DeGoogle Yourself

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A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

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How the hell should I even switch mail providers? (lemmy.world)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have completely stopped using google services and software on my personal devices (even have lineageos + microg on my phone. The problem is that I can't just explain to the technically uneducated people that I changed mail providers. How should I go about doing this?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I hate it too, I need it and hate it. But it is the standard and honestly if we all switched to whatever else, we would hate that too. The mechanism isn't the problem, imo, it's the requirement of maintenance and monitoring.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

But it is the standard

Yes, that's the problem. A standard invented 40 years ago. One we've never been able to move away from.

if we all switched to whatever else, we would hate that too.

Absolutely not. There are a dozen different protocols that could solve the problems inherent in email.

it's the requirement of maintenance and monitoring.

None of those are problems for me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

None of those are problems for me.

What is it that you hate about email, then? You've piqued my curiosity.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Threading and formatting. Trying to decipher who said what and when. The increasingly ridiculous signatures in every email. Being dropped from an email thread because someone hit reply instead of reply-all. Or the opposite. Being unable to leave email chains. Creating a new email chain every time you send a new subject. Trying to find absolutely anything in my inbox due to the absolutely disarray of it all.

Of course Gmail specifically introduces a whole other level of bullshit. Like a completely broken search function, and the inability to block anyone (spammers), the "all mail" option not showing all mail, folders being collapsed in the sidebar and fucking react emojis...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for elaborating! You raise a lot of good points.

I recently tried to consolidate all of my various email addresses into Thunderbird and oh boy is it fun trying to get a 20 year old Gmail account to cooperate. I often find myself having to open up Gmail in my browser just to get anything more complex than checking or writing new email accomplished. It doesn't help that I have a quarter of a million messages organized between ~70 "folders", I'm sure, but holy hell... it's a nightmarescape. Thunderbird never stops querying the server. I'm about ready to backup all of the old messages and just burn the whole account down.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I could never get into Thunderbird. It would always crash out from the shear quanitity of old emails in each of my accounts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

It took me about a year to move my personal account away from Gmail and finally delete it.

Unfortunately Gmail is required for my work. I often direct people to another business email I set up but the boss doesn't like that.