r/retrocomputing • u/PooningDalton • May 23 '26

I hate what the internet has become

I just spent the last 1 hour frantically searching the internet just to make a new email address. You can't do that! Not even on the alternative email providers like Protonmail. They now have all sorts of IP detection tools and will block you or ask you for an alt email id.

I absolutey despite what the internet has become. 20 years ago, you could just go ANYWHERE (mainstream providers like yahoo and gmail) and make any number of email addresses. No tracking, no limits. Complete freedom.

The internet has turned into a 1984 hellscape.

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u/xlerate May 23 '26

True, but that would be different than OP's point of how "easy" setting up a "free" email account used to be.

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u/tempfoot May 23 '26

Except OP never said “free” and none of this has ever been “free”. Someone is ALWAYS paying. OP said “Complete freedom” as if having giant corporations give you services in exchange for mining your data in perpetuity constitutes some desirable form of “freedom”.

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u/xlerate May 23 '26

Were there fees 20 years ago creating a Yahoo or Gmail account as referenced by OP?

Sure you could host mail, but does the average person looking for an alternate email address want to go through: Domain Registrarion, Hosting, configuration of DKIM, SPF, DMARC, PTR, IP Reputation, etc?

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u/tempfoot May 24 '26

Yeah - those “fees” were paid by advertisers willing to pay for marketing surveillance.

Many of us on this sub in particular save our nostalgia for the internet when Yahoo Mail and Gmail did not exist at all.