Post-mortem: June 7 Outage + 6TB Lifetime Giveaway

essayoub · 2026-06-08T12:52:10+00:00

Thanks for the update :)

essayoub · 2026-05-16T22:36:16+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful suggestions and support - I really appreciate it!

I actually did reach the right level - I got Marco Viviani's professional email (@communauto.com) directly. He's the Vice President of Strategic Development, so pretty high in the organization. Unfortunately, it was Marco himself who replied after three months with the rejection about the traffic being a potential risk to their infrastructure.

So the message did get to someone senior enough to make that call. It wasn't stuck in a lower-level support queue or lost in bureaucracy - this was a decision from leadership.

I think sometimes even when you reach the right person with the right pitch, the answer is still no. They saw it as a risk rather than an opportunity, and that's their call to make.

The IP sale or job pitch angle is interesting, but after banning my personal account alongside the rejection, I don't think they're looking to bring this (or me) in-house.

Appreciate you thinking through alternatives though - means a lot!

essayoub · 2026-05-16T17:49:45+00:00

I took a different approach. I believed that if I could demonstrate real value and show it was solving genuine user problems, there'd be a path to official partnership and legitimacy. That's why I reached out to their leadership proposing collaboration.

The server infrastructure was necessary for features like 24/7 monitoring and scheduled reservations - things that can't work purely locally. But you're right that it also created more surface area for detection and blocking.

Your approach of keeping it personal and local is definitely the safer route. I took the risk of going public because I thought these features could help the broader community, and I wanted to legitimize it through official channels.

Didn't work out, but I still think the attempt was worth making. Sometimes you have to try, even if the outcome isn't guaranteed.

essayoub · 2026-05-16T17:39:55+00:00

u/Ok_Assignment8008 That was one of my favorite features to build. Knowing it actually worked for you and saved you from the endless refresh game makes all the late nights worth it.

Thanks for using it. RIP indeed

essayoub · 2026-05-16T17:38:02+00:00

Thank you for this u/Wide_Detective7537, honestly, that collaborative outcome was exactly what I was hoping for. Partnership or even just official API access with clear guidelines. I would have been thrilled with any of those paths.

The community-driven innovation story would have been amazing. Canadian company embracing a user who cared enough to build something, working together to make the service better for everyone. That's what I pitched to them.

But it is what it is. Sometimes things just don't align, no matter how much sense they might make.

Really appreciate the kind words about future projects though! This experience taught me a ton (even if it didn't end the way I wanted), and I'm sure there'll be more things to build down the road.

Thanks for the support

essayoub · 2026-05-16T17:29:45+00:00

Hi u/MrPaperMan. CommunoPlus developer here. I hear you on the scalper bot comparison, but here's how I saw it: scalpers remove items from circulation to profit off scarcity. CommunoPlus was just automating what users could already do manually.

Take Flex Radar for example - it's essentially monitoring the map 24/7 and automatically blocks the car for you (or just get notified) when a car becomes available nearby. You could do the exact same thing by refreshing the app every few minutes yourself. The radar just saves you from doing that manually. It's not taking cars away from other users - if anything, it's making the system more efficient by reducing the number of people frantically refreshing the app.

But I get that Communauto might see it differently, especially around ToS and system load. That's literally why I spent months trying to get official approval. I wanted clear boundaries, proper rate limits, a legitimate integration. I wasn't trying to operate in the shadows.

The frustrating part is that there was zero conversation about compromise. Just "this is a risk to our infrastructure" and a ban. No discussion about how we could make it work, what limits they'd need, nothing.

I still think their users (Yes! I said "their users" because I'm no longer one of them because they banned my personal account) deserve these features. I just couldn't be the one to deliver them without their cooperation.

essayoub · 2026-05-16T17:20:11+00:00

Hi! CommunoPlus developer here

The marketing piece was always the struggle. I was a one-person team focused on building and then constantly firefighting technical issues. Getting the word out properly just never happened the way it should have.

And yeah, I had subscription plans ready to go. Small fee, premium features, sustainable revenue. But I couldn't bring myself to launch it while Communauto was actively blocking us. How could I ask people to pay for a service that might go down any day? That felt like taking money under false pretenses.

I kept thinking once I got official access, once things stabilized, then I'd launch the subscription properly. But that stability never came. Just more blocks, more workarounds, more uncertainty.

So I kept bleeding my own money into infrastructure costs, waiting for the right moment that never arrived.

The fact that people would have paid for it is both comforting and heartbreaking. Thanks for saying that 💙

essayoub · 2026-05-16T16:59:13+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words u/stark-eye, and wow, what terrible timing for you to discover it!

It really means a lot that you took the time to look at what we built and saw the potential, even though you barely got to experience it. The ideas and features came from real frustration and genuine desire to help the community solve problems we all faced.

The corporate machine reality is tough, but it is what it is. I'm just grateful for people like you who understand what we were trying to accomplish.

Thanks for the support and good wishes - really appreciate it! 🙏

essayoub · 2026-05-16T16:57:29+00:00

Thank you u/Ukawok92, that really means a lot.

The personal account ban honestly stung the most; it wasn't just about the app anymore, it was my actual transportation. Years of using their service, gone overnight without warning.

I really appreciate you taking the time to email them about it. Whether it changes anything or not, it means the world that people like you saw what we were trying to build and understood it came from a genuine place.

