I started building my own MVC framework using Ruby this week. It’s intended to be a fun project to explore how a framework works internally and to see how far I can get building something that can power a few small web applications.
A couple of lessons learned from my recent email move
My move back to using my own domain as my primary email address has been relatively smooth, with just a few hiccups along the way. It has highlighted a few things that I should remember if I ever consider changing email addresses again (which I hope never happens again).
Email on your own domain is flexible
When I signed up for Hey’s email service five years ago, it meant moving away from using my domain for my email address. At the time, I had slight reservations about using hey.com as my email address, but I figured it was just an email address, and I had changed it before.
One problem is that with this type of email address, I am tied to Hey’s email service, and if I want to switch, I need to change my email address. This isn’t a problem if you use a domain name you own for your email, though. If, after a while, you don’t like the email provider you are using, you can switch to someone else while still retaining the same email address. And yes, Hey does support email for custom domains now, but that wasn’t available when Hey was launched.
Using your own domain for your email address ensures the longevity of your email address but also allows you to move between email providers.
You can’t change your email account everywhere
The last couple of weeks have seen me reviewing my password manager and conducting a spot check on all my accounts to ensure that I have migrated all of them to use the new email address.
Unfortunately, not every service allows you to change the email address associated with it. There are two scenarios I have found where this is the case.
Services that don’t let you change your email address
Some services just don’t allow you to change your email address at all. You need to delete the existing account and create a new one. This might be an issue if the service is one you have used long-term and has numerous purchases associated with it.
I have one account with a service that has several e-books purchased against it, but I haven’t been able to update my account to change my email address. Additionally, despite contacting the service’s support team, they haven’t responded promptly to allow me to change my email address. I’ll download the e-books I have purchased in the past and then create another account for any future purchases. Fortunately, these books are technical and mostly outdated, so the loss is not significant.
Services that use single sign-on
Some services don’t have a fully functional single sign-on experience, where your email address associated with your authenticating service may change. I’ve noticed this with several services. I have changed the email address on the authentication service I use to log in, e.g., Apple, but the end service I am using doesn’t recognise that it’s the same account, just with a different email. From a user experience flow point of view, this seems like a red flag.
Having experienced this, I think I might avoid single sign-on logins and instead use email or usernames wherever possible.
Not that I’ll need to, though, because I am not about to change my email address. Right?
On a Daft Punk musical bender this morning thanks to @birming.
Enjoying a quiet Saturday morning with Jennifer. Stopped for a wee coffee and cake at Black Sheep Coffee in between some shops.
Trying not to add to the noise
I’ve been trying to write my views on a couple of topics over the last few days but I haven’t managed to get further than a couple of paragraphs. My main concern with them has been the negativity around these topics, and I don’t want to add to the existing negativity.
Given I’ve tried to write about these topics on a number of occasions and haven’t found the right tone, is it better just to leave commenting on them and hope they blow over or something good comes from them? It’s a naive view to take, maybe even ignorant, but it’s what I think I should do.
I might try to look for another couple of things to write about over the weekend and see if that helps.
Can any plugin authors here on Micro.blog tell me how you get an image/logo to appear next to your plugin in the plugins directory? I still haven’t managed to figure out how to do this for my Bothy theme.
The downside and upside to moving from Hey to Proton Mail
I’ve encountered several issues since trying to migrate from Hey to Proton Mail, but the process has been mostly painless. I’m still updating all my accounts, but I’m almost done.
A couple of things emerged from this migration that others might find interesting.
- Hey doesn’t support IMAP, and Proton Mail doesn’t support importing email using MBOX, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to move all my emails from Hey to Proton Mail. Fastmail supports importing email using MBOX, so if moving your email across is a requirement, you may want to consider this option.
- Hey doesn’t currently allow you to send plain text email. It might not be a deal breaker in this modern internet age, but there are still people who prefer this option, and I recently encountered this issue when I started using Sourcehut. Sourcehut’s mailing lists are easier to use with plain text, so I was glad to find out that Proton Mail allows me to do this, enabling me to start using Sourcehut’s lists feature.
It will be another couple of weeks before I am fully migrated over and using Proton Mail daily.
Following the creation of a FastMail account last week, I set up a ProtonMail account today for my new personal email address. Once everything is transferred, I’ll close my Hey account.
Another couple of Atoms to Astronauts notebooks arrived in the post this morning.
I’m going through these at quite a pace but they’re an absolute joy to use. I try and grab a couple at a time when there’s a sale on for them.
The more I see cool stuff like these note codes for Obsidian, the more I want to give it a try. I really like Bear. However, it is lacking in some areas.