[thehias]

This is supposed to be the sane way? Certainly not! You guys know that you can use "mailto:" as form action, yes? No backend stuff needed.

[prepend]

Aside from having to have something to parse out the submission as the response isn’t that human readable, I think the biggest problem is that users need a mail client and requires them to hit send. This disorients people so even if they have a mail client, you end up with people not hitting submit.

[cchance]

There’s also the bigger issue your directly exposing an email address to web scrapers like it’s not the 90s using mailto forms is a shocking take as acceptable

[01HNNWZ0MV43FF]

I think you can register GMail and Outlook as mailto: handlers, but I've certainly never tried it.

[closewith]

I have a few qualms with this app:

1. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.

2. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue.

3. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it reasonable to expect to make money off of this?

[kaashif]

Classic comment and perfectly captures the vibe.

I don't understand why people don't understand why making users do this weird shit (and yes, mailto: is weird although not as weird as SVN/CVS vs Dropbox) isn't going to work.

[homarp]

but mailto is done on the client side. I am not sure everyone has a local mailto handler these days.

[kevincox]

It is surprisingly rare. I remember working at Google even on documents targeted towards engineers many people were confused by a mailto.

[oliwarner]

If you do this, recognise that you'll have a lot of desktop users fail out because they don't have an email client set up properly.

And even when email sends, it's hard to guarantee delivery. I'd sooner set up and host an API than trust email to work in a business setting.

[voytec]

> You guys know that you can use "mailto:" as form action, yes?

Author mentions "a form with file upload capability".

[leobg]

I would guess that mailto will be great for deliverability. Since the user has already emailed you before your emails are more likely to go through to them and not get filtered as spam or promotion.

Anyone have any data / observations on this?

[pspeter3]

I had no idea that you could use the mailto: URL for a form action.

[thih9]

Same. How would that work? What would be the end result (email body)?

[arnorhs]

this was something that was more commonly used in the late 90s/early/2000s, an early internet feature, but still works to this day.

there are some niceties that have been added or maybe they were always possible - you can add a subject and message body, possibly cc etc.

i used it just last year to make an easy contact form for contacting local municipalities from a single website for my wife's NP

[CM30]

Sadly the best way to use this stopped working years ago. I vaguely recall in some browsers (maybe IE6 or earlier?) it actually send the submission to email directly without opening the user's email program at all.

Having to send an email with the fields prepopulated feels rather archaic by comparison, and leaves me using form scripts as a rule now.

[theamk]

automatically expose my email to any random marketer with a single button click? I can't imagine why anyone ever thought this would be a good idea.

[ekianjo]

but that means exposing an email address in the page source code

[prepend]

I don’t consider that a risk as running a web site likely already has some contact email.

I can set up infinite emails on my $30/year cpanel host so I just create a new mailbox for the form and forward it wherever I like.

[atoav]

Which you are legally required to do anyways in some parts of the world.

[crazygringo]

If I hit "submit" on a form and I saw it start to open a new Gmail tab in my browser, I'm going to close the new Gmail tab before it even has time to finish loading. (Or same if I saw it opening Mail.app.)

I'd just assume the site was trying to trigger some kind of spam e-mail or something.

The idea that I'd fill out a form on a site, then submitting it would open my mail program, and I'd then have to hit send there, and then close my mail tab/window (not to mention exposing my e-mail address to the site when maybe I wouldn't want to), is some of the worst UX I've ever heard of.

[philsnow]

I have a Pavlovian annoyance response to noticing that I have inadvertently clicked a mailto link, because back in ~2005 firefox would try to start Evolution. I usually only noticed the click because of the sound of my spinning disk thrashing to try to lift into memory hundreds of MB of dependencies from their rust platter slumber. Evolution generally didn't even load enough to so much as show its splash screen before I found a terminal and killed the process tree.

[all2]

Craigslist does this exact thing. They give you a custom email address to email, and then you click their link and it pops open gmail.

[Joker_vD]

I believe the last time I've sent an e-mail was in July 2017, when I was finishing my Master degree thesis, and I was glad I'd probably never have to do it again. Please don't ruin my dream?

[gofreddygo]

that email from 2017 will still be in that sent folder, waiting for you, readable and accessible on all possible platforms and form factors, when all the latest owners of the slacks, teams, whatsapps and telegrams of the world ratshit onto their users into oblivion. Ask the ex-twitterati.

[rglullis]

Genuinely curious: what is so bad about writing an email? Do you really prefer/expect that every interaction with someone online is better to be had via an app or automated form?

[aprilnya]

What.