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K-9 Mail removed from Google Play Store due to listing description
- mproud 6y agoI mean, sorry, but that does seems kind of scummy on the developer’s part.
- obrajesse 6y agoWe added that to the description because otherwise folks searching for "k9" or "k9mail" or "k-9 email" couldn't find the app or got pushed to sketchy malware pretending to be K-9. If Play's search worked, we wouldn't have had to stick keywords in the description. (But also, it wasn't against policy when we did it 5+ years ago. And I absolutely don't mind them asking us to change it. But the zero-strikes removal thing pisses me off.)
- lern_too_spel 6y agoSearching for those works now, so the rule against spamming the description makes sense. What doesn't make sense is the hamfisted enforcement. If it were a Google app, it would not have been delisted, and that is an antitrust lawsuit waiting to happen.
- evfanknitram 6y agoWhy would it be scummy? Do you think the authors of the email app is trying to trick the local kennel club members into install their open source email client unwillingly?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pwg 6y agoK-9 Mail is available in the F-Droid store: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.fsck.k9/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.fsck.k9/
- CameronNemo 6y agoSo glad I am using a ROM with signature spoofing so that fdroid can keep my apps up to date without me prodding it. https://lineage.microg.org/ https://lineage.microg.org/
- dheera 6y agoFirst time I heard about microG. I don't get it -- why is it called "LineageOS for microG" and not "microG for LineageOS"? Am I missing something? Isn't microG something that runs on top of LineageOS and not the other way around?
- Iolaum 6y agoIt is because microG isn't an app but a system component of the operating system. It gets baked in when building the system.
- dheera 6y agoSo what is microG baked into? AOSP?
- Klinky 6y ago>LineageOS unofficial fork with built-in microG gapps implementation
- dheera 6y agoSo it's LineageOS for microG for (LineageOS unofficial fork)? As in an official rectification of the unofficial fork with microG in the middle? (confused)
- Klinky 6y agoIt's simply a fork of LineageOS designed to run microG out of the box, the builds are there for ease of use. microG is still a separate project from LineageOS. They are "LineageOS [builds meant] for [use with] microG".
- senectus1 6y agoI mean... Google was right to do this, but K-9 Mail was right to do what they did as well. Not sure how you fix this, other than Google apply some of their search smarts to the playstore that they have on the search engine.
- obrajesse 6y agoOriginal author of K-9 here (but not an active dev). Also the person who added that text to the description...probably about 5 years ago. My only real complaint is that Google pulled the app with zero notice. It feels abusive to pull apps from the Play store for a non-malicious violation of the terms (that may well predate those terms) like this. Even a 48 hour notice of "we will remove your app if you don't change the description" would have been pretty reasonable. The solution is straightforward and the team is already on top of a resubmission with an updated description. This is absolutely not a hill I want to die on.
- searchableguy 6y agoYeah google play store search is absolutely trash now. If I have to find an app, I google it.
- zaroth 6y agoWow, such irony.
- politelemon 6y agoI've had my app removed with zero notice, and it was due to an Oxford comma in the short description. No notice or warning of any kind. It was also a description untouched for several years. It's difficult to describe the stress of having to deal with what is presumably an indiscriminate algorithm, potential heuristic, or some new quota.
- obrajesse 6y agoOk. This is a story I've gotta hear. What was the sentence in question?
- aidenn0 6y agoWhy did I think k-9 was no longer maintained?
- commoner 6y agoK-9 Mail's last stable release was in September 2018. However, they've been steadily producing beta releases and "would like to release a new stable version as soon as possible." https://k9mail.app/2020/06/01/Whats-Up-With-K-9-Mail https://k9mail.app/2020/06/01/Whats-Up-With-K-9-Mail
- linuxhansl 6y agoCool. Get it via F-Droid instead.
- renewiltord 6y agoWhy would this not be a warning before a delist wtf
- toast0 6y agoWell, actually telling people what needs to be changed is a huge step forward for Google. Normally, I'd expect them to just turn it off and say you violated terms and ignore any attempts to contact.
- AndrewDucker 6y agoBack https://twitter.com/obra/status/1303581115647549440?s=19 https://twitter.com/obra/status/1303581115647549440?s=19
- joeberon 6y ago“You are blocked from following this account” guess I got hit by one of the old school block lists?
- znpy 6y agoGoogle continues the war against its own users.
- idonotknowwhy 6y agoAren't you violating the prime directive?
- II2II 6y agoIt's more like waging a war against its developers, which is one of the reasons why users adopt Android. That being said, I think that Google did the right thing in this case. I know of and use K9, so I trust it. Google does not have this privilege. While they probably have more than enough data to determine if the app is trustworthy in the first place, it would be difficult to determine if a trustworthy app went rogue in a timely manner. As for the issue, keyword stuffing is way to manipulate search results. In this case, keyword stuffing appears to have been used appropriately. Now imagine that people started stuffing in terms like Gmail or Outlook to benefit from brand recognition. Given the scales that Google operate at, it is unlikely that they could detect such transgressions effectively for all cases. The immediate removal is problematic, but it is difficult for outsiders to understand how giving notice would impact Google. Some developers may simply put such warnings on the back burner, or even forget about it, if given advance notice. Others may manipulate the system by taking advantage of the advance warning (e.g. using it to stretch out their transgression).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- panpanna 6y agoOff topic: k9 badly needs a UI update. Maybe the folks who fixed blender can help? On topic: sometimes I feel k9 is a lost cause. With Microsoft and Google deliberately adding non-standard crap to their protocols I am surprised k9 had survived so far.
- commoner 6y agoThe next version (now in beta) has a refreshed UI. There's a screenshot in this blog post: https://k9mail.app/2020/06/01/Whats-Up-With-K-9-Mail https://k9mail.app/2020/06/01/Whats-Up-With-K-9-Mail
- panpanna 6y agoLooks much better! If I can get to work with outlook enterprise accounts I will probably switch.
- dafoex 6y agoI dunno, other than the bottom tabs I actually like the old UI
- bfrog 6y agoTime to starting voting with my wallet away from Apple and Google phones I think.
- drKarl 6y agoI used K-9 for a long time, but I got a new phone with Android 10, and K-9 is not supported for Android 10... I switched to FairEmail and it's great. Even syncing which was not working very well on K-9 works great on Fairphone. Got it on F-droid anyway...