Making me enter payment info to try it out makes this a non-starter for me.
There's not enough information on the main page as to how it actually works or who is behind for me to be comfortable just plugging my credit card into a random site.
I like the concept, though, and would probably pay for something like this if there were more details on how it works. Right now, I have SSL/unlimited message archive/unlimited connections by using screen + irssi and a cheap (less than $12/mo) VPS.
A high level overview of how it works: When you sign up, we provision a private ZNC installation on EC2 for you. It is multi-tenant, but we leverage various mechanisms for security: passwords are one-way hashed, each ZNC process runs as a separate unix user for each IRCRelay user, file permissions are such that no other ZNC user can read another users config even if there was an exploit, etc.
As for the payment: We only wanted to sign up people who were serious about using the service, and asking for payment details up front is a way to do this. All payments are done through stripe, and we don't see the CC details, ever. Your card is not charged until after the 30 day trial, and we send a warning email a few days prior so you can cancel your account if you're not happy.
In general its a nice service, it seems to cover all the IRC bases.
I'm wondering though if there is a bigger offering here somewhere, something which would basically provide a termination point for all of your real time interactive communication sessions. Paired with a set of tools that let you connect to that termination point from a variety of devices might unify a bunch of services that are currently fragmented.
For example, the various chat clients that federated AIM/Yahoo/Jabber were a way to terminate all your chat context and then to attach or detach from it at will. They still didn't get the "Oh I left my gmail running at home so your gchat went there and now opening gmail at work I don't know that you're wondering why I'm not responding" problem.
Clearly federating IRC, Chat, Twitter, and SMS could have some interesting benefits, especially if you're able to re-connect, back up the timeline to the point where you disconnected, and play back to present.
I think bitlbee will let you cram your various non-IRC instant messengers into an IRC-like interface. I've never used it, but it seems like an easy first step.
This seems like a great idea, but I am absolutely not going to give credit card info at the beginning of a trial. Shame, I would have liked to try it out.
If they had asked you to pay for the service up front without a trial would it have made a difference?
Would it be better marketing to call it a "free month" instead of a trial?
I think that most people who might use this have some idea what an IRC Proxy is. That makes me wonder if it isn't better to just call it a free month to avoid these "why am I paying for a trial" issues.
I love the idea of this, but the benefit doesn't outweigh the cost when I can get a VPS for less.
EDIT: that said, I do normally only use 2 networks, and I'm fine with the first tier cost. It's just those occasional times I need to connect to a third network. Also I'm not sure how much 10000 messages is, but I imagine idling in a freenode channel could tear through that pretty quickly.
You're paying [a very small amount] to IRCRelay for convenience and not having to worry about it. At least for my close friends, they'd rather pay $5 a month than deal with setting up an EC2 instance or VPS to do this for them.
I'm surprised Amazon allow IRC on EC2. A sizeable number of VPS providers prohibit IRC usage; it makes them dDoS magnets and just isn't worth the hassle
Who doesn't allow IRC usage? VPS/ssh/screen/IRC seems to be one of the more popular reasons for private individuals to use a VPS (well, at least most people on IRC where I hang out seem to use a VPS).
Not sure why you were downvoted. IRCCloud is a great service (though they've been experience trouble recently with a lot of disconnection issues randomly)
From the comments here I understand you provide a ZNC bouncer. You should advertise that, as your target audience is interested in those kind of technical details.
ZNC provides plugins as well, will I be able to use those?
I'd advise you to drop or heavily increase the 10,000 message limit. A moderately busy IRC channels would easily get 1,000 messages a day. Say I'd be on freenode's #ruby, #node.js and #python, I'd be able to use your service for 3-4 days at most with some luck.
The limit to what we store while you're not connected.- i.e, if you're on a trip for a weekend and you come back, you get all of your messages fed back to your client the next time you log in. This clears your limit back to 0, effectively.
On ZNC - definitely good feedback to have a "How it works" page or something of the sort for those who are interested.
I do love your app. Haven't used it in a month or so, but the one thing that bothered me was how I could click on a message that contained a link, and easily view the link, but I couldn't click on the topic to do the same thing.
Mostly curious if anyone has ever mentioned that to you before.
