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NYT paywall is blocking the article.
What did Ezra Klein do besides euthanizing his Gmail account?
What was the "something different" that he tried - a new email service?
EDIT***
Found it - Klein's flogging a new paid email service, provided some company that started up in 2020. The source I pulled that tidbit from also noted that Klein's column read like an "advertorial".
In my day, they had what was called a "press release." Basically, the advertiser wrote the ad to look like an article, then gave it to a columnist, who provides it to the newspaper (or radio station), under the pretense it is information for the public.
Post #1 appears to be an ad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Igor Blevin
I can't get anybody to do email. Everybody only wants to text. The only email I get today are ads and offers.
Twenty years ago, most people I knew wouldn't do email: it was too newfangled, and they didn't understand it.
Today they don't do email: it is too old fashioned, and they don't want to be bothered with it.
I'm one of those early gmail users, although I had my own domains back then too. Seemed like a good idea with all the space offered. Then I had issues with one of my domains not wanting to send while I was in certain areas. But gmail to the rescue - I was able to route my email through gmail. Problem was, some recipients software (probably Outlook ) saw the gmail addy, not my actual addy, and it would reply to gmail and I wouldn't see it unless I checked the actual gmail address. Which I rarely did. So mid-conversation a friend would disappear and months later I'd find their reply in my gmail, wondering why *I* disappeared. Lucky I have good friends who didn't take it personally.
While I take a somewhat dim view of an actual registered business using a gmail (or yahoo) as their official address, it does come in handy when you are contracting with a company and need a quick email setup.
In the past 5 (?) years gmail has made a change where we now have tags instead of folders? If I already had folders they still worked but making new ones seems to be impossible. Which makes the inbox of pile of slop.
I really hate working on the web for email. When I want to delete groups of emails, gmail only shows me 50 at a time. It is TEDIOUS to go through that.
I recently setup my local mail program to pull in gmail from two of my clients and have been cleaning them up. One of them had close to 15K unread emails. I knew I'd never get it done using the web interface.
The web had become a bloated messy place. Online shopping should be quick and it is not with ads and everything else they throw at you. I really miss the simplicity of what we had at the beginning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TRex2
Twenty years ago, most people I knew wouldn't do email: it was too newfangled, and they didn't understand it.
Today they don't do email: it is too old fashioned, and they don't want to be bothered with it.
Awhile back a bunch of us were trying to help a lady in a local group print from her phone. She was asked all the right questions about her printer and what she was printing from (and didn't answer them correctly). One person asked if she could print from a computer. The woman in question is in her early 60s and said "What do you think this is, 2002?! I don't use a computer to print!! Who does that?!" (I do both actually)
I'd rather people emailed me! I'm trying to retrain some of my clients who use text and email interchangeably because I just can't find what I need when it's scattered all over the place (and as it turns out, neither can they)
<edit> I have not used my personal gmail account in years, basically due to distrust of google harvesting info from it
Last edited by WouldLoveTo; 04-13-2024 at 09:35 AM..
I'm trying to retrain some of my clients who use text and email interchangeably because I just can't find what I need when it's scattered all over the place (and as it turns out, neither can they)
I routinely have meetings with clients who have to access or show me something on their phone, which then turns into them endlessly scrolling in search of an image, message, or whatever. Scroll, scroll, scroll...when I see the number of images some people keep on their phone I'm stunned. Like, thousands of them. Why? After five minutes of watching the scroll of futility, my time is being wasted as well as theirs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WouldLoveTo
The web had become a bloated messy place. Online shopping should be quick and it is not with ads and everything else they throw at you.
Yes it has. I can't understand how people can browse the web without an adblocker installed. On the rare occasion I do that, I'm shocked at the amount of ads. What I don't know how to block are the popups that appear within seconds of entering a site ("sign up for our newsletter!"). Often, when I get those slammed in my face, or a site blocks me because I'm using an adblocker, I simply leave. Their loss.
Some thoughts/rebuttals/comments I had after reading the article.
Quote:
I now pay Apple and Google a monthly fee for more storage. It would take too long to delete everything necessary to remain beneath their limits.
