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1. Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Feb-2023 12:03:23 JST Dave Lane 🇳🇿

   I cry inside a little every time I see an otherwise credible person rocking an @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com (ugh), @outlook.com, or, in NZ, an @xtra.co.nz, or, perish the thought, @clear.net.nz (among other yucky corporate email providers). Shows they don't know 'how to digital' well enough to exist comfortably in a modern world. Unfortunately, that's 95% of the population. Which is just one reason (of many!) I think we're in the thick of a digital Dark Age. https://davelane.nz/darkage

   • Adrian Cochrane repeated this.
   • Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Feb-2023 12:03:51 JST Dave Lane 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     To be clear: most people don't know why this is a problem. Here're a few reasons:
     1. it aligns you with a brand that many people consider poisonous, and
     2. it shows you don't have your tech shit together enough to have your own branded email, and
     3. it means your email communications are totally dependent on a (usually free) email service that is *harvesting data from every email *I* send to that person* and is adding data to an ad profile for me that they sell to their actual customers. Yuck

     Adrian Cochrane repeated this.
   • Dave Lane 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Feb-2023 12:07:19 JST Dave Lane 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     Moreover, when that service eventually starts charging you, and/or goes out of business, or gets EOL'd by the supplier, you'll be screwed, because you'll need to get everyone who emails you to adopt your new email, which is a massive pain in the ass. Also, it'll break all your web accounts that use an email address. A huge disruption. If you had your own domain, you could switch its hosting provider transparently without affecting the email everyone uses to contact you. It's a no-brainer today.