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Re:Tell HN: I can't buy a PS4 because of my email by 999900000999 on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @08:44AM (#30698048)
A normal internet user would probably have a Gmail or another popular email address.

As a web developer, I'm sure if you really want it one, you could create a quick throwaway email address using a small array of services.

Let's think about how strange this as far a bit, if you have a smartphone at all, you'll either have an email address provided by Apple or Google. Google. If you choose not to utilize either one of these, that's your choice.

At the same time, Sony has never been good with web technology, the PS4s online play has always been less feature-rich than Microsoft's offering.

Re:Tell HN: I can't buy a PS4 because of my email by aysfrm11 on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @09:00AM (#30698214)
A 'normal internet user' has an email address, the format of which is probably specified in some decades old RFC.

Nothing else but the format should be checked and ANY kind of error should be properly communicated.

I had two situations recently that cost me a substantial amount of time and effort, due to f**ed up email handling and non-communication to the user.

Once I tried to sign up to Pinterest with my personal catch-all domain using the emai [email protected]. Only received random errors no matter what browser and IP I tried, had to contact 'support' (three levels of bots) to eventually find out that 'pinterest' is a reserved word because of which they would not accept my email.

Second situation in a hotel trying to connect to WiFi via a captive portal. Using email [email protected] (which I used to check in and was thus required to use in the portal) the page just refreshed again and again without throwing a user facing error. After significant back and forth at the reception I was educated that I was only allowed to use private / personal emails (meaning GMail). My own domain wasn't personal enough...

Both situations could have been rectified easily if proper errors would have been communicated.

Re:Tell HN: I can't buy a PS4 because of my email by iso1210 on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @08:50AM (#30698107)
I have an iphone, it has various mail accounts on it, including my work one (.co.uk), my home ones (.net and .com), and an old gmail one.

I have no idea about any apple email addresses.

Re:Tell HN: I can't buy a PS4 because of my email by oauea on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @08:47AM (#30698072)
Nice victim blaming
Re:Tell HN: I can't buy a PS4 because of my email by FearlessNebula on Wednesday March 16, 2022 @09:04AM (#30698242)
It’s really not victim blaming. But it’s still bullshit nonetheless. The amount of power consolidated between Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, and other top providers is problematic. Imagine how much damage they could cause by cancelling accounts for a political dissident. We see the chaos here on HN all the time when somebody gets their account mistakenly closed for “fraud” by an AI mistake.

There’s definitely a big problem here with email, and I don’t know what the solution is.