Self inflicted wound from a digital amateur, IMO, albeit the kind of user that companies like Apple, Google (and Hey) love as they make them more money. I know everyone's needs are different, but I maintain that an individual (vice business, etc.) email/storage account that offers something similar along the lines of Google or Apple should more than suffice without having to pay for additional storage. If you are getting close to the limit and don't want to keep up, then spend a few minutes purging some needless emails. If you're talking about making the jump to another service, then perhaps what's in the accounts that you're paying to store things in isn't actually that important to begin with?
Quote:
Hey assumes that only the people you want email from should be able to email you.
In theory, this sounds good. But in reality you may very well get an unexpected email (or an expected email) that you need to receive that the Hey algorithm knows nothing about.
Quote:
The first time anyone sends you a message, it goes into what’s called the Screener, and you have to whitelist or blackball the sender.
For someone who claims he has so many Gmail emails that it's too time consuming to go through and manage/delete them, this seems like it can be a pretty time-intensive process as well.
Quote:
If you blackball the sender, that’s it. You never see email from that address again.
This isn't something unique to Hey. You can do that with any reputable email service provider. Of course, spammers get around this by simply changing something minor about the email address you "blacklisted."
Quote:
Which is not to say Hey is perfect or even that it fully solves the problems I’m describing. Its search is far inferior to Google’s. It’s too hard to rediscover mail that I’ve viewed but took no action on. There’s no way of sorting different kinds of mail that come from the same address. It has trouble threading long conversations with many, many participants.
That's a major downside, IMO. I regularly find the need to search my Gmail for emails sent/received months to years ago. The search functionality is simple, fast, and easy to use. I deal with unfriendly search functions every day at work, and it ain't pretty.
Quote:
I have thousands of photos of my children but few that I’ve set aside to revisit.
I'd wager that many of these are duplicates as well. But, again, if you haven't those many photos that you don't revisit, how is switching from Apple to Hey or another service going to change that point?
Quote:
I do not blame anyone but myself for this. This is not something the corporations did to me. This is something I did to myself.
This I fully agree with the author on
Quote:
But I am looking now for software that insists I make choices rather than whispers that none are needed. I don’t want my digital life to be one shame closet after another.
In that case, you did a poor job selling Hey.
This isn't to say that Gmail is perfect (it's not). But I'm not paying $100 a year to use a service that I'm far from convinced (in fact the opposite) provides better service than Gmail, which I have never paid out of pocket for.
Note, on a historical point I recall when Gmail was first gaining some popularity. There was a sort of snobbish mentality among some regarding a "free" internet service; many people in my circle foolishly thought that paid services like AOL were superior due to being more established, etc. It was a silly notion, but many people bought into it. As a result, Google and similar companies had to be innovative in order to win many people over, which led to them being far superior to many of the more legacy companies. Is this to say that Gmail/Google is perfect? Definitely not, and I'm all for competition in the marketplace and would gladly switch from Gmail to a better service. This guy just did a poor job selling me on why Hey is a better alternative. Just my two cents, anyway.
Ain't nobody got time for that. I need that hour for all the other crap, like running through 2FA logins, juggling passwords and security questions, and taking steps to avoid getting hacked/scammed online, which is happening far too frequently.
I don't think that I have ever in my entire life actually had to use "security questions" (which are actually harmful for security) and have successfully avoided all sites which attempt to encumber their subjects with two factor self-doxx ...er, authentication.
Just having a sane and healthy passphrase regiment is enough to keep things quick and simple. I actually spend way more time drafting thoughts into on-screen text than anything else. If simply interfacing with the tech is the biggest draw on one's time, one might be doing something wrong.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ciceropolo
How about the equivalent of a license to participate on the highway that is earned by having to regularly pass a remedial Rules of Engagement test online? A one time minimal flat fee.
Ya, bruh just allow governments control access to information. What could go wrong?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lillie767
Could someone please summarize the problem?
The article author slipped in his bathroom and hit his head against a bust of Sergey Brin, causing a brain aneurysm. From then on, he could no longer tell the difference between local and remote storage and started storing everything in his Gfail attachments.
