Cloudflare Email Service: private beta

Post by mrweasel » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

motorest wrote: post #168

mrweasel wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still believe that CloudFlare means well, but that doesn't mean that I agree with the increased centralization. This isn't the fault of CloudFlare, they are just exploiting a business opportunity and as you say: At least they're not selling ads. It is a legitimate business, from my perspective. I'd just wish we weren't in a situation where CloudFlare isn't exactly struggling to sell their services.

> I still believe that CloudFlare means well, but that doesn't mean that I agree with the increased centralization. I'm perplexed by this sort of comment. Cloudflare doesn't even feature in the top 10 of cloud provider market share, and the number 8 spot already reports 2%. And here you are, complaining about Cloudflare and centralization. Furthermore, AWS is by far the biggest cloud provider, reporting around 30% ma…

Post by rsync » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 5:09 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #147

layer8 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What GP is effectively saying is that you don’t value independence enough to invest the necessary money and (for personal use) time into self-hosting. And there is a spectrum to this. For example, using a small, independent email or hosting provider may cost a little more time, but makes you more independent from big tech, and maybe more importantly, contributes to reducing the power of big tech. We are all paying fo…

This is a fallacy, as self hosting means you remain at the whims of receiving or interfacing systems. Does you hosting your own email change the concentration of email accounts hosted at Yahoo, Microsoft, and Gmail? It doesn't. Does hosting your own domain or website change Cloudflare's concentration and centralization of internet traffic? It doesn't. You vote with your dollars by picking providers who won't lock you…

Post by hnav » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

sam_goody wrote: post #167

pmdr wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually have the same (residential) IP for weeks on end and there's absolutely no malware or scraping or whatever the heck it is that Cloudflare thinks it's protecting against going on in my house. Yet I still get blocked or captcha'd. Website owners may understandably be appreciative of CF. But as as someone browsing the web, I think it's done a lot of irreversible* damage to the open internet. * I say irreversibl…

As a website owner who uses Cloudflare after having being DDOS'd, I agree whole heartedly. Cloudflare succeeded to do what Google tried and failed with AMP, and we are all the worse off for it. [Though at least it is not Google, that would be worse.] I cannot afford to be DDOS'ed and there are bad actors that have already proven that they _will_ take me down if they could. So, I feel bad for the internet being walled…

Post by FuriouslyAdrift » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 5:17 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #169

FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #149

Everyone just forgetting Fastmail exits. https://www.fastmail.com/

Fastmail is mentioned on every email provider suggestion thread on HN (Because they are great, happy user!), but they are not a transactional email provider which is what this product is about.

Post by kentonv » Thu, Sep 25, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

Onavo wrote: post #174

mosura wrote: post #4

Eventually all Internet protocols will be MITMed by cloudflare. Your single point of interception!

Well, this is their second try at this. They shut down their first attempt after a year (and left a ton of developers stranded). https://blog.cloudflare.com/sending-email-from-workers-with-...