perlgod

I host email from my basement. Rackmount server down there runs all my VMs, including ones for Postfix, Dovecot, and Rspamd. Apache Solr/Tika are connected to dovecot for full-text IMAP search. Never had any issues, but I have postfix on a static IP from a business-class cable internet connection, so I'm sure that helps.

Dovecot and the postfix submission port (587) are only accessible internally, or through my home wireguard VPN.

Rspamd catches just about all junk mail. I might have one or two messages a week slip through. Moving messages to/from the Junk folder trains Rspamd to recognize spam/ham.

Make sure the IP of your mail server has reverse DNS in place, and set up SPF/DMARC records and DKIM signing, and you should be fine. I've been doing this for a decade and never had any problems.

I do maintain a separate, paid email account at a commercial provider for things like banking. In case I die, I don't want my poor wife to deal with my crazy email setup.

This topic always brings up so many hysterical naysayers, I almost wonder if some are paid Gmail shills!

I agree. If you're the only user of your instance, they can easily track you server-side by your IP address. You could mitigate this by routing your egress traffic (either from the individual device or network-wide, from your router) through a VPN.

I host everything from a server in my basement. Each local application gets a dedicated Rocky Linux VM on a proxmox hypervisor, with the VM/DNS/app configuration managed though a custom ansible framework that I've developed for my "homelab" over the years. Don't currently mess with containers.

My mobile devices have an always-on wireguard VPN back to my house so I can access everything while out and about.

"muh GPS" is definitely the most common argument people give me. Garmin still makes car GPS units. I have one and it works well.

To be fair, I was able to refrain from mindless scrolling all the time. But with the phone nearby, I always wanted to mindlessly scroll during every random quiet moment.

I liken it to an alcoholic keeping an ice cold beer on his desk all day, but doing his best not to take a sip. Why subject yourself?

I experimented without a smartphone and I am happier as a result. This will probably not be the case for everyone. But, if you ever feel like a slave to your own technology, I highly recommend trying it out.

I have not found it to be overly burdensome. I have an indestructible kyocera flip phone, so I'm able to call people (and SMS in a pinch).

I have an LTE-enabled tablet, so if I'm going somewhere totally unfamiliar, I'll throw it in my bag just in case I need to look up some information. Otherwise you just have to plan your outings in advance - like we always did prior to 2008 or so.

I have a Garmin GPS mounted in car for road trips, which I honestly prefer since it doesn't tempt me to fiddle with it while driving like a smartphone does. I also carry a semi-nice digital camera sometimes. It's obviously not as convenient as a smartphone camera, but I find I am more thoughtful and appreciative of the photos I take as a result.

I use more paper items (small paper notebook for grocery lists, transit tickets instead of using the app, etc). This can be somewhat freeing, as I've missed my ferry a handful of times because their app glitched out.

My personality tends towards obsession and analysis paralysis, which can be good for programming but sometimes bad for real life. I no longer obsess over which restaurant has the best looking pictures or online reviews, I just walk inside and try it out. Sometimes this is for the better, sometimes for the worse, but it's definitely a more human experience.

Without the smartphone, I also find I am much more inclined to talk to random strangers, since I can't just whip out the phone during awkward silent moments.

With lack of FOMO, I am also much more present with family and friends, which is probably the biggest benefit.

Getting rid of my smartphone was without a doubt the most positive thing I ever did for myself.

I'm sure some people have the self-control to use it sparingly. But for me, not having to constantly fight the urge to check my always-connected magic pocket internet portal has freed up a huge amount of my mental willpower, which I can now redirect to other more important things.

Now that everything is closed, I don't even miss having the convenience of Uber/Google Maps. Additionally, without social media, I remain blissfully unaware of whatever corona hysteria or political drama is consuming the minds of my peers.

These devices have a veritable legion of engineers working to make the smartphone experience as addictive as possible. For some people, the only winning move it not to play.

(I'm the author of TFA.)

I have never had this issue. Generally the issue is either IP reputation of your server (common with VPS providers if you get a recycled IP of a previous spammer) or your domain name.

Otherwise you are probably just unlucky enough to tickle the spam-prevention mechanisms in the almighty "algorithm" run by $BIGMAILER.

I keep one "normie" email address at a $BIGMAILER for situations like this, but at this point in my life I mostly just shrug if some big advertising/surveillance company's email system won't deliver my mail, I just won't email that person.

Be the change you want to see and all that.

I wouldn’t take this as a representative sample of all men.

In my experience, sharing feelings makes me feel worse and substantially reduces my appeal to others. I prefer to just deal with my problems logically and avoid such navel gazing.

Because email is one of the few edifices left of the truly open internet, and some of us aren’t ready to concede defeat of what was once a free platform to a corporate oligarchy.

I too was a happy user of iCloud keychain for many years. Except one day, I made a new password on my Mac, but even after a few hours it hadn't sync'd to my iPhone.

I followed some instructions and toggled iCloud keychain sync on my iPhone (just turned it off and on) and it proceeded to erase about 250 of my 300 saved passwords. Wasn't able to get to my other devices fast enough to turn off the networking - they had all already been deleted from my Mac, iPad, etc as well.

Spent an entire weekend resetting passwords - never again. I am now a happy Bitwarden user. Even if it eats all my passwords one day, at least it's trivial to export them all to CSV.

Never understood the desire for unions in the tech industry. Thankfully the USA has plenty of right-to-work states.

I should try something like that. Honestly just having the device in eyesight triggers some kind of latent mental FOMO. Removing the option entirely has worked well for me so far.

I still keep an old iPhone for when I know I'll need an Uber or something, but the smartphone isn't a part of my daily life anymore.

It can!