131–140 of 578 posts
This sounds amazing… basically everyone in the space is either reselling Sendgrid or AWS SES. What other "root" email services are there out there? Even Google Cloud doesn't provide one...
Kind of off-topic, but it's such a pity that we arrived at email as the local minimum for the best communication protocol for transactional messages. Having to set up an email service just to be able to enable authentication flows on a new website is such a hindrance that I keep wondering if it would be different if sending push notifications to a cell phone was made an open protocol..
China was able to pull that one off, pretty much no one uses email there.
Eventually all Internet protocols will be MITMed by cloudflare. Your single point of interception!
To be honest, the internet was worse without Cloudflare, so as long as they provide a good service for their customers, I’m fine with it. This is one of those. Google is in a perfect position to compete but they don’t, so it’s not like Cloudflare is a monopoly or something. At least they’re not selling ads using your data.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can't believe if you are joking or not. I trust a corporation more than I trust the nation you want it nationalized in (America?) EU maybe. But yes I don't want cloudflare to be part of america after patriotic acts and all the dystopia. Honestly, cloudflare is not so vital to the internet. Like, The only thing its gonna be a problem if they stop working without giving any way to migrate. Then yes, its gonna be a bit…
>cloudflare is not so vital to the internet Really? Try distrusting CF certs, and see how much of your internet activity breaks. CF certs should be distrusted, because it's MITM by definition. At the very least, I'd like an addon that makes the URL bar bright red, so I know my connection isn't secure.
Though arguably neither should be in a position to do so without being regulate as a public utility
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To be honest, the internet was worse without Cloudflare, so as long as they provide a good service for their customers, I’m fine with it. This is one of those. Google is in a perfect position to compete but they don’t, so it’s not like Cloudflare is a monopoly or something. At least they’re not selling ads using your data.
> At least they’re not selling ads using your data. Yet. Since it's an american company with an ever-growing influence, I dread and expect that to change, among other things, down the road. I assume the three-letter agencies also already MITM the traffic.
WTF Cloudflare you are using a google form for the beta sign up? Sign up to the waitlist here. https://forms.gle/BX6ECfkar3oVLQxs7 Edit: I see its an email sending service not client.
It's unfortunate that email hosting and email infrastructure can really be done only well by major players. The days of people running and maintaining their own are pretty much long gone. Fwiw, not a knock against CF. I like their products, mostly simple, fair pricing, etc. Just a bit unfortunate commentary on the state of email infra on the internet.
I run my own email server and you couldn't pay me to use a commercial provider like Google instead. The privacy benefits are huge and there is no one to restrict my storage or change my "terms and conditions" overnight. The days of people running their own servers are gone because of the shortsightedness and laziness of IT managers. They though the "cloud" would be easier and cheaper, and they are now trapped.
I entertained the idea of running my own mail servers for a while. After researching the topic it turned out that the internet now runs on an IP reputation system. Major email services like gmail assume that anything sent from unknown IPs is malicious.
So it looks like we've gotta be well connected to federate with the other email servers now. A nobody like me can't just start up his own mail server at home and expect to deliver email to his family members who use gmail or outlook. So I became a Proton Mail customer instead.
It's always shocking to me how many people blindly sacrifice the principles that make the things their lives depend on actually worthwhile. The internet isn't just a thing that happened, it was developed and rolled out under specific principles and vision, and violating those principles destroys the system. The internet doesn't work if Matthew Prince gets to act as global gatekeeper, or if CloudFlare gets conscripted…
In principle I agree, but in practice - what the better ways of doing things, as of now?
AI right now can do all of that for you; pay for the best initially, have it do deep searches that meet what you need, and find appropriate contractors and services. Drop down to the plus tier after you get what you need initially, if the $200+ versions are too steep, but you can absolutely afford one month to plan an overhaul that doesn't empty your wallet.
Mandate open standards and bake in flexibility to your organization; pivot frequently and aggressively away from companies and services that don't meet your principles or standards.
Wherever possible use self hosting, decentralized protocols, open standards, FOSS software, and pay for expertise over the massive overkill "but wait, there's more!" the conglomerators offer. Their economies of scale serve to consolidate unearned and unaccountable power, often in cooperation with very shady players.
Yeah, tragedy of the commons, this is why we can't have nice things, because it's hard, and complex, and actual evil people exist who will absolutely ddos sites and exploit every and any opportunity to grift people out of their money. Cloudflare is a well marketed bundle of solutions for real problems, but it's definitely not the only solution.
It's up to you to what extent you compromise on principles - with AI it's becoming much easier to find acceptable alternatives without having extensive domain expertise. Normal search engines are almost completely captured by SEO and big market players, and we have a window of opportunity to use new AI search to find things that defy the status quo. The window will probably close sometime in the near future, but until then, take full advantage and position yourself to not be subject to companies or industries that shouldn't be taking it upon themselves to gatekeep the internet.
Also, yell at your representatives about getting a digital bill of rights, protecting the open internet, breaking apart monopolies, and cultivating what's best for the internet, and the world.
We have to stop pissing away the good for the convenience of the cheap.
/soapbox