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Show HN: Pepbot, disposable email service with a twist

19 points by gbrindisi ↗ HN
Hello HN! Meet my baby: Pepbot

http://pepbot.com

It's a disposable temp email service (like Mailinator and many others) with the ability to automate the boring email verification task that some services require (check mail -> click the confirmation link -> activate account).

It's a project I've coded during weekends for sharpen my python and sys admin skills.

I am looking for feedback! What do you think?

23 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 59.9 ms ] thread
ecaroth
I think it's a great idea! One suggestion I have - It was tough at first glance to tell that the box on the page was an input element. Maybe more of a text box look (no rounded corners) or maybe a button would help.
frb
Also, since all addresses are @pepbot.com, this part should be optional.

Right now, if I enter some random address without @pepbot.com I'm landing on the start page.

Apart from that, I really like it! This will definitely become my default service for trash mails.

gbrindisi
Actually I haven't tested it but if you point your MX record to mail.pepbot.com you should be able to use your own domain name.
frb
Sounds cool. Will definitely try it. Maybe you should put that information somewhere on the site.

However, I think that most people are going to use @pepbot.com. Therefore if you just type <something> without @pepbot.com, it should be assumed that people want check mails in <something>@pepbot.com. It should ad leas be automatically appended if there is no @<whatever>.

gbrindisi
I made a little change to the input box, let me know if it's more usable now!

(and thanks for the feedback)

frb
Just found the time to check your improvements and respond...

It's definitely better with the auto-complete and mail icon. However, it's still confusing to first-time users, as there is no hint that they have to add @pepbot.com. E.g. at http://trash-mail.com you only hav to enter a random name and can see the mails.

I showed pepbot to some colleagues earlier today and they all reacted the same: First confused as to why it wasn't working, but as I explained that they had to add @pepbot.com they all got along with it very well.

So, my suggestion is still, to append @pepbot.com automatically if a user enters something without @... or to at least add a hint like "don't forget to add @pepbot.com".

Nevertheless, these are minor improvements and I think it's already very usable.

guiseppecalzone
This is super simple and something I would actually use. I like it!

I have one suggestion: make random@pepbot.com look clickable. It took me a few moments to understand that I could / need to click on it. Why? The area is faded out. Whenever I see something faded, I assume it's not clickable.

gbrindisi
I definitely need to improve the input button, maybe adding an icon or such.
gbrindisi
I made some changes, what do you think?
Yoms
Love the minimal look.

Some feedback - It wasn't immediately obvious to me, even after reading the 2 points on the main page, how exactly to use it. Maybe rewording those?

gbrindisi
Any suggestion is appreciated! I am not a native english speaker so typos and unclear statements are common for me :)
ay
The second use case makes me a bit nervous.

Why: many services that require an email confirmation from you typically allow to do the password reset via the same email address. So, unless the user is signing up for a throwaway service, they put their account with that service at risk.

But from the UI point of view the minimalism is awesome.

gbrindisi
Pepbot it's not intended to be used with services you actually care of exactly for this kind of reasons!

> But from the UI point of view the minimalism is awesome.

Thanks!

gtjuggler
Sounds like a useful service.

Wondering: Since the bot clicks every link, are there cases where there may be an 'unsubscribe' link?

Also, a little typo in paragraph two: 'adress'

gbrindisi
Yes it could happen.

Links are parsed with regular expression and clicked in order. There is not some sort of link recognization (like confirmation one vs unsubscribe one), every link is treated the same way.

nickfromseattle
It would save me time, I think its an excellent idea. Any monetization ideas?
gbrindisi
Actually no. It's just a learning excrcise for me.

But if you have some ideas please share!

Raphael
Leave the @pepbot.com part outside of the input so we don't have to type it.
gbrindisi
I fixed it! I've added an auto completion javascript, it should be more usable now (let me know!).
HDR
You should set some accounts to not be useable, like hostmaster@pepbot.com or admin, administrator, info, support, etc. that way people can't pretend to be you and scam/cheat/lie, or somehow tarnish the sites reputation. edit: I like your site, simple UI, useful.
gbrindisi
Forging an email is so trivial that I think that there isn't an acceptable solution for this kind of problems. Anyway I have already pointed out in the FAQs that Pepbot cannot send mails.