass.co/blog/google-oauth-
verification-security-assessment/)) so they could vet me.

~~~
newzombie
An idea would be to open source it and make it simple to run an instance.

~~~
bob1122
Agreed.

I respect if it's not what you're looking for but you may be able leverage
yourself into a good position (with the community and with PG) as a result of
the publicity + traction combo.

Great work getting that ball rolling so quickly!

------
rognjen
I just email myself ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

e: Also, I used to use [https://750words.com](https://750words.com) which is
quite similar.

~~~
mmahemoff
I use the Gmail "+" hack to mail myself on different topics.

name+ideas@ for app ideas

name+notes@ for random notes

name+writing@ for article ideas

(edit: formatting)

~~~
reikonomusha
Isn’t that just an email hack?

~~~
Retr0spectrum
No, it's a gmail-specific "feature". Other mail services may also implement
it, I guess.

~~~
capableweb
Yeah, seems there is enough other services that a RFC (under "Subaddress
Extension") has been proposed
[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233)
Maybe it'll get enough steam.

Edit: doesn't mean everyone will use it though! But guess the plus sign in
addresses would be more "email" than just email.

~~~
Spivak
It’s nice that they’re trying to standardize it but it’s an impossible
standard since you can’t assume that any particular domain adheres to to it so
you end up with a whitelist either way.

~~~
capableweb
I guess you're seeing it from the service owners point of view, and in that
case it doesn't really matter no? AFAIK, it's for the owners of the email to
use the subaddressing, not for others to magically come up and use
subaddressing.

So as long as you, the user and owner of an address, know that your domain
supports/not supports it, you can use it.

I don't understand who would have to add any allow/blocklists?

------
latortuga
This used to exist, it was called OhLife. They would email you every day and
say "What's happening in your life" and "Hey do you remember this?" with one
random email from your history included. I always liked this service and was
sad when they shut down. Pretty sure I started using it due to a post right
here on HN.

~~~
vonnieda
I wrote WhoaLife (
[https://github.com/vonnieda/WhoaLife](https://github.com/vonnieda/WhoaLife) )
when OhLife shut down. It's self hosted for privacy and designed for Heroku
Free Tier. Takes about 15 minutes and no code to deploy.

I've been using it since OhLife shut down and it completely fills the gap for
me.

I recently modernized the code a bit, ported it from Mongo to Postgres and
improved the selection of the random entry that is sent to you, but I haven't
pushed those changes yet. They'll go out in the next week or so.

~~~
seancsnyder
I did the same thing, and even called it by the same name...woahlife :-)

~~~
vonnieda
That's such a strange coincidence! Do you still use it?

------
artfulhippo
>Private and Secure

It’s as private as your email...which probably means not private.

Like most people, I depend on an advertising company to host my emails. But I
wouldn’t share my private diary with them.

~~~
bad_user
You can encrypt those emails with PGP, the best encryption there is.

A good email client can also learn to automatically encrypt when you send to a
specific email, so you can send to a specific alias (with a plus or subdomain
aliasing scheme).

~~~
ocdtrekkie
But then will your diary service work right with it? Honestly, you should use
a mail server that isn't from an ad company. And then if you also want to
layer encryption on top, feel free.

(Also, calling PGP "the best encryption there is" might be a bit of
hyperbole.)

~~~
bad_user
I don't use a mail server from an ad company.

And the company's business model is absolutely irrelevant actually. You still
need end to end encryption.

> " _But then will your diary service work right with it?_ "

Yes, it's called an email archive. It's searchable too. All you need is an
email client that supports PGP. I personally use Mailmate.

And I've got email going back to 2004, while I no longer use any apps or
online services from 2004 (most died).

------
Waterluvian
I love that you took the programmer equivalent of a writing cue and ran with
it. And I think this is a really cool idea to explore.

I know it's largely a one person experiment and not a real business, but some
feedback

> I won't sell your data and will be very personal with you.

