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> I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address Why is that a good thing? My email is full of spam both literal and mundane (email notification from stuff

> I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address Why is that a good thing? My email is full of spam both literal and mundane (email notification from stuff I only occasionally care about like CI or products). My Messenger account has zero noise because I can't be contacted by companies - only friends I've chosen to let in.

waheoo 5y ago
You can very, very easily filter email in the same way to get the same result. Just because companies haven't invaded WhatsApp yet doesn't mean they aren't trying, they are, and they already invaded everywhere else. Hell Facebook and Instagram is an advertisers wet dream.
- solidasparagus 5y ago
  Not as easily as just using a tool that doesn't need any configuration to avoid spam. And it's disingenuous to say that email spam can just be filtered out to get an experience that is as spam-free as Messenger.
andrewzah 5y ago
There’s nothing preventing you from automatically filtering those emails. All of my GitHub / CI emails go straight to a subfolder. All spam gets added to filters, etc. Depending on the registrar you use, you can set up a 2nd inbox or aliases for junk mail and filter anything that goes to those, etc.
- solidasparagus 5y ago
  You're coming from a position that email is good and it's worth configuring it to work well. But I don't particularly like email. I have zero interest in setting up aliases or filters when the problem simply doesn't exist when I use a better tool.
  - vlunkr 5y ago
    This doesn't make much sense to me. We're talking about functionality (being contacted by companies or automated processes) that doesn't exist at all in Messenger. You can't say it's the better tool in this case when it makes no attempt to compete with that feature.
    - solidasparagus 5y ago
      > You can't say it's the better tool in this case when it makes no attempt to compete with that feature Sure I can. Something isn't better just because it has more features. Easy ability to be spammed with nothing more than a widely shared string ID is not a positive feature. Even if I used FB auth to log into all of my various internet accounts, my Messenger still won't get spammed. It's a better tool (at least for me). My email inbox just annoys me while Messenger is so good I haven't deleted my FB account.
      - vlunkr 5y ago
        > Something isn't better just because it has more features You're right, but being able to be spammed with a string ID absolutely is a positive feature. While your inbox may annoy you, I'm sure you also use to sign up for services, get marketing info that you're interested in, get billing notifications, etc. Could Messenger do all that? Yeah potentially, but now you've just moved the spam problem into Messenger. That's why I'm saying Messenger isn't the better tool because it doesn't have spam, it doesn't have spam because it lacks the features that introduce spam.
  - thisCtx 5y ago
    So your messenger app read your mind? Pretty sure you create a whitelist on that too, yes? Of phone numbers, usernames, or …email addresses… depending on what the app uses, that you wish to hear from? Check out Spike for IOS. I’m not saying you have to USE it, but that it’s a UX problem, not an “email” problem.
    - bccdee 5y ago
NikolaNovak 5y ago
I don't feel that's a medium / tool issue, I've found it's a usage pattern issue. I have many email addresses. My most personal is known to people I like and trust. I use it the way many people use IM. I get zero zero spam in it. The emails I use for business or subscriptions or untrustworthy friends of course is spammy. I imagine if one uses any IM service to enroll into dozens of services / products / subscriptions / websites / etc... Spam will come regardless of medium :)
- solidasparagus 5y ago
  > I imagine if one uses any IM service to enroll into dozens of services / products / subscriptions / websites / etc... Spam will come regardless of medium :) Not if I use FB auth. My Messenger would remain spam free. Because ability to authn someone and ability to send someone a message were decoupled, which is just better than email.
jjav 5y ago
> > I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address > Why is that a good thing? Because it is useful to have a communication mechanism which is universal. It is a standard and not owned or controlled (censored) by anyone. Sure there a dozens, possibly hundreds, of fragmented chat protocols that can't talk to anything other than their own proprietary clients. But only email is universally available. > only friends I've chosen to let in You could configure your email client the same way and then you have the same behavior.
- solidasparagus 5y ago
  > Because it is useful to have a communication mechanism which is universal. It is a standard and not owned or controlled (censored) by anyone. Sure there a dozens, possibly hundreds, of fragmented chat protocols that can't talk to anything other than their own proprietary clients. But only email is universally available. I have never found that to actually be useful in practice. Non-universal protocols with proprietary clients have worked well for me - they have been convenient, well-engineered, well-designed, and well-populated by the people I want to talk to.

