As internet service providers such as Telstra and TPG curtail their email accounts, customers from older generations are facing a difficult shift
  • RickRussell_CA@beehaw.orgEnglish
    3·
    2 years ago

    Err…

    Users will keep their exisiting (sic) email addresses on this service, and would get it free for the first year. After that, there will be options of paying for a service, or an ad-based free service after that.

    So, what’s the problem, exactly? Just take the ad-based free service. Gmail, Yahoo, etc. are ad-based free services too. Nobody is forcing them to change anything.

    • StudioLE@programming.dev
      1·
      2 years ago

      People who use the default email their ISP gives them don’t like change. The new service will probably have a different login screen and that’s going to upset aunty Ethel and uncle ron. And then a different colour background. It’s the worst thing that anyone could ever do to them

      • JCPhoenix@beehaw.org
        1·
        2 years ago

        I can understand the pain, though. Moving accounts to a new email is not a fun process. Especially if someone has an email for years, decades even, that’s a lot of stuff that could be registered with that email. And trying to save emails isn’t necessarily straightforward. Migration, if it’s even available, isn’t foolproof or easy, either.

        While I’ve grown up with the Internet, I think I’ve only changed my main email like 3 times over ~30yrs. The last time I did it was over a decade ago, to Gmail from my family’s then ISP-based email. I think I’m way overdue to do it again, at least moving my important accounts like banking and government stuff to a new email address, but it’s just so time consuming.

        And I say all this as a tech person. I work in IT. For someone who’s not particularly tech savvy, forget about it.

    • HeartyBeast@kbin.social
      1·
      2 years ago

      The problem, presumably is that they will be canning IMAP/POP/SMTP and will be implementing a sucky web-only interface

  • spaghetti_carbanana@krabb.org
    0·
    2 years ago

    Whilst I agree and sympathise with people on how difficult it is to change your primary email address (been there), the outcome will be better for them. They are no longer wedded to an ISP purely because all their mail goes there.

    To liken it to something more tangible; when you move house, you need to change your mailing address. For renters, that can be often and is just as painful. Or when your phone number changes and you have to update your contacts. The difference here is who is pulling the trigger; the end user vs the provider.

    Gmail is a great option, as is Proton Mail for the security conscious and tech savvy.

    This isn’t to excuse the ISPs; it’s a shitty move on their part and the people using these mail accounts will likely be older technically challenged folks, but it is a logical one from a technical perspective. They may have also inadvertently taken the only thing away that’s creating stickiness between them and their customer and driven them into the arms of another ISP.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 years ago

      Gmail is a great option

      after you spend two paragraphs explaining how it is inconvinient to depend on someone who can change anything at their will, your conclusion is to move to google? 🤣