This isn't good enough anymore. You need to promise that my data won't ever
_ever_ be sold. Especially since you're asking me to share my diary with you.
I'm not sure if this kind of promise can be made though. Maybe we need some
legal apparatus you can declare that gives me peace of mind that no future
owner of your company can change their mind.

~~~
oefrha
No "promise" will make me share my diary with a stranger, not even a legally
enforceable one, unless I self-censor my diary. Honestly not sure why anyone
would entrust their diary to some web service, unless they take a nothing-to-
hide approach with their diaries.

Although, a web service to share notes with friends is probably okay.

~~~
Waterluvian
"Diary" usually means personal and private. But it can mean a lot of things. I
can imagine cases where people are okay with that. I've managed a personal
"diary" that's on Github publically. It's really just a reference of tech
stuff I've learned.

~~~
oefrha
> I've managed a personal "diary" that's on Github publically.

Well that's more of a journal. But yeah, a "diary" service can be used for
less private stuff too.

~~~
Waterluvian
Fair. I've always considered the two to be synonyms.

~~~
oefrha
I was referring to a non-diary journal (in the general logbook sense), but the
difference is murky at best.

------
obiefernandez
Hey HN I have exactly this and have maintained it for years as a replacement
for OhLife: [https://ahhlife.com](https://ahhlife.com)

Thousands of active users. Very (very) slowly enhancing and monetizing with
additional features, but it's far down on my priority list.

~~~
the_watcher
Have you replied to PG's original tweet? This looks like exactly what he was
looking for.

~~~
obiefernandez
just did, thanks. kicking myself that I didn't think to email him about it
sooner.

------
thepete2
Please don't break the back button. I like my back button.

~~~
timvisee
Yes! For reference, when clicking "Open Diary" linking to
[https://diaryemail.com/diary](https://diaryemail.com/diary) and redirecting
when not authenticated breaks my back button.

------
aerovistae
Why doesn't the guy just write a python script to mail himself that prompt
everyday? Sometimes I think if Paul Graham tripped he would start wondering if
there was a start-up aiming to put an end to uneven ground.

~~~
the_watcher
PG writing a script to email himself every day doesn't create value for anyone
but himself, someone deciding to build a company out of it does.

~~~
mc3
It could be released as free & open source software. That would be valuable.

------
athenot
The very humble Notes app on macOS/iOS fulfills this for me. I just start
typing, the minimalistic interface gets out of the way. Timestamping is on
last modification instead of creation date but I add one manually. That's
about my only drawback. Some features I find compelling:

\- I can start a train of thought on the mac, continue it on the phone and
complete it on my mac.

\- It's not mined by some advertising company, no subject to the viability of
some business.

\- Being so simple, the contents can be exported to some other format very
easily.

\- Works offline (only background sync requires connection).

\- And search is near instant since everything is stored locally.

~~~
graeme
My first thought when reading this was “how do you automate it?” as that was
part of the spec.

But you can actually do that with Shortcuts, which is build into the system.

1\. Make a note with a title like “journal” or “daily log”

2\. Open shortcuts, go to automations. Make a new one with a time of day
trigger. (Or an alternate if you prefer)

3\. Actions: “find all notes where” —> filter for notes name. “ask for input”
—-> ask the question you want + put “current date” as default entry. “Append
to note” —> use magic variables. Select ask for input as the text to append,
and note as the note to append to. (Specifically, the note your filter found)

4\. Duplicate this for as many times of day as you want to be asked

5\. At the appropriate time, click the notification and enter text to log it.
Also add a trailing newline for note formatting. If anyone knows how to
automate this on shortcuts, let me know: newlines seem tricky and I haven’t
figured it out.

This automates the asking, and also the timestamp. Thanks for posting your
idea, it prompted me to setup alerts for 11:00 and 5:00 pm.

Edit: this doesn’t transfer bullets to notes. If anyone knows how to append
bulleted text via shortcut, let me know.

~~~
graeme
How do I make this list be a list without double spacing or making it a code
block....there must be a way?

~~~
Stratoscope
Double spacing is your only option. Don't make it a code block, as that is
unreadable on mobile.

~~~
graeme
Thanks for confirming! Thought I was missing a method for years. Oh well.

