Good job getting this published on techcrunch. Saw you had posted it just on your own blog. Definitely got to spread that word, man!
I got locked out of my Google account for a month
191–200 of 210 posts
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
My sister-in-law has a blog that sends out email notifications to subscribers (who requested them) when she posts a new article. After a few hundred subscribers had marked these notices as spam rather than unsubscribing, her blog, email account and entire site got blacklisted. She only managed to get this cleared up via a tech support friend who has contacts at Google.
I chased down a spam flag by one of our users a while ago (we only send transactional emails to actual accounts) and actually spoke to the user since he complained about not receiving any of our emails. Turns out he uses the spam button in his email client as a temporary deletion / archive for emails he wants to read later... TLDR; Many users create their own issues by just not giving af. It reminds me of antibacteri…
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Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
My sister-in-law has a blog that sends out email notifications to subscribers (who requested them) when she posts a new article. After a few hundred subscribers had marked these notices as spam rather than unsubscribing, her blog, email account and entire site got blacklisted. She only managed to get this cleared up via a tech support friend who has contacts at Google.
This stuff makes me worried about the future. We'll have this massive AI/computer machinery making more and more decisions without any recourse. This will be the ultimate faceless bureaucracy. At work I can almost every day hear someone yelling at his health insurance company because something has been f...ed up. Once they start hiding even more behind automation how can you resolve anything?
Automated lawsuits.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#194This is why I switched to proton mail. Never looked back.
As have I, though again, it only shifts the problem.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#195Trusting "your life" to a third party service is very dangerous. Because if your life depends on that service, your life can't continue with out it, so I ask, why do this to yourself? The convenience is a serious trade off.
Honest question - what happens if you don't know the password on your Mac, Windows, Linux box? Are there routes to recover the information on the hard drive if the user does not have the password and there is no admin?
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#196I think this is the money quote: “That same day I opened a second GMail account so I could have access to services like an email account if need be, [...]” So, this journalist is in the middle of a horrible experience with Gmail and responds by ... opening another Gmail account, because basically realistically imagining email as something other than Gmail is far too much of a stretch in most people’s minds.
What alternatives to GMail do you recommend?
https://protonmail.com/ is free, open source, and encrypted.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
My sister-in-law has a blog that sends out email notifications to subscribers (who requested them) when she posts a new article. After a few hundred subscribers had marked these notices as spam rather than unsubscribing, her blog, email account and entire site got blacklisted. She only managed to get this cleared up via a tech support friend who has contacts at Google.
I'm often signed up for emailing lists because I use a service. Or just gave them my email to see a demo thingy. In general I try to hit unsubscribe if I know I've had business with the company. But if they are clearly just trying to sell more, it goes to spam.
I would still consider it as unsolicited if I didn't opt in to receive further emails. Just because I bought something from a company once doesn't mean I'm happy to receive a "please rate us" begging email, an offer to look at their other products, and a "merry Christmas to all our customers" message. Not really spam in the traditional sense but these type of emails seem especially prevalent at the moment and dealing with them is a big time sink.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#198Why are big companies so inaccessible? It's a strange paradox to think that almost everyone uses Google services on daily basis, yet it is near impossible to communicate with Google itself.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
1) please check the rules of HN before replying that way 2) I did read the article, paying for Google Drive or Photos storage is not paying for Gmail.
1) Apologies 2) The article isn't about Gmail, it's about an entire Google account where the author stated they ARE paying for extra storage for Gmail and Drive -- where you seemed to imply they're not paying. And buying your own domain does nothing for getting access back to your 10,000's of past e-mails or your 100's of GB's of files you're paying to store.
Of course you have to back them up yourself. But that's true for any service.
Re: I got locked out of my Google account for a month
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because what's the alternative? You can spend weeks moving all your data to Microsoft or Apple... and suffer lost messages when people don't update their e-mail for you... and then discover they're just as bad or worse? What's an alternative to Gmail+Drive+Apps that has as much functionality, ease of use and convenience, and at a comparable price, but guarantees you won't get locked out?
> What's an alternative It’s called paying for the services you use. You don’t even need to switch to a different product / provider, just pay $5/month and ~$10/year for a domain name. Then worst case scenario, you can move your domain off of Google Apps and not need to update your email address everywhere with everyone.
Exactly this. I truly don't understand that people put their professional career on the line for the price of a domain name.
I also use GMail, it's incredibly useful. But it's my own domain, and if there's a problem, I point the MX records of my domain name to another email provider and forget about Google.