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Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

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Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#101

Post by kidmenot »

jeeva wrote: post #91
infinite8s wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant that evidence of your drinking might still show up on Facebook, especially if those photos are tagged with your name.

I may be wrong, but unless your aunt was then browsing your friends posts / was following those friends, she wouldn't see those photos.

True but, all the same, drunk/stoned people equipped with phones are very dangerous for your privacy. They are actually dangerous whether they are drunk or sober, especially if they are clueless about Facebook's privacy settings.

Mine are set in such a way that you can't add me as a friend if you're not already friends with a friend of mine. If we then are friends, you can't post anything to my wall nor can you tag me in any way without my consent. Granted, the picture will still be there (and possibly visible by anyone if it was posted by one such clueless individual), but then again deleting your Facebook account won't magically erase all the pictures you appear in either.

The actual problem is that any idiot has a smartphone and a Facebook or Instagram account. And they take pictures. And post them.

There doesn't need to be any aunt following your friends. A cousin is more than enough. And there are countries where related families tend to be scattered over a relatively small area, so having friends in common between you and your relatives is but a rare occurrence.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#102

Post by kuschku »

astrobe_ wrote: post #84
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Same thing as IRC. Recommend clients that don't suck for the platforms they are using, and that are adapted to their technical level.

IRCCloud or – if you set it up for them – Quassel for IRC then?

I’m sure for email we could find an equivalent solution.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#103

Post by cuckcuckspruce »

mrweasel wrote: post #95
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

>It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp My family and friends are 100% SMS, which sucks if you like me have a distaste for phones (not just smartphones, just phones in general). Emails is much more in line with my way of communicating. Of cause at work it's often illustrated that other people aren't to skilled in writing emails. More often than not I resort to guessing the message hidden withi…

Aren't there SMSemail services?

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#104

Post by cJ0th »

johnchristopher wrote: post #81
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Here's something that has been in the back of my mind for some time. It's not 100% reliable, nor is it adequately tested but it's a thought: When I start a conversation, when I am the initiator in the exchange, I use my favourite mean of communication (email or whatever). When I receive a message I go along the sender's favourite mean of communication.

Well, my preferred form of communication is e-mail and thus I tend to start conversations via e-mail (if an instant response isn't required). Guess what? Some people started replying to my e-mails via Facebook! I am somewhat okay with using FB as "the new sms" but I don't want to store my personal correspondence on their servers.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#105

Post by CydeWeys »

pferde wrote: post #70
CydeWeys wrote: post #18

I've been using Inbox for Gmail ( https://inbox.google.com ) since launch and it handles most of the things the author talks about. Emails are treated as tasks, and it's a single mouse click or keyboard shortcut to do any of the following: create a reminder based on a given email, pin it for easier later retrieval, or archive it. That's basically how I manage my mail, along with a simple trick from "Getting Things Do…

Careful about those "quick tasks", you might die a death from thousand cuts. If you're doing something that takes time and concentration, it takes effort to context-switch your brain away from it, do the "quick task", and then context-switch back. If you keep getting distracted from the "big task", chances are that you will start making mistakes, or just do it badly. It's better to defer these "quick tasks", and then…

Oh, I'm not processing email constantly, and definitely not while I'm in the flow. When I am processing email I've already set aside some time for it, and finish off the simple tasks immediately.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#106

Post by scarecrowbob »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #45
stegosaurus wrote: post #15

I actually wish e-mail were used more. I want my relatives, my spouse, my friends to use e-mail. I'm not quite sure how to convince them, though. It generally feels like they'd rather use Facebook or WhatsApp or whatever's in fashion at the moment. Any tips? Do I just have to sign up to all of the different chat apps and write bots to forward them to me or something?

Delete your Facebook. There are a more benefits than being able to email; you'll stop pretending to be friends with those kids from high school, don't see your ex's new life, and you can get drunk with your friends without your aunt knowing.

What do you mean "pretending"?

I unfollow or block assholes, but there is a whole world of folks I keep up with ranging from distant relatives to musicians I played a one off gig with.

These folks are about as good friends as the people at local businesses I know well enough to say "hi, how's your daughter" or whatever.

I don't have to be radically intimate with people in order to count them among my friends. It's a scale, and it comes and goes based on how we interact. But it's not pretense.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#107

Post by infinite8s »

jeeva wrote: post #91
infinite8s wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant that evidence of your drinking might still show up on Facebook, especially if those photos are tagged with your name.

I may be wrong, but unless your aunt was then browsing your friends posts / was following those friends, she wouldn't see those photos.

I believe that if you are tagged in the photo (which resolves to a link to your account) then it is possible for that photo to show up in any of your Facebook friends' feeds (if your sharing permissions are too broad). However, once you delete your account I'm not sure if Facebook scrubs all those linkages.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#108

Post by kps »

katheriin wrote: post #96

Email wasn't designed to be used the way we use it now. It's not a to-do list protocol. In fact, as Paul Graham has put it, it's a disastrously bad todo list (Source: http://www.paulgraham.com/ambitious.html ) It's not a messaging protocol - email was never built for conversations, which is why conversations over email often get clunky, confusing and finding some piece of information later is near-impossible. No wond…

Email was built for conversations. Reverse in everything read to people forcing by that ruined Office Microsoft unfortunately.

Re: Email Isn’t the Thing We’re Bad At

#109

Post by gvurrdon »

__jal wrote: post #10
schizoidboy wrote: post #8

What do people think about using email as an alternative to social networks - i.e. creating lists of email addresses (groups), and sending out photos, jokes, opinions, etc. to those groups (e.g. an "All" group to send life updates, a "Cool" group that can take any joke, etc.)?

This is by and large how I operate. I don't do Facebook. I use Slack at work, because I have to, but I hate RTC in general. I personally love email. It fits how I do things. I can take the time to compose carefully, it supports more than a sentence or two but is also fine for "me too!" comments, it is a fine quick-n-dirty file transfer tool (so long as you're not mailing a kernel source tarball or pile of RAW images)…

Same here. I have avoided Slack at work so far, but since colleagues are using Google Hangouts and Skype as well I end up using those. Usually the former, as I always have a Gmail window open and often forget to open Skype.
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