------
bad_user
The service that Paul Graham mentioned is probably this one:

[http://ohlife.com](http://ohlife.com)

Shutdown announcement:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8345881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8345881)

I used it and loved it. It was cool while it lasted. Unfortunately it's just
one more example for why I don't trust startups.

Also you probably don't need a service, personally I can just send email to
yourself, PGP encrypted. The only bit that's missing is a periodic reminder,
to which you can reply. But I can probably set that up as a cron job.

~~~
kossnocorp
Funnily enough, I also used and loved it, and it was the inspiration to build
Diary Email.

> But I can probably set that up as a cron job

Almost every app could be replaced with email, a cron job or a spreadsheet ;-)

~~~
bad_user
I'm glad to see someone retry building something similar, but the problem is
that OhLife is a service launched 10 years ago [1].

Many of us were not aware of privacy issues then, plus we were naive enough to
think that the services we adopted would survive if cool enough.

I loved OhLife, but now 10 years later I wouldn't subscribe to a clone. Fool
me once etc.

I wish you succeed though. It's a cool project and your landing page looks
good.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1613137](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1613137)

------
lancer
A friend and I had the same need for an email diary service in 1998.
DailyDiary [0] has been online ever since :)

[0] [https://dailydiary.com](https://dailydiary.com)

------
Aperocky
I uses good old terminal and vim, with a single command to enter current
diary:

[https://github.com/Aperocky/termlife/blob/master/diaryman.sh](https://github.com/Aperocky/termlife/blob/master/diaryman.sh)

Writing diary has been so much easier! (though probably will be hard to extend
to people who don't know/like terminal editors, or command line itself)

------
haxiel
I use a service named Penzu for keeping a journal. It's primarily web-based,
but you can make it email-based if you wish to. Basically, you'd set up a
daily reminder at a specific time, and you can reply directly to that email to
make a new entry.

I should point out that Penzu is not a completely free service. There is a
basic free tier, and then there are paid plans with additional features.

------
reaperducer
Why does this need to be a "service?"

Why not just write the e-mail in your current e-mail client and then store the
draft in its own folder?

People have been doing that for centuries. They'd write a letter to themselves
and then store it in a box somewhere instead of sending it.

Some people took it a step farther and would write the letter, and then burn
it if they were angry. Very cathartic.

~~~
taneq
This was my first response, too. Just email yourself with subject "diary",
then the next day, reply to that email, etc. You can even have multi-user
versions by sending it to someone(s) else and everyone just replies all. If
you self-host your email then it's fairly secure, and has all of the
advantages but none of the disadvantages.

------
josephwegner
This is a real "Dropbox is just rsync" sort of comment, but I personally use a
small CLI util for this[1]. It automatically creates a new text file for each
day that I use it and stores it in a dated folder/file. I can look at notes by
day, or grep around in that directory fairly easily. And it syncs to wherever,
so I can also just search within my file storage service.

I use this for both regular "diary" sort of journaling as well as notes around
what I was doing on a particular day. It's wildly useful keeping daily notes
on things, for questions like "Hey, do you remember that bug we dealt with
last year...?"

[1]
[https://gist.github.com/josephwegner/677ce82556fcbde6ae626a8...](https://gist.github.com/josephwegner/677ce82556fcbde6ae626a85d125a512)

------
_august
I 100% read "Dairy Email" until the page loaded. I thought you figured out how
to email me milk.

~~~
kossnocorp
Haha, I actually figured it out. You just ship plant-based milk lol.

------
davnicwil
On seeing this tweet I wondered who would be the first to do it, and how long
it would take.

Congratulations, from a fellow hacker - what's it been, 2 days? That's
_really_ impressive speed, especially considering it's nice looking.

A lot of people would confidently assume they could knock this out in a couple
of days no problem, but it'd actually take them a few weeks at minimum. I had
a post on the front page a few weeks ago on the topic [0], perhaps you saw it
- I could learn a lot from you :-)

[0] [https://boxci.dev/blog/why-it-took-12-weeks-to-ship-an-
mvp-I...](https://boxci.dev/blog/why-it-took-12-weeks-to-ship-an-mvp-I-
thought-would-take-3)

~~~
mtlynch
OP mentioned in a comment that this tool existed before the tweet:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045528](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045528)

~~~
davnicwil
Ah, good spot.

