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Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

justuseemail.com

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Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#81

Post by fungiblecog »

paxys wrote: post #3

I'm on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I haven't used email outside of work for many years now, and don't miss it one bit. And even at work most communication now happens on Slack. The digital world has evolved since 1997, and email simply hasn't kept up. I skimmed a couple articles on the blog and my biggest problem with it is that the author is making a social rather than technological argument (which are a…

I think the key point here is "outside of work".

I think the thrust of this article is mostly work related. He talks about being a consultant and seeing people waste so much time on SaaS tools, for example.

Personally I don't mind using "throwaway" services in my personal life - all your examples are things that don't matter - but for important stuff like work I want one place with all my information - not lots of crappy silos that don't integrate that I have to search for that key bit of information.

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#83

Post by ryandrake »

babypuncher wrote: post #34
daveslash wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you an up-vote because I think a variety of different viewpoints is important, but I'm very much in the e-mail camp. My biggest reason is simply: it's the only ubiquitous, decentralized, open protocol that I can think of. I can run my own server if I want, an I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address . Sure, there was XMPP for IM, but that doesn't have wide adoption; same with other protocols.

It's fine to want all your communication on an open protocol, but email is just plain clunky and not good at all for the types of online communication people have grown accustomed to. It literally is just an electronic equivalent of sending a letter, and inherits most of the limitations that implies. If any of us are ever going to convince friends and family to leave proprietary platforms like Messenger and Discord,…

> If any of us are ever going to convince friends and family to leave proprietary platforms

I’ve kind of thrown in the towel on this fight. People are going to use what they like. For me, it’s E-mail. My friends and family know how to get in touch with me if they need to: using E-mail. If they want to text each other or WhatsApp each other or Snapchat each other or whatever it is they do, they can go right ahead: it doesn’t affect me. And that’s all OK!

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#84

Post by Barrin92 »

I went to the post about answers to common objections but I was surprised that I did not find one of the bigger ones. Email is a pretty big disaster for communication that needs to stay secret, even encrypted mail. (https://latacora.micro.blog/2020/02/19/stop-using-encrypted....)

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#86

Post by lhorie »

daveslash wrote: post #7
paxys wrote: post #3

I'm on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I haven't used email outside of work for many years now, and don't miss it one bit. And even at work most communication now happens on Slack. The digital world has evolved since 1997, and email simply hasn't kept up. I skimmed a couple articles on the blog and my biggest problem with it is that the author is making a social rather than technological argument (which are a…

I'll give you an up-vote because I think a variety of different viewpoints is important, but I'm very much in the e-mail camp. My biggest reason is simply: it's the only ubiquitous, decentralized, open protocol that I can think of. I can run my own server if I want, an I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address . Sure, there was XMPP for IM, but that doesn't have wide adoption; same with other protocols.

If anything, I like email now because these days people in my circles only use it for informational purposes, which means no annoying chain messages, empty inspirational videos, Facebook conspiracies and their ilk.

Also, unlike the unfiltered stream model of chat, you can organize emails into folders, delete useless ones and actually have a decent chance at finding past things via keyword search (because email subject lines). Paradoxically, email also has really good convo threading. In other words, email has high signal to noise ratio.

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#87

Post by chagaif »

ashton314 wrote: post #18
kitkat_new wrote: post #2

There is a more modern alternative* to Email: Matrix It improves significantly in security (easy E2EE) and usability (and of course functionality) while still keeping advantages like decentralization. How the protocol is used is up to you and the Matrix client (which atm is mostly chat, but I am sure one could give you a more email-like client). *ignoring the ubiquitous presence of email, which is kind of the main se…

Is Matrix really that widely used? I'm a fan—I want to set up my own server one of these days when I get the time—but I get the feeling that it's still kinda niche. Who's using it? This is exciting!

Lots of governments, Mozilla and many universities especially in Europe

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#88

Post by treeman79 »

paxys wrote: post #3

I'm on the exact opposite end of the spectrum. I haven't used email outside of work for many years now, and don't miss it one bit. And even at work most communication now happens on Slack. The digital world has evolved since 1997, and email simply hasn't kept up. I skimmed a couple articles on the blog and my biggest problem with it is that the author is making a social rather than technological argument (which are a…

Work loves to send those fake pen-test security emails.

I don’t open any work emails anymore. Got tired of the gotcha mentality.

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#89

Post by chagaif »

babypuncher wrote: post #34
daveslash wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give you an up-vote because I think a variety of different viewpoints is important, but I'm very much in the e-mail camp. My biggest reason is simply: it's the only ubiquitous, decentralized, open protocol that I can think of. I can run my own server if I want, an I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address . Sure, there was XMPP for IM, but that doesn't have wide adoption; same with other protocols.

It's fine to want all your communication on an open protocol, but email is just plain clunky and not good at all for the types of online communication people have grown accustomed to. It literally is just an electronic equivalent of sending a letter, and inherits most of the limitations that implies. If any of us are ever going to convince friends and family to leave proprietary platforms like Messenger and Discord,…

Matrix.org is exactly what you are describing

Re: Just Use Email – How to Use Email for Everything

#90

Post by paxys »

chii wrote: post #79
babypuncher wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's fine to want all your communication on an open protocol, but email is just plain clunky and not good at all for the types of online communication people have grown accustomed to. It literally is just an electronic equivalent of sending a letter, and inherits most of the limitations that implies. If any of us are ever going to convince friends and family to leave proprietary platforms like Messenger and Discord,…

> It literally is just an electronic equivalent of sending a letter, and inherits most of the limitations that implies that's not giving email enough credit. Email has zero limitations unlike real snail mail - the email client is the limitation, and that's "just" software. The fact that gmail client was so successful is evidence that email could've been _the_ premiere platform for open communication. Instead, we now…

Email has very real limitations, imposed both by the protocol itself and by lack of consensus among all the major and minor clients.
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