github (was: [Fwd: Re: Impossible to connect to mail server via pops3 using mutt 1.11])

[Cameron Simpson]

On 29Mar2019 14:17, derek martin <invalid at pizzashack.org> wrote:
>On Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 08:42:33AM +1100, Cameron Simpson wrote:
>> You can sign up to github without any other obligations; it is free
>> and gets you various useful facilities.
>[...]
>> There isn't actually any particular downside.
>
>Sure there is.  It's yet another account to maintain/protect which
>probably find itself compromised at some point.

Well, this is one reason why I use unique random passwords for every 
such service, and also why I tend not to use the "login with 
google/facebook(ewww)/github/etc" buttons on offer.

>Sure, there are tools
>to manage all these accounts, but it's still not free, and frankly I
>already have too many accounts for things that I don't really want.

I have many such, including some I don't really want.

>If
>you ever lose access to the e-mail address/domain you're using for all
>these things, updating them all will be a giant pain in the ass, and
>there's no tool for that.

Hahahahaha. I know that pain.

My longstanding email address of cs at zip.com.au, which I had for decades 
and continued to pay my former dial up ISP AU$9 every 3 months for to 
have stable email continuity, was withdrawn a year or so ago.

When I took out the account they promised "an email address forever", 
and the domain was succinct and their service (dial up ISP) good. And 
they stayed true to their word, grandfathering my account indefinitely 
long after the dialup side of things was not just obsolete but removed.

They have since been bought a few times, and their buyers continued to 
keep the faith.

Until they were bought by Telstra (local Oz big ISP/mobile 
network/behemoth). Who decided they couldn't be arsed.

I was given several months of notification, but they announced they were 
shutting down zip.com.au. But, of course, not releasing the domain for 
use/service by others. I actually spoke to some of the zip support staff 
during the ordeal and they were nearly as unhappy as I was (still 
employed, but unhappy about the management decision to drop zip).

Now I self host as Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>.

So I spent literally months going to many many accounts updating my 
contact info. A few were unupdatable. And I still missed some, including 
the account operating the electronic tag system we use for toll roads in 
Sydney, resulting in some missed notifications and late/unpaid fines 
(notification by post).

As an aside: I found it very useful to write a mail filtering rule which 
copied all email to my old address to an additional special folder, so 
that I could easily monitor for things I'd missed.

I went after bank accounts (and the like) and mailing lists proactively, 
and the web sites of services I used regularly such as 
bitbucket/github/gitlab. A lot of the rest I went after by monitoring 
for old zip email arrival.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>