Well, I'm still pretty excited for the OP at the right place right time nature
of this. I mean, imagine browsing twitter and noticing that Paul Graham asks
for someone to build the very product you're sitting on fully formed :-)

Kind of a perfect case study of the adage that you need to work really hard to
prepare in order to be lucky!

------
nausher81
I use an App called Daylio
[[https://daylio.webflow.io/](https://daylio.webflow.io/)] as a personal diary
and mood tracker.

It has a single notification per day which is directly actionable (Asks for
your mood for the day).

Data is stored locally on the phone and can be backed up to your iCloud/Google
Drive.

I have found this app to be more habit forming in terms of creating a micro-
diary, rather than sitting down and jotting thoughts.

------
haberdasher
If anyone wants to give a multi-year journal (5-year Journals are popular in
print form) chrome extension a try:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-
vision-...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goal-board-vision-
board-g/egbpmmfglhgciocgillbpooejgfajmng?hl=en-US)

~~~
F_J_H
Thank you for the suggestion. Played around with it a bit an it looks
interesting. Curious as I am not familiar with Chrome Extensions - where is
the actual data stored?

------
bergie
That's a great idea, can write on any device!

In the early 2000s, I had a setup where I could blog by either email or SMS.
By default emails would become new posts. SMS would append to the latest
entry, or I could create a new one with a keyword (NEWPOST title, I think).

This was a nice way to create and update travel journals before mobile
internet and smartphones were widespread.

~~~
crtlaltdel
honestly, this feels like a great feature for today, especially with the
prevalence of smartphones and the mobile web! now we have devices that are
mostly easier to type/compose messages on and the fierce rush to build an app
for everything has imo reduced the "cool factor" of a bespoke native app. i
hate installing a new app to use a service if the app is buggy and the
workflow could be done some other way (even responsive webapp). personally, i
really enjoy sms based UX.

------
nicklovescode
A few days ago a weekly letter I wrote myself called Dear Nick that I BCC a
few close friends. I love doing it now

Please steal the idea if you like!

[http://nickcammarata.com/writing/two-
experiments-2019](http://nickcammarata.com/writing/two-experiments-2019)

~~~
moona3k
I loved the Dear Nick idea, the weekly script, and sharing the most intimate
notes with your closest friends. Good work.

------
tlackemann
Alternatively, jrnl.sh. It's tiny, allows you write using your favorite
editor, and can be backed up or replicated with simple git. It's even
encrypted.

Maybe I'm not the target demographic for services like these but I would
_never_ trust my personal thoughts with a service like this.

~~~
tossmeaside1
It is a popular conceit to assume that anyone cares about your thoughts or
that they carry some significant, intrinsic value. This happens to me all the
time. It takes reflection to realize that most of the crap that people
generate is just that, crap. Sure, it may be crap that can incriminate you in
a court proceeding or crap that could be developed into patented intellectual
property, but it is crap none-the-less. Its that tendency people have to
assume things like "I got super stoned in the late 90's and sketched out
designs for Photovoltaic Solar Roofing systems, that Musk guy stole my idea".
No, odds are that Musk guy didn't steal shit from you. Your diary wasn't
hacked, your sketches were not secretly photographed and your phone isn't
bugged. Your idea was in some way obvious. In the PV example it was obvious
and requires money and influence to develop, two things that if you had them
you wouldn't be making claims that "so and so stole this idea" or "I invented
that first".

~~~
oefrha
No one gives a crap about your nude body. Still, you probably don’t shower in
the open.

------
kop316
For a different thought of how to do it, I self-host a Wordpress site that is
essentially a diary. However, right now the scope is to keep track of recipes
that I have made, if I liked them, and where I found them.

While I could have made a notes app, this allows my fiancée to look at it,
comments on it, or make her own posts to give her thoughts too (though she
hasn't used it).

I have thought about expanding it into a more general blog (technical or
otherwise), I haven't gotten to that step yet.

Thinking about it, I could make a cron service on it to ask me "what's going
on" with a link to make a new post as well, and make it optionally private (so
only I or who I choose can see it).

------
Dyaz17
Great job. Here is what I propose to make it more secure and prevent you from
being able to read anyone diary...

I propose that each day a link/token is sent to your email. The link then ask
for a password that is handled only with client side javascript and does the
encryption of the data before sending it do the server. Look at what
Blockhain.info or myetherwallet is doing for client side encryption. Maybe
also propose provide all the front end as opensource and provide a way for
people to host their own front (a few HTML, JS files where you input the link
or token sent to you by email...)

