5 ms·

The average person is not intelligent enough to have their own domain.

by Mistletoe 2y ago

eikenberry 2y ago
Sounds like a business opportunity.
999900000999 2y ago
Or they have better things to do vs fighting Route53 MX records errors.
- yakireev 2y ago
  Records, shmekords. The practical experience of having your own domain for your email is that you delegate your domain to Google / Fastmail / Proton / whatever, and it takes care of everything else. Some webmail providers will also let you buy a domain on their own website as a part of registration flow. It really is not hard. Harder than not having a domain of your own, but not as hard as you make it sound.
  - 999900000999 2y ago
    Okay, do you think if we just picked some random person they would have any idea what we're talking about? It's just not something normal people do, but I don't like the snarkiness of implying that's an indicator of intelligence. Otherwise we go down the no true Scotsman rabbit hole, what do you mean you're using Proton. You didn't set up your own mail server ? What do you mean you're using AWS, your not using a solar powered raspberry pi?
    - Retric 2y ago
      Random people don’t know how to do most things, but how easy it is to follow the directions is what matters here not knowing all the individual steps.
      - xp84 2y ago
        Even following all the directions is not trivial, nor is it easy to troubleshoot when something mysteriously goes wrong with what is usually a pretty vital connecting piece for most of your digital life. Plus all the good places to host your personal domain cost money, so now people who have gotten email for 'free' for 20+ years now have to start paying a monthly email hosting bill and annual domain registration fee because some 'nerd' told them they "should"? And if they ever forget to pay either one, suddenly their email is down and their email 'identity' is at risk of being resold. This advice is exactly like changing your own oil: Anyone with enough interest in cars and dedication to learn the steps certainly can easily do it, yet nobody should try to convince their grandparents who aren't already highly self-motivated to start doing it.
        999900000999 2y ago
        Eventually you have to trust someone anyway. If you don't trust Gmail, then you have to use Proton to host it, don't trust them then your on AWS, don't trust them you still need you ISP to play nice with a home server. Unless you want to raise your own carrier pigeons...
      - mmooss 2y ago
        Have tried giving detailed directions to people? Nobody follows them, and the few who try don't do it effectively. There are many steps to setting up a domain - and with an email host!
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      You're both wrong (-: Currently it's too hard for normal users, but it would be possible for e.g. Proton to add a feature where you can either import your domain name, or create a new one.
      - kelnos 2y ago
        "Normal" users aren't going to be using Proton.
    - kelnos 2y ago
      It's not an indicator of intelligence, but mail providers (including Google) could offer this if they want to, with a simple "Choose a personalized email address, like john@smith.com, for $9.99 per year" radio button on signup. They don't do this because: 1. Most people will choose the free option, so it wouldn't be much of a useful revenue stream. 2. People having @gmail.com email addresses is a little bit of zero-cost marketing for them.
palata 2y ago
I said "own your domain", not "self-host your email server".
- kube-system 2y ago
  "own your domain" is technobabble to 99.999+% of email users. Most people understand emails addresses are <something> "@gmail.com" or "@yahoo.com" or "@<somebigcompany>.com". They don't understand the parts of an email address, nor how or why they are constructed that way. I have been using a personal domain for my email address for decades and when I have to give it out verbally to someone, it is about a 50% chance that the conversation is: "My email is <name@myname.tld>" "uuhhh... at gmail.com?" "No it's just <@myname.tld>" "Yeah, but is it gmail or yahoo?"
  - linkregister 2y ago
    Worse is the California DMV. All password reset emails going to my custom .com would be subject to multi-hour delays; the password resets were valid for only a few minutes. The only way into the account was to call the tech support phone line. I had them delete the old account and re-registered with a bland gmail email address. I don't know of any technical reason to delay emails to minor domains. My domain has valid MX records, uses SPF, has valid DKIM TXT records, etc.
    - lelanthran 2y ago
      > I don't know of any technical reason to delay emails to minor domains. My domain has valid MX records, uses SPF, has valid DKIM TXT records, etc. I still run into that with my business address; after much mucking around with client's MS admin who did various pieces of magic on their online/azure/microsoft email platform until we finally got it down to around 2m for the delay. The upside appears to be that now all clients who are using microsoft appear to have only a 2m delay when sending email to my business domain.
    - kelnos 2y ago
      Strange. I have my own .org and I've never had a problem with the California DMV's reset emails... I just had to reset mine a month or so ago to start my license renewal, and the reset email showed up almost as fast as I could switch tabs to my webmail.
lelanthran 2y ago
> The average person is not intelligent enough to have their own domain. You think that that skill (maintaining own domain for email) is an indicator of intelligence?
- johnisgood 2y ago
  It is an indicator of knowledge, not necessarily intelligence.
- palata 2y ago
  My interpretation was that they didn't mean to talk about "intelligence", just meant that the average person is not "competent enough" to have their own domain. Which in all fairness is not wrong. My question is always: of those who are competent, why is the vast majority not having their own domain?
Hojojo 2y ago
Getting a domain is no more difficult than selecting some "easy web hosting and email" bundle on a site and paying for it with bank transfer, credit card or whatever. There's an entire industry around this. I've met plenty of people who are largely clueless about PCs, doctors, lawyers, artists, etc who have their own domain. It's actually extremely common, because conducting business from a Gmail account is a bit unprofessional and sketchy, particularly here in Germany.

