zlacker

A whole lot of people are learning about the hazards of centralization in email lately. First Google turns GMail into a slow-loading nightmare for weaker computers like mine, then they announced the closure of Inbox. Now 40 million people are without email because Zoho couldn't keep up with registrar consolidations (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18060013).

Zoho is fine as a service, but a domain suspension shouldn't cut tens of millions of people off from email.

>>unstuc+(OP)
> A whole lot of people are learning about the hazards of centralization in email lately.

What is the alternative?

>>unstuc+(OP)
I agree this is unacceptable. We are figuring out ways to make this more resilient - we host third-party domain mails, and we could map those domains directly without involving our domain. That could be one solution. We have learned a serious lesson here.

>>choose+f
I don't know, I'm not an email geek. Lots of smart people run their own email systems and report good delivery rates going by past threads here. Maybe they can work together on something more accessible.

>>svembu+j
Steal GitLab's business model and let people/companies self-host their own Zoho.

>>unstuc+(OP)
I wouldn't say Zoho is one of the ones enjoying "centralized" status. If you said so of Google or Microsoft, or in the past perhaps Yahoo, then in the western world that's true; but I can only vaguely recall ever hearing of Zoho, let alone see an email address of theirs used by anyone.

While email is getting harder to run yourself due to all the bad actors, with dozens of reasonable choices (plus the option to self-host like I do) you can hardly call it centralized.

>>unstuc+O
https://mailinabox.email/ has worked well for me in the past

>>unstuc+t1
Nothing about self-hosted licensed software is unique to Gitlab, it's been a standard business model since the software industry started decades ago.

>>choose+f
In case this is a serious question: federation, with servers kept running by stakeholders of whatever the email's needed for.

>>maniga+FX
I know. I used GitLab as an example because git is as ubiquitous in development as email and just as prone to centralization. Plus, the recent funding news made it the most obvious example since people are concerned.