by 0xmohit on 5/31/24, 6:02 PM with 65 comments
by vundercind on 5/31/24, 6:24 PM
We need a moved-permanently redirect for emails :-/
by iagooar on 5/31/24, 6:35 PM
An anecdote: A few years ago I used to have my own domain. Then one day my credit card expired, the new one did not work and my account got frozen. I fixed it, then I forgot to actually extend the domain and it stopped working. Of course, no incoming email, no access to my old mail, etc.
Fortunately I could buy the domain again after a couple of weeks of time, so it did not end in a catastrophe, but it was truly a very stressful time. I know, it was my fault, but shit like this happens all the time to people.
by tqi on 5/31/24, 6:29 PM
I often seen privacy advocates make sweeping statements like this, but I have a hard time understanding their concerns because I haven't really gotten an answer as to how they see it happening.
EDIT: Also to be clear, I think it is completely valid to object to data collection on moral / ethical grounds alone. And the fact that even if you merely send an email to a gmail account means your data will be tracked is a violation of that choice. However I think claims that this is in turn a great threat to democracy are often used as a kugel to convince other people that they are wrong for not sharing those moral / ethical objections.
by andrewla on 5/31/24, 6:56 PM
Gmail is a legacy of Old Google, like Maps -- it serves no profit motive, just engineers building something cool for everyone with some sort of flimsy pretext of "it keeps users in our ecosystem" tacked on to it. Google now does have a premium-ish offering, "Google One", in an attempt to get some money out of gmail, but really it's just an artifact.
Companies giving things away for free or steeply discounted from the cost of goods sold is a perennial issue when it comes to centralized capital; Google has a pool of infinite money (search ads) and it uses that to buy its way into a bunch of markets where it is incredibly difficult to compete. Maybe early on you could have stopped Youtube or Maps based on standing antitrust law, but personal email has always been given away for free long before Google got into the business, so a product would have to offer something phenomenal to break into that space.
Doesn't utterly stop it; for example Google has had various versions of chat over the years but they have been roundly whooped by Slack.
by aareet on 5/31/24, 6:36 PM
by criddell on 5/31/24, 6:27 PM
You can pay for Gmail through Google Workspace.
by jdoss on 5/31/24, 6:41 PM
Running your own mail server has a bad stigma around it that doesn't have to be true. I understand it is not a task for everyone, but it doesn't have to this don't bother just use Gmail, Fastmail, Protonmail etc etc mentality. I have been running my own since 2002 and I would never consider doing anything else for such an important part of my life.
The big mail providers have built a walled garden to hold your email communications hostage and they want you to believe that you can't send email without them. There are many of us that know that is bullshit and it is time to move the needle back. I am excited to read Run Your Own Mail Server by Michael W Lucas when it comes out in Aug.
by PreInternet01 on 5/31/24, 6:32 PM
Not, 'anyone with an RasPi can do it', but definitely 'you can find someone who will host you.'
And yes, the 'powers that be' definitely conspire against this scenario, as they do with federated social media, etc. etc., but that's not a reason to give up!
by helloplanets on 5/31/24, 6:44 PM
Exporting your mails for you to keep locally or on another company's server is a good way to avoid a scenario where getting locked out of your account turns into a disaster.
by mikl on 5/31/24, 6:29 PM
by flerchin on 5/31/24, 6:32 PM
by asah on 5/31/24, 6:29 PM
by rrr_oh_man on 5/31/24, 6:41 PM
People don’t remember how much fun it was to integrate ActiveDirectory into anything before ubiquitous G-Suite/Workspace logins. Or deal with dozens of external accounts for hundreds of users at a company. Easily a blocker for any startup trying to sell to bigger clients.
by hnpolicestate on 5/31/24, 7:01 PM
Looking back I feel so stupid lol. But I really thought these technology companies were doing something alien to how corporations behaved in the "dark ages". Gullible.
by 30minAdayHN on 5/31/24, 6:37 PM
I still wanted to have an email on my own personal domain. I use Fastmail and been pretty happy with it.
by colesantiago on 5/31/24, 6:32 PM
It still isn’t yours.
by metadaemon on 5/31/24, 6:29 PM
by pyrale on 5/31/24, 6:29 PM
- I need to own the domain name to make sure mail is sent to my property.
- Gmail for is a paid service for custome domain names.
- Why would I pay for an advertising service?
by hnpolicestate on 5/31/24, 6:58 PM
by throwaway48476 on 5/31/24, 6:45 PM
Let's say you wanted to host email with your own domain for the rest of your life. It's likely at some point you'd lose the domain.
by renewiltord on 5/31/24, 6:37 PM
by AceJohnny2 on 5/31/24, 6:34 PM
1. it solved spam
2. it solved finding specific emails in the haystack of your years/decades of emails
It's hard to overstate how important 1 is, for anyone who doesn't know how mail was 20 years ago. Google was able to leverage its dominance (in concert with the other huge hosts like Hotmail) to impose significant changes to email infrastructure, by requiring stuff like SPF and DKIM.
Frankly, other email providers are riding on the wave of Google's efforts and impact to sanitize the email space.