~~~
kossnocorp
Thank you!

My goal wasn't to create a 100% secure diary. If you need that, you probably
should not store your data in the cloud. That's unlikely that I will ever try
to make it happen. But even if I would, there're so many ways to screw it over
anyway, so I won't ever try to make this promise.

However, I will consider open-sourcing it.

Also see my comment where I addressed the privacy issue:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045670)

~~~
jlelse
Open sourcing it (and allowing to self-host it for personal and private use)
would be awesome!

------
disiplus
I stumbled on a "lets call it a bug". If i register with a plus sign using my
gmail something+diaryemail@gmail.com

i cannot send emails from that email address and so it wont work for me.

~~~
kossnocorp
Right! But I'm afraid I can't fix that. When I receive an email, I associate
it with the address that GMail reports to me,, and when you sign in as
something+something@gmail.com, the email address differs (as you might already
guess). I know that I can safely remove +something but I can't be sure that it
will work the same for every email service and ensure security. Please use
something@gmail.com, I won't send you anything unless you explicitly ask for
it.

------
tectonic
I've been doing this for myself for a couple years now with a little service I
wrote that just sends me an email each day that I reply to. It's archived in
my email history and in a simple, searchable web UI. It's been super useful
for figuring out when I did something a few years ago, medical notes, etc.

------
samdung
Congrats. This is cool. Quick question. Did you pull this off in one day
(after PG's tweet)? If yes, that is mighty impressive.

~~~
kossnocorp
Sorry to disappoint you, but I did not. I built it some time ago, but I was
quick to reply, so there's a chance that Paul tried the service. I'm such a
fanboy, haha.

------
nif2ee
It's pointless to say the least to claim "Private and secure" without at least
having client-side AEAD of some sort.

------
vi-mode
PG is a smart mind with a long track record of achievements. Still people
shouldn't follow him in a cult-like manner or turn him into a voodoo-kind role
model, 'PG tweeted he needs a pink phone, I made him one'.

While the initial email idea is tempting, it's nonsense from a security
perspective especially with this use case.

------
kldavis4
I used [http://ohlife.com/](http://ohlife.com/) until they shut down. After
that I just switched to using a Google Doc. The service mostly just provided
me a daily reminder, but after you get into the habit it isn't hard to keep it
up without that.

~~~
obiefernandez
I wrote and maintain AhhLife as a replacement for OhLife. Been going for many
years now. Thousands of active users.

------
rahuldottech
Honestly, I love it!

A very related project, that focuses on being a "social network" through
email:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853667](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21853667)

Edit: I'm getting errors with the login functionality. Please check it out.

~~~
kossnocorp
Thanks! What browser do you use?

