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Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

chrisholdgraf.com

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Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#161

Post by pavel_lishin »

robertlagrant wrote: post #128
pavel_lishin wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have my own domain, and have email set up so that any email to that domain goes to me. You'd be surprised (well, nobody here on HN would be) to know how many times I tell a business that my email is "their-business@my-domain.com", and they ask me how I got that email address, whether I work for their company, etc.

Yep. I've had that conversation more than once. They get very suspicious! And probably triggers internal meetings with cyber.

I genuinely wonder how many emails I've missed because some system flagged the email address as invalid or suspicious.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#162

Post by nkrisc »

dsr_ wrote: post #16

>“you’re telling me there’s a @choldgraf@hachyderm.io and a @choldgraf@mastodon.social and they’re two different people?!” Yes, and choldgraf@gmail.com and choldgraf@ibm.com are different email-people, too. This is not a hard concept.

Ask any random person on the street to identify the domain in a URL or email address and what it means.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#163

Post by Aurornis »

dsr_ wrote: post #16

>“you’re telling me there’s a @choldgraf@hachyderm.io and a @choldgraf@mastodon.social and they’re two different people?!” Yes, and choldgraf@gmail.com and choldgraf@ibm.com are different email-people, too. This is not a hard concept.

This line of thinking is what makes the website user-hostile.

I completely understood the function of the usernames from the start, but to this day I still sigh whenever I encounter a new Mastodon user on a different network because I have to do a song and dance to get them followed on my main account. The whole thing is cognitive overhead I do not want.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#164

Post by zizee »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #159
jeroenhd wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll be surprised how many people think they can just use first.lastname@gmail.com and have email magically appear in their account. And even more people have no idea what the @gmail.com/@ibm.com is about. All they know is that some of their emails don't reach their contacts, probably because "the computer broke again". It's not a hard concept, but it's a concept that was only ever explained in school to a sliver o…

> You'll be surprised how many people think they can just use first.lastname@gmail.com and have email magically appear in their account. Since I like surprises, do tell ... how many people think that?

You are probably being cheeky, but just in case:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom

https://hinative.com/questions/18367967

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#165

Post by nkrisc »

dsr_ wrote: post #81
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, people are confused by it. I think this is at least partly because there's even less to differentiate the different mastodon domains than there was to differentiate gmail and yahoo. And, of course, there are a lot of people growing up now who don't really use email, so the analogy can't be taken for granted.

Stages of enlightenment: 1. That didn't work as I expected. 2. I am confused! 3. Oh, that's how it works! I learned something. Humans go through this every day, in domains technological and not.

Most people stop at step two and wait around for someone to do it for them.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#166

Post by ghaff »

emseetech wrote: post #7

When Bluesky announced they were taking on large amounts of capital to handle the growth that's when I knew their days were numbered. Capital requires returns, and a lot of the degradation of the user experience in the past few years is due to catering to investors and advertisers (who are the actual customers). Decentralization as is promised is one way to mitigate this, but there's no economic incentive to go throu…

Bluesky, Mastodon, and what's left of Twitter/X are all pretty much dead in my experience. There's just so much fragmentation or migration away generally that none of it is very interesting. I think a lot of people took the Musk Twitter takeover as an excuse to re-evaluate their whole relationship to that sort of platform which basically led to a death spiral.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#167

Post by wmf »

emseetech wrote: post #7

When Bluesky announced they were taking on large amounts of capital to handle the growth that's when I knew their days were numbered. Capital requires returns, and a lot of the degradation of the user experience in the past few years is due to catering to investors and advertisers (who are the actual customers). Decentralization as is promised is one way to mitigate this, but there's no economic incentive to go throu…

How has Bluesky degraded?

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#168

Post by wmf »

snowstormsun wrote: post #152

I predict Bluesky will add some form of targeted advertisements in the future once the user base has grown to a certain size. Isn't that obvious? I'd assume that's also why investors are willing to invest.

Yeah, and then experts will use ad-free alternative clients and most people won't. But it will still be better than other social media systems that ban alternative clients.

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#169

Post by meowster »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #159
jeroenhd wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'll be surprised how many people think they can just use first.lastname@gmail.com and have email magically appear in their account. And even more people have no idea what the @gmail.com/@ibm.com is about. All they know is that some of their emails don't reach their contacts, probably because "the computer broke again". It's not a hard concept, but it's a concept that was only ever explained in school to a sliver o…

> You'll be surprised how many people think they can just use first.lastname@gmail.com and have email magically appear in their account. Since I like surprises, do tell ... how many people think that?

At least 6 with my not-that-common (maybe somewhere in the middle) first and last name combination.

Maybe more, but at least six of the emails meant for others that I've received, implied they live at those six unique locations.

I know one of them likes to get the vegetarian meal option when traveling internationally by plane.

(Companies should really validate email address OWNERSHIP before spamming innocent people.)

Re: Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again

#170

Post by dingaling »

robertlagrant wrote: post #128
pavel_lishin wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have my own domain, and have email set up so that any email to that domain goes to me. You'd be surprised (well, nobody here on HN would be) to know how many times I tell a business that my email is "their-business@my-domain.com", and they ask me how I got that email address, whether I work for their company, etc.

Yep. I've had that conversation more than once. They get very suspicious! And probably triggers internal meetings with cyber.

I can only dream that it triggers meetings with security.

I once started receiving spam addressed to @.org and after several instances I reported it to MyBankName.

I explained that I only used that address in my dealings with them and so it must have leaked from them.

They said that's not how email works, you have one address that you use with all your contacts. One of them must have leaked it.

I tried to explain that I used a different host portion with each company I contacted.

They said that's not how email works, you have one address that you use with all your contacts. One of them must have leaked it.

I transferred my balance out and let the account lapse.

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