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Well in my opinion, this is what it means to support digitisation. It means accepting that these situations will become more and more commonplace. It is simply

Well in my opinion, this is what it means to support digitisation. It means accepting that these situations will become more and more commonplace. It is simply the price you pay. In your other comment you mention that people handling email should be familiarising themselves properly with RFCs. Yeah. Maybe. Probably actually you're right. Putting aside the problem of ehether they actually _have to_ or _will_ for a second. Do you think it's reasonable that the people at your child's school will? No, of course not. And they're the ones who will choose these providers. Not you. To support digitisation is to support the tyranny of technical ignorance in every facet of our lives.

bo1024 3y ago
No, I think the situation is more nuanced than this. Why do the people at the school have providers who only accept gmail? Because some extremely technical people who understand exactly what they’re doing have led the web further and further into platform lock-in, and others go along with it.
OkayPhysicist 3y ago
Frankly, examples like GP's are a compelling argument for professional licensure for software developers, because "only accepting gmail addresses as valid emails" should be considered professional malpractice.
- arp242 3y ago
  The effect will be marginal; it will just create a huge administrative bonanza, and the number of times where it will be used (i.e. software devs being "disbarred") will be few enough that it won't matter much in practice.
  - OkayPhysicist 3y ago
    The purpose of licensure is that it effectively allows the licensed individual to hold themselves hostage in a negotiation. Without licenses, Management says "add feature X", and even though you know feature X is evil personified, you look at the pros and cons of implementing it or not, and you end up with "my professional conscience" vs "getting fired". With licenses, you end up with "every future job" vs "this job" which is quite a bit more balanced in the direction of "don't add evil feature X".
arp242 3y ago
In this case it's relatively benign; the worst result is that they'll have to create a (free) gmail account to forward to their domain. It's annoying and stupid, bit in the grand scheme of things, acceptable. But in other cases the results are much more severe. I got vaccinated for Covid. But I couldn't get a "Covid passport" because I didn't have the right government account and couldn't get one as I didn't have eligible housing. I literally had the "proof of vaccinations", but turns out that doesn't count as "proof". Great. You know what sucks more than a Covid lockdown? One where you see everyone else go out and have fun and you're allowed to do fuck all.

bo1024 3y ago

No, I think the situation is more nuanced than this. Why do the people at the school have providers who only accept gmail? Because some extremely technical people who understand exactly what they’re doing have led the web further and further into platform lock-in, and others go along with it.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago

Frankly, examples like GP's are a compelling argument for professional licensure for software developers, because "only accepting gmail addresses as valid emails" should be considered professional malpractice.

arp242 3y ago
The effect will be marginal; it will just create a huge administrative bonanza, and the number of times where it will be used (i.e. software devs being "disbarred") will be few enough that it won't matter much in practice.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  The purpose of licensure is that it effectively allows the licensed individual to hold themselves hostage in a negotiation. Without licenses, Management says "add feature X", and even though you know feature X is evil personified, you look at the pros and cons of implementing it or not, and you end up with "my professional conscience" vs "getting fired". With licenses, you end up with "every future job" vs "this job" which is quite a bit more balanced in the direction of "don't add evil feature X".

arp242 3y ago

In this case it's relatively benign; the worst result is that they'll have to create a (free) gmail account to forward to their domain. It's annoying and stupid, bit in the grand scheme of things, acceptable. But in other cases the results are much more severe. I got vaccinated for Covid. But I couldn't get a "Covid passport" because I didn't have the right government account and couldn't get one as I didn't have eligible housing. I literally had the "proof of vaccinations", but turns out that doesn't count as "proof". Great. You know what sucks more than a Covid lockdown? One where you see everyone else go out and have fun and you're allowed to do fuck all.