~~~
k_
Got the issue too, it was not related to my browser but more likely to my
email client that replaced more & with &amp; than needed and broke the link.
Edited the link manually and it worked.

~~~
kossnocorp
Ouch! Firebase generates links for me but I'll take a look at what I can do.

------
EllieEffingMae
My personal solution to this is using
[http://itty.bitty.site](http://itty.bitty.site)

You can write a lot on one page. And I wrote some bash functions to store the
links when you close your browser, and then give you the option of opening one
based on the title.

------
cyberferret
This thread makes me miss the old Posterous service. I used to enjoy emailing
shot blog posts, and only having a few friends of mine knowing what my blog
address was. It was a form of journalling that I enjoyed until they
inexplicably shut the service down.

------
komali2
I really like the layout of the page and your manner of speaking. Both are web
design ideals I strive for. I also want people to write more :)

Little nitpick - try out your signup page on Firefox mobile and you will see a
one character width input field for the email input box :)

------
overcast
Out of curiosity, how are you preventing spoofed email spam? It looks like
you're accepting everything to one generic email address, and posting via the
senders address?

------
juandazapata
What’s the difference between this and using...your email? I’m genuinely
confused.

------
mc3
The codeless way of doing it: Set up a daily recurring event on Google
Calendar, with an email reminder saying "Wazzaaaap?" then you reply to it. To
accumulate, use Gmails search functionality.

------
ohsik
Funny when I came to post my diary app, I saw this haha

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22058792](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22058792)

------
Swtrz
I do this with my own mail account using a filter that drops messages with an
@NoteToSelf tag in the body into a particular folder. I hate to be that guy, I
think Paul thought too hard about this one.

------
cryptozeus
Great job, very fast. One more person delivered this on Twitter
thread...[https://nom.blue/](https://nom.blue/)

------
JamesAdir
Looks great. I've gone through the comments but might missed it - Could you
share a bit on what you used to develop this? language? frameworks? thanks!

------
johnnyballgame
Click "Open Diary". Click back button. Nope.

------
maxpv
I use a dedicated email address and send emails to myself. Much private, you
can make threads ect..

Using protonmail by the way.

------
marta_morena
Cool, so people post their diary to an email service? Interesting. Why not
just post on Facebook? It's about as public as it gets.

~~~
wtetzner
I don't think it's supposed to be public. The idea is that you get an email
each day asking about what's going on, you reply, and the service tracks your
replies in a way that you can retrieve them.

------
XnoiVeX
Isn't this exactly like [https://posthaven.com/](https://posthaven.com/)?

------
wodenokoto
What do you use for sending and reading emails?

I’m looking to build a simple script that can send out some emails and respond
to simple replies.

------
kazinator
private@diaryemail.com is an oxymoron. Why would I write an e-mail to some
random address at a domain I don't own, and pretend that it's private, when I
could send it to <myalias>@<mydomain>, where it ends up on a server under my
desk?

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kper1337
Why exactly do you need to store my age to store my data (in the signup
process)?

~~~
kossnocorp
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045902](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22045902)

------
mariocesar
How do I update my Full Name? or change the newsletter subscription options?
∞?

~~~
kossnocorp
Sorry, there are no settings for that yet. Please mail me to koss@nocorp.me,
and I'll do it for you.

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esjeon
TBH, I don't think this is anything practical, but I love the design.

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matt_the_bass
Nice work. FYI pricing tables are not readable on my iPhone 8 in safari

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qntty
This is a newer feature of Day One (but you have to pay to get it).

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NicoJuicy
I dogfood handle.sapico.me , I used to email it to myselve though.

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drharby
_shut up and ship it_

I love the simple sourcing of requirements. Good job!

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kper1337
Why do you exactly need to know my age to store my data?

~~~
kossnocorp
As I'm based in the EU, I can't store personal data of children without the
consent of a parent. So to make sure I added the form.

------
sandeeps_
@kossnocorp How long did it take for you to build this?

------
racuna
also: [https://www.maildiary.net/v2/](https://www.maildiary.net/v2/)

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macleginn
A hard limit of 30 friends is a bit annoying.

------
agentofoblivion
Amazing speed/execution. Kudos!

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moralsupply
Do you store the diary in plain text?

~~~
kossnocorp
I stored it as sanitized HTML along with the original HTML so I can resanitize
it after I improve the parser or find an error in it.

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eerrt
How do you handle the security?

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dang
Submitted title was "Show HN: Paul Graham requested an email diary service, so
I shipped it", which isn't a bad thing, but given that the post is now high on
the front page I think we should do the usual edit and take out the celebrity
name.

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kissgyorgy
I have a big problem with this: You can't seem to edit the post after it has
been sent. A typo staying there forever would drive me crazy :)

------
deadmetheny
Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham. Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul
Graham? Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham Paul Graham!

Paul Graham.

~~~
austenallred
You're literally typing those words on a website that Paul Graham created.

