Birthday Bot: FAQ

• What is the B-bot?
  The Birthday Bot (B-bot) is an automatic reminder system. It can send you e-mail warnings when the birthday of one of your contacts is approaching. You decide how many days in advance you want to be warned, and how many warnings you want to get.
   
  
• How do I use this service?
  It's real simple. You start by defining your contact(s). These are the people whose birthdays you'd like to be reminded of. If they have a photo online somewhere, you can add the link to it. Makes it all a bit more friendly :) Once a contact is defined, you can define any number of reminders for the contact by using the 'add reminder' link. For a new reminder, put in an e-mail address to receive the reminder at (your own e-mail address!), and how many days in advance you'd like to be warned. Then make sure the reminder makes it past your spam-filter by using the 'test' link to send yourself a test copy of the reminder e-mail. That's it!
   
  
• What time of day are the reminders sent out?
  They are sent out at 00.30 UTC. They should arrive in your inbox shortly after.
   
  
• Is there a limit to the number of contacts I can define?
  Currently, there is no limit. This might change in a future version.
   
  
• Is there a limit to the number of reminders I can get per day/week/month?
  Currently, there is no limit. This might change in a future version.
   
  
• Is this service really free?
  Yes, it is 100% free. There are no hidden costs. You will not be charged for the use of this service. Paying accounts may be introduced in a future version, but until then your use of this service is entirely FREE. No matter what, there will always be a free version of this service, though it may be somewhat limited in the future. But not yet, so use it all you like!
   
  
• What's the catch?
  There is no catch. This service came into being because I can be quite forgetful and needed a simple, flexible tool for e-mail reminders. Hence the B-bot. I figured this tool could be useful for other people, so here we are.
   
  
• Are there any guarantees? Because this service is free, there are no guarantees of any kind.

  Obviously, I do my best to make sure nothing breaks - it's part of the systems of the isp I run, which are closely monitored. On top of that, I use the service myself - so if it would break, I'd find out real quick. But e-mail as a medium is not 100% reliable, hence I can't guarantee that you will actually get every single reminder. If you want to make sure, define a couple of reminders for each contact, and space them a few days apart. Also, verify regularly that your spam filter does not block the reminder e-mails - use the 'Test' link in the reminder overview for that.
   
  

• I like this service. Can I get you something?
  Great to hear that you like the B-bot. I do, too ;) Next time you look for hosting, consider Pong.be, and I will be most obliged. Send me a message at ward@pong.be for a personalized quote - and definitely mention the B-bot!
   
  
• Wasn't this a Ruby on Rails application?
  Indeed, the first version from 2006 was built in Rails. In 2019 I rewrote it in Go.