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Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

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Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#151

Post by UncleMeat »

mehrdada wrote: post #48
cbm-vic-20 wrote: post #3

Answer: find the email address of the person the product manager of Google Drive reports to, and start sharing stuff with them. (/s: not condoning doxxing here)

LOL, you're assuming anyone gets promoted by fixing issues at Google. Wrong. You build some new shit and switch teams. Someone pitches a new project and builds from scratch. Rinse and repeat. This particular issue happens (at least that's my recollection a few years ago) frequently enough at Google that there were memes about it internally. Not sure giving additional feedback would help.

Googler here promoted twice by taking over a team/project, simplifying it, and making it hum.

This is a common narrative about Google. There is some truth to it but the blanket "nobody gives a shit about anything other than launches" claim is bogus.

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#152

Post by pavel_lishin »

erichurkman wrote: post #49
fpgaminer wrote: post #25

Related to this bug, some time ago I started getting spam on my Google Calendar. Not sure if Google ever fixed it, but basically Google would automatically add events to your calendar when you got an invite in your email. Honestly, it's a nice feature; saves a couple clicks every time I get an invite. The bug is that it applied even if the email was spam. There was no workaround, other than disabling the feature comp…

It's used not just by spammers, but by sales reps, too. Dell recently did this to about half a dozen people on my team. 'Q2 Budget Review', which sounds official, but is really a Dell rep trying to sell you junk that magically pops up on your calendar _even if you mark their message as spam_. Dirty way to get by executive assistants, too.

> It's used not just by spammers, but by sales reps, too.

Not sure there's a distinction there.

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#153

Post by wincy »

fpgaminer wrote: post #25

Related to this bug, some time ago I started getting spam on my Google Calendar. Not sure if Google ever fixed it, but basically Google would automatically add events to your calendar when you got an invite in your email. Honestly, it's a nice feature; saves a couple clicks every time I get an invite. The bug is that it applied even if the email was spam. There was no workaround, other than disabling the feature comp…

You just reminded me why I decoupled my google calendar from my iPhone calendar a few years ago. Just the other day I was thinking I’d like them up, but something made me feel like I shouldn’t...

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#155

Post by floren »

nmstoker wrote: post #117
neurostimulant wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the people that answering questions on that support forum actually google employees? I got this impression that google employees never post on that forum and the people that answer are just unpaid forum members which somehow take it upon themselves to post answers.

I bet you're right. Reminds me a little of the scenario where people bizarrely ask a forum if they can bring their dog to a hotel, some random person says "yes" and then you wonder if the hotel declined to accept the dog if the owner would say "well Bob off the internet said it would be fine"

I like reading Q&A on Amazon listings, because lots of people answer "I have no idea" or similar. I've only received a few of the email prompts for these things, but as I recall they almost make it sound like some potential shopper has decided to ask YOU, specifically YOU, about a particular product feature.

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#156

Post by wakkaflokka »

mey wrote: post #50
SanchoPanda wrote: post #11

The mods on the support forums who make it sound like basic functionality missing from their product is your own fault for not submitting some kind of ticket deserve the gaslighting prize of the year for each of the last 5 years. They don't even have an option to show you how much space folders take up, when they charge you based on space usage. https://support.google.com/drive/thread/3970069?hl=en

Even better, they make it pretty impossible to manage your online storage of photos since they split it out of drive.google.com

This move frustrated me to no end. Makes backing up my Google Photos that much more of a PITA because you have to use Takeout, which isn't straightforward - if you have a large library, you manually have to download 50+ zip files and "auto download" extensions don't seem to work with the Takeout interface last time I tried.

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#157

Post by andai »

Simulacra wrote: post #86
dakiol wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please share the email address (use a throwaway account) so that everyone can do it as well. Otherwise it's pointless.

No, I’m sorry I cannot do that, for me that would be doxxing. I work for a government contractor and have access to a databases of executive contact information. I think if you spent a little time with a search engine you might be able to accomplish the same thing otherwise.

That sounds kind of unethical. Or is the reasoning, you could have found it on Google anyway, so you might as well do it the easy way?

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#159

Post by JonathonW »

cbo100 wrote: post #109
BbzzbB wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is off topic but it reminds me, every time I look for some Windows 10 problem, it mostly leads to some Microsoft forum (answers.microsoft.com). In there however, the questions systematically get answered by a billion "MSFT specialist consultants #not working for MSFT", and it always weirds me out. Are these people there for self promotion, for the thrill of it or is it MSFT that has some reward system for third…

It's the same on the Apple discussion boards. You won't ever get an official answer, only a guess of an answer from somebody with no more knowledge than yourself. HP is the same, but occasionally you will get an employee answer, but it will be just as useless. My assumption is all the big tech companies don't want to give support away for free when you should be paying for a support contract for it. And yes, there is…

Apple's discussion boards are useless, but at least they have actual phone and email channels to get an answer from an employee (usually). And Apple doesn't generally charge for the phone call itself (they will charge for out-of-warranty hardware work, but generally don't for software support even out of warranty).

With Google, more often than not, community "support" through their forums is the only option. Where official phone and email channels exist to get support, they're generally restricted to paying customers only, on the business side of their business only-- users of their general consumers services have no options.

Re: Google Drive – How do I stop others from sharing files with me?

#160

Post by mehrdada »

UncleMeat wrote: post #151
mehrdada wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL, you're assuming anyone gets promoted by fixing issues at Google. Wrong. You build some new shit and switch teams. Someone pitches a new project and builds from scratch. Rinse and repeat. This particular issue happens (at least that's my recollection a few years ago) frequently enough at Google that there were memes about it internally. Not sure giving additional feedback would help.

Googler here promoted twice by taking over a team/project, simplifying it, and making it hum. This is a common narrative about Google. There is some truth to it but the blanket "nobody gives a shit about anything other than launches" claim is bogus.

Yes, obviously there's hyperbole in that statement, but there's no denying the fundamental incentive structure is at heart of most of polish issues of this nature; that said, as I argue in my followup comments, I personally don't see the bias towards launches is a bad choice for the organization at large, especially since personal craftsmanship from some individual employees and their own values more often than not covers up the shortcoming in corporate incentives.
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