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Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

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Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#281

Post by perryizgr8 »

deanc wrote: post #86
rochak wrote: post #2

Is there really no way for a user to get in touch with a human agent? I read that Google automates the flagging and disabling of accounts but given how many people have their livelihood linked to these accounts, Google must have done something. It makes me scared how deep I have dived into the Google ecosystem. Time and time again I think about transitioning to someplace else but don’t know how to. It seems too daunt…

Nope. My Adsense account was banned almost 9 years ago. I followed their appeals process, gave all the information required, and received automated responses every time. I repeatedly appealed over the last 9 years, receiving the automated rejections every time, until finally a few weeks ago for some reason they approved the appeal and my account was reinstated :shrugs:

The system works! Just takes about a decade.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#282

Post by KingMachiavelli »

Google needs a read only account mode that can be used instead of disabling/deleting accounts. Even if a user violated ToS, its pretty harmless to just let them export data which at least would mitigate the worse parts of this & free up energy from data recovery to time spend getting the account unlocked.

I mean what's the harm if a bot has a read only account? Or an account than can send 1 email per hour - just enough you could tell your contacts that you have to migrate to another provider. Even if the machine is AI driven - the actions taken could be more nuanced in order to stop the ToS violation but provide limited account functionality.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#283

Post by antihero »

imagine99 wrote: post #94
josephg wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there a good reason to keep using gmail? I've only got good things to say about Fastmail - which is paid, reliable, faster than gmail and private. And they're reinvesting some of their revenue into making better standards for email. I haven't needed to contact support, but I think they have a manned tech support email address too.

There is no other service with feature parity on the UI alone out there. I've searched one for ages and would switch the whole org over in a New York minute if there was an (ideally open-source) "copy" of the Gmail UI available as front-end for one of the other mail servers. Features we can't do without nowadays are tagging; advanced filter and forwarding rules; split inbox with tabs for ads, newsletters, social medi…

> can't do without nowadays

You can.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#284

Post by amelius »

romwell wrote: post #110
2malaq wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the good old Don't Be Evil days. I've asked so many people if they can remember Google's old slogan. Nobody does.

Their new slogan is hilarious. It's not even one slogan, it's three: * Respect the user * Respect the opportunity * Respect each other The first one is obviously a joke, because nothing says "respect the user" like canceling a beloved service with millions of users, or "updating" the product while losing half the features. The last one makes you wonder why they had to put it into a slogan. Isn't it the baseline expec…

> The first one is obviously a joke, because nothing says "respect the user" like canceling a beloved service with millions of users, or "updating" the product while losing half the features.

But most of all, the user is still the product.

Unless by user they mean "the advertiser".

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#285

Post by _qulr »

It's painfully clear at this point that we need a consumer "bill of rights" to protect us from these giant tech companies. At the very least, companies must be legally required to present you in writing with the so-called violation of terms they're accusing you of, evidence of the violation, and a phone # or other immediate contact so that you can dispute the accusations. It's insane that these basic legal rights don't even exist.

You could of course sue Google, but that's an extremely expensive and time-consuming option, rarely worth it for a mere consumer. Going to court certainly won't make your suspended account become unsuspended any quicker.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#286

Post by aspyct »

akvadrako wrote: post #187
krageon wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you get your own domain, get one on a well-known TLD (e.g. .com, .org or your own country code). If you get a gTLD that's not well-known, there are some endpoints that will block you because your email is "not valid".

It's not a big deal. I've had a .so domain for a decade and have only had to use a different email a couple times. There is a different danger however — after about 8 years the annual fee went from about $15 to $60.

Price changes are a concern indeed. But I think if you get something form your country, or a .org, it should be mostly fine.

I've had the same .org domain for around 15 years now. Except for the coup we've seen last year where somebody tried to buy it privately (thankfully averted, I believe), I've see no price hike over time.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#287

Post by motogpjimbo »

dandare wrote: post #173

I am not fan of regulation, but apparently not every abuse of the market can be solved by courts in a practical way. Like in this case, a mere mortal can not possibly sue Google. I can imagine the EU will step in soon. There are multiple different aspects of being locked out of a "free" service provider like Google: - Losing your email addresses - even if it was provided for free, will cause an immense harm. Email ad…

I'm not sure how a foo@gmail.com email address could realistically be transferred to another provider.

At the very least, I wish there was a regulation that forced platforms to provide users with an explicit reason why their account was suspended. No vague "please read our T&Cs" statements. Instead, something along the lines of "We have suspended your YouTube account because in video A you made statement B at time index C which violates our rule D". No doubt it would be burdensome for the likes of Google to implement, but that's what you get when you become so large that you can destroy your users' livelihoods on a whim.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#288

Post by perryizgr8 »

42droids wrote: post #214

As a small business we use Google Suite. We would need a single solution which provides all these: - Email (unlimited domains, unlimited addresses) - Drive (Docs, sheets, forms) - Photos (this is where we also store out private photos 2Tb+; also, auto-sync is a lifesaver) - Calendar Any alternative which is as affordable as Google? How about Zoho?

How does office 365 compare?

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#289

Post by cf0ed2aa-bdf5 »

sofixa wrote: post #248
krajzeg wrote: post #186

I just wish that regulation would step in and make behavior like this illegal for the corporate giants. It is definitely possible to limit the power of the TOS, and it's already done in some cases in Europe (certain common TOS clauses are just void and do nothing). One simple thing I'd really like to see is forbidding companies from terminating service without stating a reason, which seems like a really basic require…

> One simple thing I'd really like to see is forbidding companies from terminating service without stating a reason, which seems like a really basic requirement. Once you have that, the next step could be legislating that there has to be a way to appeal service termination In this case Google provided a reason - a ToS violation. If you want to get in the details ( action X on date Y violates ToS section Z), that migh…

> In this case Google provided a reason - a ToS violation.

When the ToS are 15 pages long this is about as useful as hearing "You're being arrested for breaking the law" when you're in the back of a cop car. Doesn't really narrow it down and provides you no way of actually defending yourself.

I agree that being too specific can help bots but the current way of handling these things is obviously flawed.

Re: Terraria on Stadia cancelled after developer's Google account gets locked

#290

Post by amelius »

2malaq wrote: post #71
jug wrote: post #55

This makes me anxious about my long time Gmail address. Back then I got it just because it and Google was cool, and their services had a good reputation. It was a different Google back then. If they had launched it this year I would never have got one because chances are it would have been cancelled by 2025. Gmail is really the only valuable thing that actually ties my life to Google. And it's not that hard to replac…

Yes, the good old Don't Be Evil days. I've asked so many people if they can remember Google's old slogan. Nobody does.

Don't Be Evil is so stupid. It's like Disneyworld having the slogan "we won't kill your kids".
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