HN Explorer

Ask HN: Alternatives to Email?

4 points by imagineerschool ↗ HN
I can give people an email address to contact me, but that's certainly not foolproof. What other good and reliable methods are there to let people get in touch?

I'd love to hear about Free and Open solutions, but if you're out there using Discord as your prime external comms channel, I'd love to hear about that too! Thanks!

11 comments

[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 36.3 ms ] thread
viraptor
> but that's certainly not foolproof

What do you mean? What specific issues are you trying to solve or work around?

imagineerschool
Thank you. We have all had the experience of an important email going to spam and being missed, with no visibility to the sender. I want to be sure I'm actually getting my messages, especially messages from people contacting me for the first time.
NonEUCitizen
give your phone number as backup (to select people)
cpach
Whatsapp. IRC. SMS. Telephone + voice mail. Snail mail, maybe to a PO box.
sloaken
Going full old school, your mailing address.

I am a little confused by the need for 'foolproof'. Do you mean they cannot type it in wrong? Or they might send you junk mail? Or are you worried the email will address will be abandoned? As in we are leaving school, and we always want to keep in touch?

imagineerschool
Thank you, I think I'll set up a PO box.

We have all had the experience of an important email going to spam and being missed, with no visibility to the sender. I want to be sure I'm actually getting my messages, especially messages from people contacting me for the first time.

sloaken
There are also 3rd party companies that are similar to PO Boxes, they scan the outside of the mail. Then you can tell them if they should open it and scan the insides. This can be useful if you plan to move as a PO Box you need to visit.

I plan to set one up soon as I am hoping to go digital nomad in the next year or so and do not want to be tied down, but still want a fixed address, that is not my brothers house.

imagineerschool
Thanks to everyone, I have realized I need to be more specific.

I'm setting up my personal website, at myname.url , and I want to have a way of letting people get in touch with me privately and securely.

Right now I have me@URL alongside me@gmail and me@hey because sometimes mails just don't arrive correctly, or go to spam, etc. Depending on the sender to send again to another address is not satisfying to me.

I'd prefer not to have to stand up and maintain my own server. I can get a PO box, and I can get a synthetic phone number, but I really crave something I can really trust. Something encrypted, deniable, and having all sorts of nice qualities.

From an security aesthetics POV, I love projects like https://github.com/maqp/tfc . What other projects like this are there?

forgotmypw17
Since you're already setting up a website, it can be as easy as a form on your site, with some spam counter-measures.