As someone who got his start in SaaS (though we didn't call it that then) offering this exact service, Amazon is going to be very annoyed with you once they're handling DDoS attacks on your behalf.
Be selective of your clients and cut loose quickly. There are people who will sign up for your service just to go shit-talk on EFnet, and the wrong person will result in your entire service going down.
[+] [-] avree|13 years ago|reply
There's not enough information on the main page as to how it actually works or who is behind for me to be comfortable just plugging my credit card into a random site.
I like the concept, though, and would probably pay for something like this if there were more details on how it works. Right now, I have SSL/unlimited message archive/unlimited connections by using screen + irssi and a cheap (less than $12/mo) VPS.
[+] [-] mitchellh|13 years ago|reply
A high level overview of how it works: When you sign up, we provision a private ZNC installation on EC2 for you. It is multi-tenant, but we leverage various mechanisms for security: passwords are one-way hashed, each ZNC process runs as a separate unix user for each IRCRelay user, file permissions are such that no other ZNC user can read another users config even if there was an exploit, etc.
As for the payment: We only wanted to sign up people who were serious about using the service, and asking for payment details up front is a way to do this. All payments are done through stripe, and we don't see the CC details, ever. Your card is not charged until after the 30 day trial, and we send a warning email a few days prior so you can cancel your account if you're not happy.
But thanks for checking it out!
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|13 years ago|reply
I'm wondering though if there is a bigger offering here somewhere, something which would basically provide a termination point for all of your real time interactive communication sessions. Paired with a set of tools that let you connect to that termination point from a variety of devices might unify a bunch of services that are currently fragmented.
For example, the various chat clients that federated AIM/Yahoo/Jabber were a way to terminate all your chat context and then to attach or detach from it at will. They still didn't get the "Oh I left my gmail running at home so your gchat went there and now opening gmail at work I don't know that you're wondering why I'm not responding" problem.
Clearly federating IRC, Chat, Twitter, and SMS could have some interesting benefits, especially if you're able to re-connect, back up the timeline to the point where you disconnected, and play back to present.
Anyway, IRC is but one piece of that puzzle.
[+] [-] pavel_lishin|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrcharles|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnbender|13 years ago|reply
If they had asked you to pay for the service up front without a trial would it have made a difference?
Would it be better marketing to call it a "free month" instead of a trial?
I think that most people who might use this have some idea what an IRC Proxy is. That makes me wonder if it isn't better to just call it a free month to avoid these "why am I paying for a trial" issues.
[+] [-] pearkes|13 years ago|reply
Really appreciate any feedback, and we're happy to answer questions here. Thanks!
[+] [-] jwpeddle|13 years ago|reply
EDIT: that said, I do normally only use 2 networks, and I'm fine with the first tier cost. It's just those occasional times I need to connect to a third network. Also I'm not sure how much 10000 messages is, but I imagine idling in a freenode channel could tear through that pretty quickly.
[+] [-] klinquist|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mitchellh|13 years ago|reply
You're paying [a very small amount] to IRCRelay for convenience and not having to worry about it. At least for my close friends, they'd rather pay $5 a month than deal with setting up an EC2 instance or VPS to do this for them.
[+] [-] nuclear_eclipse|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lysol|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aes256|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jlgreco|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dsl|13 years ago|reply
I've started using it as my full time IRC client with Nimbus https://github.com/jnordberg/irccloudapp
[+] [-] manish_gill|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcpherrinm|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waxjar|13 years ago|reply
ZNC provides plugins as well, will I be able to use those?
I'd advise you to drop or heavily increase the 10,000 message limit. A moderately busy IRC channels would easily get 1,000 messages a day. Say I'd be on freenode's #ruby, #node.js and #python, I'd be able to use your service for 3-4 days at most with some luck.
[+] [-] pearkes|13 years ago|reply
On ZNC - definitely good feedback to have a "How it works" page or something of the sort for those who are interested.
[+] [-] emperorcezar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] EricButler|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grimgrin|13 years ago|reply
Mostly curious if anyone has ever mentioned that to you before.
[+] [-] flavien_bessede|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] argarg|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jspthrowaway2|13 years ago|reply
Be selective of your clients and cut loose quickly. There are people who will sign up for your service just to go shit-talk on EFnet, and the wrong person will result in your entire service going down.