Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

investingchannel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 211 posts

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#161

Post by nasalgoat »

brianwawok wrote: post #54
Clubber wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly recommend everyone to look into hosting your own mail server. DigitalOcean will rent you a Linux VM for $5 a month or something crazy like that. You can figure out how to install postfix/dovecot/squirrelmail it in a few hours. If nothing else, it keeps critical functionality decentralized, and you learn something and $5 a month for career insurance is pretty damn cheap.

Do you find you have problems delivering to other mail servers? That has always been the trick. Running the mail server is easy. Having your email show up in other servers is "hard". Right now, with so many users using GMAIL, using gmail is a huge boon to not being marked spam (Google is way less likely to market a @gmail.com email as spam compared to say a @aol.com email).

I run our own mail server at the office for our domain and I don't have any deliverability issues, but I made sure to have the full suite of DMARC, SPF, etc. all set up and kept current on the RBLs. Also it's very low volume, which I think is the key.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#162

Post by syshum »

rbcgerard wrote: post #18

I recall a lot of commentary on this site (especially around cloud flare) that the "worst" need to be banned and lot of skepticism about a "slippery slope" - can't speak to the content of this particular case but seems pretty far from the worst of the worst.

When you are actively slidly down the slope it becomes hard to say a slippy slope argument is not valid

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#163

Post by b4ux1t3 »

Clubber wrote: post #91
b4ux1t3 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Er, no, it seems anti-spam. The fact of the matter is, plenty of people use dime-a-dozen hosting to make spam bots. These days, you're better off using a reputable mail service as opposed to rolling your own, unless you have a fairly large company.

It is anti-spam, but it is also anticompetitive to block anyone that isn't gmail or an already known big player in that space. Apparently lots of people are having trouble setting up a mail server on their own without getting blocked by Google. Can you see that as a problem for the intent at large? I wonder what kinda marketshare gmail has. It's probably a problem they aren't in a hurry to solve either.

It's probably a problem they aren't in a hurry to solve because there's no reason to solve it. Any decently-funded small business can afford to use proper web hosting (Er, I love Digital Ocean. But they aren't really "web hosting").

Google (and basically every other reputable email host _and_ every "independent" email host) are blocking mail from services that host cheap compute power. A lot of Azure and GCP email traffic would likely be blocked, not just Digital Ocean.

If you want to start an email service, use something that isn't a known platform for spammers.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#164

Post by b4ux1t3 »

weberc2 wrote: post #145
cityhall wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your Honor, please consider the thousands of banks I didn't rob.

I think you misunderstood; he's not saying "Google isn't very bad because they made one small mistake", he's saying "Why should I switch from Google simply because there is a minuscule chance that they might make a mistake that affects me".

Thank you. Realistically, what's the likelihood that any single user who uses gmail is going to get shut down? Literally one in millions.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#165

Post by b4ux1t3 »

tshibley wrote: post #105
b4ux1t3 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Er, Google has millions of users who have absolutely no problems. One (or even dozens) of bad stories is a tiny percentage of the interactions that take place on their services. It's _far_ more likely to be a mistake than anything untoward, just based on the sheer numbers.

How is this any less scary? If a company can just _mistakenly_ cut off my email without warning, and I can't fight through the customer service abyss to get it back, shouldn't I be concerned?

Except for the vast (and I mean _vast_) majority of users, this is never an issue.

You've got a chance of being struck by a meteor whenever you leave your house (and also while being in it). Do you solve that problem by staying inside? No. You go outside and take those odds. The chance that you'll be mistakenly shut down by a mistake is minuscule. Google has proven in the past to be a reliable way to do things like whistleblowing and hosting questionable content. The fact that one or even a dozen users get banned doesn't invalidate Google's history of keeping a _vast_, _overwhelming_ majority of even their free users safe.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#166

Post by jxramos »

mmagin wrote: post #99

Having hosted my own email for about 18 years, I don't really think relying on free services from Google is any better than when we used to change ISPs (or when we graduated from college) and had to get a new email address. I'm not seeing "google is evil" here as much as "we need to do more to inform people that free services from giant companies may change or go away at any time without notice."

this inspires me to grab some takeout, https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#167

Post by stefantalpalaru »

throwaway613834 wrote: post #125
theWatcher37 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This type of behavior + AMP has pushed me off google completely. I'm determined to cut them out of my technical life entirely, I've even switched myself and everyone I know/support off their DNS. I can't support their shady practices anymore.

What is the benefit of not using their DNS?

> What is the benefit of not using their DNS?

You stop informing them about the domains you visit.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#168

Post by damnfine »

fageyogurtspoon wrote: post #107

Zero Hedge is pro trump FAKE NEWS.

Are you trolling? Did I miss a scarcasm tag? I am no fan of Trump, but writing off anything pro trump as fake news is beyond ignorant. Take a miniute and replace everytime you say 'trump' with 'obama' and see if you would still want to be your own friend.

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#169

Post by laxatives »

bartbutler wrote: post #111
laxatives wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this mean ProtonMail is more reliable? Would you recommend using ProtonMail?

It means that the crypto is certainly more solid (roll-your-own is a terrible idea in cryptography) and can in principle interoperate with other OpenPGP implementations, at least once the client supports it. I like ProtonMail a lot, but full disclosure: I work there, so I'm biased.

Is ProtonMail your only active email account?

Re: Statistics Professor Just Banned by Google: Here Is His Story

#170

Post by Tenoke »

columbia_prof wrote: post #157

Columbia prof here. He is not a professor at Columbia nor even an adjunct professor. He is a lecturer in the school of professional studies: https://search.sites.columbia.edu/people/sm786 The school of professional studies at Columbia offers "certificate" and "professional degrees" with minimal academic standards. Within the university, it is considered an embarrassment. Advertising this credential is very misleading…

This and some of the tweets where he seems overly zealous make me suspicious. E.g.:

Here[1] He is suggesting he was blocked for Probability work on Hilary's election odds.

Here[2] he is implying they are doing it in connection with him being a math educator, and tweeting at all kinds of famous accounts with maximum sensationalism (though in his defense, the only way to get support from google is to make a massive stir).

None of that means anything on its own, and this would be far from the first time Google have closed an account by mistake (though Id be very surprised if the ban was of a political nature).

1. https://twitter.com/salilstatistics/status/89890618596913971... 2. https://twitter.com/salilstatistics/status/89873001303747788...

Post reply on HN