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Just launched tonight: thisemailwillselfdestruct.com - feedback?

3 points by dustball ↗ HN
A simple & fun site to send e-mails that self-destruct: http://www.thisemailwillselfdestruct.com/

You can specify how long the message will last after it has been opened. It's an easy way to send a secure message to someone without having to worry about the message getting accidentally saved on their computer, forwarded on, etc.

A free subscription if you want to try it: http://www.thisemailwillselfdestruct.com/signup/free-promo-534b10dd8

Audience is less technical folk; i.e. not familiar with crypto or secure enterprise messaging.

What do you think?

8 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 24.8 ms ] thread
jolan
I just got an error trying to sign up:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/base/python_runtime/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 511, in __call__
        handler.get(*groups)
      File "/base/data/home/apps/thisemailwill/1.344696440624846265/main.py", line 243, in get
        self.redirect(users.create_login_url('/signup'+coupon))
    TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'NoneType' objects
dustball
Thanks! I just pushed a fix.
photon_off
This was done before, but I forgot the URL. One thing I never understood is how people don't just figure: Can't the recipient photograph (or otherwise document) the e-mail?
gcheong
Or a screen capture/print?
dustball
Sure, they can. The point is to make it hard, not impossible. Heck, just think of common problems caused by lazyness or human error. The service lets you send a message to someone with a _reasonable expectation_ that it won't go any further. With e-mail or normal written communication methods, you simply don't have that.
photon_off
To me, it is not at all a reasonable expectation that somebody can look at an e-mail, but not document it. It seems disingenuous. Perhaps I am more clever than your target audience.