waheoo 5y ago

You can very, very easily filter email in the same way to get the same result. Just because companies haven't invaded WhatsApp yet doesn't mean they aren't trying, they are, and they already invaded everywhere else. Hell Facebook and Instagram is an advertisers wet dream.

solidasparagus 5y ago
Not as easily as just using a tool that doesn't need any configuration to avoid spam. And it's disingenuous to say that email spam can just be filtered out to get an experience that is as spam-free as Messenger.

andrewzah 5y ago

There’s nothing preventing you from automatically filtering those emails. All of my GitHub / CI emails go straight to a subfolder. All spam gets added to filters, etc. Depending on the registrar you use, you can set up a 2nd inbox or aliases for junk mail and filter anything that goes to those, etc.

solidasparagus 5y ago
You're coming from a position that email is good and it's worth configuring it to work well. But I don't particularly like email. I have zero interest in setting up aliases or filters when the problem simply doesn't exist when I use a better tool.
- vlunkr 5y ago
  This doesn't make much sense to me. We're talking about functionality (being contacted by companies or automated processes) that doesn't exist at all in Messenger. You can't say it's the better tool in this case when it makes no attempt to compete with that feature.
  - solidasparagus 5y ago
    > You can't say it's the better tool in this case when it makes no attempt to compete with that feature Sure I can. Something isn't better just because it has more features. Easy ability to be spammed with nothing more than a widely shared string ID is not a positive feature. Even if I used FB auth to log into all of my various internet accounts, my Messenger still won't get spammed. It's a better tool (at least for me). My email inbox just annoys me while Messenger is so good I haven't deleted my FB account.
    - vlunkr 5y ago
      > Something isn't better just because it has more features You're right, but being able to be spammed with a string ID absolutely is a positive feature. While your inbox may annoy you, I'm sure you also use to sign up for services, get marketing info that you're interested in, get billing notifications, etc. Could Messenger do all that? Yeah potentially, but now you've just moved the spam problem into Messenger. That's why I'm saying Messenger isn't the better tool because it doesn't have spam, it doesn't have spam because it lacks the features that introduce spam.
- thisCtx 5y ago
  So your messenger app read your mind? Pretty sure you create a whitelist on that too, yes? Of phone numbers, usernames, or …email addresses… depending on what the app uses, that you wish to hear from? Check out Spike for IOS. I’m not saying you have to USE it, but that it’s a UX problem, not an “email” problem.
  - bccdee 5y ago

NikolaNovak 5y ago

I don't feel that's a medium / tool issue, I've found it's a usage pattern issue. I have many email addresses. My most personal is known to people I like and trust. I use it the way many people use IM. I get zero zero spam in it. The emails I use for business or subscriptions or untrustworthy friends of course is spammy. I imagine if one uses any IM service to enroll into dozens of services / products / subscriptions / websites / etc... Spam will come regardless of medium :)

solidasparagus 5y ago
> I imagine if one uses any IM service to enroll into dozens of services / products / subscriptions / websites / etc... Spam will come regardless of medium :) Not if I use FB auth. My Messenger would remain spam free. Because ability to authn someone and ability to send someone a message were decoupled, which is just better than email.

jjav 5y ago

> > I can interact with anybody with an e-mail address > Why is that a good thing? Because it is useful to have a communication mechanism which is universal. It is a standard and not owned or controlled (censored) by anyone. Sure there a dozens, possibly hundreds, of fragmented chat protocols that can't talk to anything other than their own proprietary clients. But only email is universally available. > only friends I've chosen to let in You could configure your email client the same way and then you have the same behavior.

solidasparagus 5y ago
> Because it is useful to have a communication mechanism which is universal. It is a standard and not owned or controlled (censored) by anyone. Sure there a dozens, possibly hundreds, of fragmented chat protocols that can't talk to anything other than their own proprietary clients. But only email is universally available. I have never found that to actually be useful in practice. Non-universal protocols with proprietary clients have worked well for me - they have been convenient, well-engineered, well-designed, and well-populated by the people I want to talk to.