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Any entity that can control an aspect of your life but doesn't give you the possibility to even talk to a human should not exist. I had to call the IRS today an

Any entity that can control an aspect of your life but doesn't give you the possibility to even talk to a human should not exist. I had to call the IRS today and with a little navigation cheat sheet, I found how to get ahold of someone with a 30 minute wait time. It sucked, but I spoke with a human that was very courteous. For a government agency, people dread it. But I at least have a ridiculous timeline to respond and can engage with a representative of the government. Google can virtually shut down your ability to access websites tied to an email, and now you're extraordinarily SOL without any recourse except for legal action. Not to mention they don't even tell you rules you violated if they give you the boot. Even the government today has to do that. But a private company? God forbid!

strogonoff 5y ago
Agreed fully. Except I believe that there’s a deeper cause here, the misalignment between the interests of the actual users and the company to whom the users aren’t actually a source of revenue except by numbers that can be shown to advertisers and investors. (Further down this goes to our expectation of free service; it was all fun and beta at first but it turned out to be a trap.) Importantly, providing human service will address a symptom but not eliminate said misalignment—it’ll keep manifesting itself.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  Simply put, especially in a 2FA worlds, emails need to be a right. Let's say you have a government account tied to your gmail account. Gmail locks you out. The government then tied your ssn to that email account. How do you sign up for the government account now that google has effectively prevented you from interacting with the government? That kind of stuff needs to end. Email's are required to conduct business and interact with the govenrment nowadays. A private company should not be allowed to just remove your ability to interface with businesses online. My bank can't effectively steal all my money and close my accounts just because I have a personal viewpoint or hell, even committed a felony! But for some reason (especially redditors) people think it's okay for a private company to shut someone down entirely just because of some form of speech or whatever reason simply because it's a private entity.

strogonoff 5y ago

Agreed fully. Except I believe that there’s a deeper cause here, the misalignment between the interests of the actual users and the company to whom the users aren’t actually a source of revenue except by numbers that can be shown to advertisers and investors. (Further down this goes to our expectation of free service; it was all fun and beta at first but it turned out to be a trap.) Importantly, providing human service will address a symptom but not eliminate said misalignment—it’ll keep manifesting itself.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
Simply put, especially in a 2FA worlds, emails need to be a right. Let's say you have a government account tied to your gmail account. Gmail locks you out. The government then tied your ssn to that email account. How do you sign up for the government account now that google has effectively prevented you from interacting with the government? That kind of stuff needs to end. Email's are required to conduct business and interact with the govenrment nowadays. A private company should not be allowed to just remove your ability to interface with businesses online. My bank can't effectively steal all my money and close my accounts just because I have a personal viewpoint or hell, even committed a felony! But for some reason (especially redditors) people think it's okay for a private company to shut someone down entirely just because of some form of speech or whatever reason simply because it's a private entity.