Show HN: Pepbot, disposable email service with a twist

[gbrindisi]

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?

[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!

[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 :)

[guiseppecalzone]

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

I have one suggestion: make [email protected] 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?

[HDR]

You should set some accounts to not be useable, like [email protected] 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.

[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.

[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!).

[RiderOfGiraffes]

Clickety: http://pepbot.com

[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!

[cubicle67]

love the nice clean design