He wrote the linked article kvetching about limited storage space to push a product that solves a non-issue in the hopes of covering his medical bills. SUMMARY COMPLETE!
^^LOL! I have a replica of Larry Page, but it's not in my bathroom and it's full of holes, somewhere out on the range.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yelling_at_Birds
I don't think that I have ever in my entire life actually had to use "security questions" (which are actually harmful for security)
So what makes you so special? Many firms/websites use this and I don't know that there's a way around it. Verizon and Chase Bank come to mind. Having to relay my "security" answers to a broken-English operator in a third world country does not inspire much confidence, and the required phone call won't proceed without them. Both of their websites are clunky, dysfunctional messes.
The whole "mother's maiden name" for security needs to go away, like, yesterday.
I guess I don't understand the problem since I don't think I have a problem with e-mail.
Could someone please summarize the problem?
...
What problem am I missing?
You don't have a problem with email, because you understand it, and you understand work flow.
A lot of people don't understand.
Some people sign up for too many subscriptions (that would be me), and some people don't realize, when they give their email address to an on line business, they will get emails from them, forever.
And then, there are some people only check their email on random occasions (because they are too busy with Farcebook or SnackChat), and then wonder why there are 500 new emails (since they haven't checked it in weeks) and they can't find the one they are looking for.
Imagine if someone only checked their snail mail box, on random occasions, about every third week. That would be a problem, but most people can't make the connection.
(I only have a problem when I get bogged down in all of the fascinating details ... )
...
While I take a somewhat dim view of an actual registered business using a gmail (or yahoo) as their official address, it does come in handy when you are contracting with a company and need a quick email setup.
Is there something else you would recommend, for personal use or a small (4 "non technical minded" employees) business?
Quote:
In the past 5 (?) years gmail has made a change where we now have tags instead of folders? If I already had folders they still worked but making new ones seems to be impossible. Which makes the inbox of pile of slop.
I don't think most people know the difference.
I hadn't thought about it for years. I use labels, as I archive my emails, and it works (for me) the same as if I had put them in folders.
Am I missing something important?
Quote:
...
Awhile back a bunch of us were trying to help a lady in a local group print from her phone. She was asked all the right questions about her printer and what she was printing from (and didn't answer them correctly). One person asked if she could print from a computer. The woman in question is in her early 60s and said "What do you think this is, 2002?! I don't use a computer to print!! Who does that?!" (I do both actually)
Replacing a computer with a smart phone?
That should be considered a self inflicted wound.
Quote:
I'd rather people emailed me! I'm trying to retrain some of my clients who use text and email interchangeably because I just can't find what I need when it's scattered all over the place (and as it turns out, neither can they)
...
I use email for anything that has lasting importance.
You don't have a problem with email, because you understand it, and you understand work flow.
A lot of people don't understand.
Some people sign up for too many subscriptions (that would be me), and some people don't realize, when they give their email address to an on line business, they will get emails from them, forever.
And then, there are some people only check their email on random occasions (because they are too busy with Farcebook or SnackChat), and then wonder why there are 500 new emails (since they haven't checked it in weeks) and they can't find the one they are looking for.
Imagine if someone only checked their snail mail box, on random occasions, about every third week. That would be a problem, but most people can't make the connection.
(I only have a problem when I get bogged down in all of the fascinating details ... )
Good point about the subscriptions. If I subscribed to every YouTube content creator that I watched, the amount of email I would received would be overwhelming. That's why I don't subscribe at all. Your snail mailbox analogy reminds me of when I took a vacation from work many years ago. Because I had been routinely collecting the mail, nobody thought to check the mailbox while I was gone. It took me 3 trips to empty it when I got back. I should have used a wheelbarrow.
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) saw the gmail addy, not my actual addy, and it would reply to gmail and I wouldn't see it unless I checked the actual gmail address. Which I rarely did. So mid-conversation a friend would disappear and months later I'd find their reply in my gmail, wondering why *I* disappeared. Lucky I have good friends who didn't take it personally.
(I do both actually)
SUMMARY COMPLETE!