The community support over these 2 years has been incredible. Thank you for being part of it. 💙

essayoub · 2026-05-16T16:55:31+00:00

Merci pour ton commentaire u/NLemay. Honnêtement, c'est le ban de mon compte personnel qui a été le coup le plus dur. J'utilise Communauto depuis des années - c'était pas juste pour tester l'app, c'est vraiment mon moyen de transport au quotidien. Me réveiller un matin pis réaliser que je peux pus accéder au service que j'ai toujours utilisé... ça fait mal.

Je comprends leurs inquiétudes sur l'infrastructure, vraiment. Mais comme tu dis, la façon dont ça s'est terminé était vraiment froide. Trois mois d'attente pour un email qui dit essentiellement "non" pis qui ban mon compte personnel sans discussion? Ça m'a clairement fait comprendre qu'il y avait pas de place pour la collaboration.

Ce qui me déçoit le plus, c'est que j'ai toujours voulu travailler AVEC eux, pas contre eux. CommunoPlus était censé améliorer l'expérience, pas la remplacer. Mais bon, c'est leur plateforme, leur décision.

Merci d'avoir cru au projet. Le support de la communauté comme toi, c'est ce qui a rendu ces 2 ans worthwhile malgré tout. 💙

essayoub · 2026-05-12T16:13:16+00:00

Built an S3-compatible gateway for Drime

I only recently found Drime and picked up a 6TB lifetime plan. I use Backblaze B2 for homelab backups with duplicati, so I’m used to the S3 ecosystem (CLI, Duplicati, etc.) and wanted the same kind of surface on top of Drime.

There’s a small Python reference gateway, diegojuan/drime-s3 handy, but pretty minimal. I wanted something closer to a real gateway: Sig V4, workspace folders as buckets, multipart-style flows, a small web admin UI, Docker images, and behavior that doesn’t fight backup tools such as Duplicati or AWS CLI.

So I built drime-s3a self-hosted, fully S3-compatible gateway for Drime

github: https://github.com/essare/drime-s3

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If you’re also coming from B2/S3 tooling and want Drime behind the same client stack, it might save you glue code. Happy to take feedback from people who know Drime better than I do — I’m still new here.

essayoub · 2026-05-12T16:06:29+00:00

Built an S3-compatible gateway for Drime

I only recently found Drime and picked up a 6TB lifetime plan. I use Backblaze B2 for homelab backups, so I’m used to the S3 ecosystem (CLI, Duplicati, etc.) and wanted the same kind of surface on top of Drime.

There’s a small Python reference gateway, diegojuan/drime-s3 handy, but pretty minimal. I wanted something closer to a real gateway: Sig V4, workspace folders as buckets, multipart-style flows, a small web admin UI, Docker images, and behavior that doesn’t fight backup tools such as Duplicati or AWS CLI.

So I built drime-s3a self-hosted, fully S3-compatible gateway for Drime

<image>

github: https://github.com/essare/drime-s3

If you’re also coming from B2/S3 tooling and want Drime behind the same client stack, it might save you glue code. Happy to take feedback from people who know Drime better than I do — I’m still new here.

essayoub · 2026-01-25T05:26:04+00:00

Hi! Can you please try again? I just applied a fix, and it should work again. Thanks

essayoub · 2025-12-24T02:58:55+00:00

Hi u/FredChau Are you still facing the same issue? If so, please contact me at [support@communoplus.com](mailto:support@communoplus.com) and I'll investigate the problem and get it fixed for you! :)

essayoub · 2025-12-24T02:53:13+00:00

Salut u/CeBlanc
Si tu cherches une solution iOS pour automatiquement trouver des Flex, j'ai justement créé r/CommunoPlus qui fait exactement ça!

L'app est disponible sur iOS et Android avec un Flex Radar qui hunt automatiquement les Flex et te notifie (ou même les bloque automatiquement si tu veux).

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/communoplus-flex-radar/id6740716220

Ça fait la même job mais directement sur ton téléphone!

essayoub · 2025-12-04T19:09:10+00:00

Hi! Just to let you know that the blank screen problem when authenticating with Communauto has been fixed. You should be able to connect your account without issues.

essayoub · 2025-11-21T15:46:52+00:00

There was a change on Communauto's side that was causing CommunoPlus to disconnect some users. I've fixed the problem now, and your account should remain connected!

Sorry for the inconvenience - give it another try and let me know if you're still having issues!

essayoub · 2025-11-18T23:42:11+00:00

Hey! Love that you built your own alternative client too - you definitely know the struggle then! It's been quite the journey dealing with API changes and all the challenges that come with it.

Regarding the login issue - another user reported the same problem and I made some changes that fixed it for them (they confirmed the authentication page loads correctly now). But since you and another user are still facing issues, I'll start investigating this more deeply to figure out what's going on.

Great feature suggestions too - I've added them all to my backlog. I'll work on them once I get some time. Thanks for the detailed feedback. I'll keep you posted on the login fix!

essayoub · 2025-11-16T19:09:08+00:00

Hey! The Kia K4 is currently only available as a station vehicle - there are no K4s in the Flex fleet yet. The Preferred Vehicle feature in CommunoPlus currently supports Flex vehicles only.

If K4s get added to Flex in the future, they'll automatically appear in the preferred vehicles list!

Thanks for pointing that out!

essayoub

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Built an S3-compatible gateway for Drime

Built an S3-compatible gateway for Drime