The average person is not intelligent enough to have their own domain.

eikenberry 2y ago

Sounds like a business opportunity.

999900000999 2y ago

Or they have better things to do vs fighting Route53 MX records errors.

yakireev 2y ago
Records, shmekords. The practical experience of having your own domain for your email is that you delegate your domain to Google / Fastmail / Proton / whatever, and it takes care of everything else. Some webmail providers will also let you buy a domain on their own website as a part of registration flow. It really is not hard. Harder than not having a domain of your own, but not as hard as you make it sound.
- 999900000999 2y ago
  Okay, do you think if we just picked some random person they would have any idea what we're talking about? It's just not something normal people do, but I don't like the snarkiness of implying that's an indicator of intelligence. Otherwise we go down the no true Scotsman rabbit hole, what do you mean you're using Proton. You didn't set up your own mail server ? What do you mean you're using AWS, your not using a solar powered raspberry pi?
  - Retric 2y ago
    Random people don’t know how to do most things, but how easy it is to follow the directions is what matters here not knowing all the individual steps.
    - xp84 2y ago
      Even following all the directions is not trivial, nor is it easy to troubleshoot when something mysteriously goes wrong with what is usually a pretty vital connecting piece for most of your digital life. Plus all the good places to host your personal domain cost money, so now people who have gotten email for 'free' for 20+ years now have to start paying a monthly email hosting bill and annual domain registration fee because some 'nerd' told them they "should"? And if they ever forget to pay either one, suddenly their email is down and their email 'identity' is at risk of being resold. This advice is exactly like changing your own oil: Anyone with enough interest in cars and dedication to learn the steps certainly can easily do it, yet nobody should try to convince their grandparents who aren't already highly self-motivated to start doing it.
      - 999900000999 2y ago
        Eventually you have to trust someone anyway. If you don't trust Gmail, then you have to use Proton to host it, don't trust them then your on AWS, don't trust them you still need you ISP to play nice with a home server. Unless you want to raise your own carrier pigeons...
    - mmooss 2y ago
      Have tried giving detailed directions to people? Nobody follows them, and the few who try don't do it effectively. There are many steps to setting up a domain - and with an email host!
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    You're both wrong (-: Currently it's too hard for normal users, but it would be possible for e.g. Proton to add a feature where you can either import your domain name, or create a new one.
    - kelnos 2y ago
      "Normal" users aren't going to be using Proton.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    It's not an indicator of intelligence, but mail providers (including Google) could offer this if they want to, with a simple "Choose a personalized email address, like john@smith.com, for $9.99 per year" radio button on signup. They don't do this because: 1. Most people will choose the free option, so it wouldn't be much of a useful revenue stream. 2. People having @gmail.com email addresses is a little bit of zero-cost marketing for them.

palata 2y ago

I said "own your domain", not "self-host your email server".

kube-system 2y ago
"own your domain" is technobabble to 99.999+% of email users. Most people understand emails addresses are <something> "@gmail.com" or "@yahoo.com" or "@<somebigcompany>.com". They don't understand the parts of an email address, nor how or why they are constructed that way. I have been using a personal domain for my email address for decades and when I have to give it out verbally to someone, it is about a 50% chance that the conversation is: "My email is <name@myname.tld>" "uuhhh... at gmail.com?" "No it's just <@myname.tld>" "Yeah, but is it gmail or yahoo?"
- linkregister 2y ago
  Worse is the California DMV. All password reset emails going to my custom .com would be subject to multi-hour delays; the password resets were valid for only a few minutes. The only way into the account was to call the tech support phone line. I had them delete the old account and re-registered with a bland gmail email address. I don't know of any technical reason to delay emails to minor domains. My domain has valid MX records, uses SPF, has valid DKIM TXT records, etc.
  - lelanthran 2y ago
    > I don't know of any technical reason to delay emails to minor domains. My domain has valid MX records, uses SPF, has valid DKIM TXT records, etc. I still run into that with my business address; after much mucking around with client's MS admin who did various pieces of magic on their online/azure/microsoft email platform until we finally got it down to around 2m for the delay. The upside appears to be that now all clients who are using microsoft appear to have only a 2m delay when sending email to my business domain.
  - kelnos 2y ago
    Strange. I have my own .org and I've never had a problem with the California DMV's reset emails... I just had to reset mine a month or so ago to start my license renewal, and the reset email showed up almost as fast as I could switch tabs to my webmail.

lelanthran 2y ago

> The average person is not intelligent enough to have their own domain. You think that that skill (maintaining own domain for email) is an indicator of intelligence?

johnisgood 2y ago
It is an indicator of knowledge, not necessarily intelligence.
palata 2y ago
My interpretation was that they didn't mean to talk about "intelligence", just meant that the average person is not "competent enough" to have their own domain. Which in all fairness is not wrong. My question is always: of those who are competent, why is the vast majority not having their own domain?

Hojojo 2y ago

Getting a domain is no more difficult than selecting some "easy web hosting and email" bundle on a site and paying for it with bank transfer, credit card or whatever. There's an entire industry around this. I've met plenty of people who are largely clueless about PCs, doctors, lawyers, artists, etc who have their own domain. It's actually extremely common, because conducting business from a Gmail account is a bit unprofessional and sketchy, particularly here in Germany.