Stadia is back on the spotlight and not for their overhype, new games or stopping first-party games, in fact it's due to Terraria now being cancelled due to Google locking the accounts of a developer. This isn't just any developer either, this is coming from Terraria developer Andrew Spinks, who is the founder of Re-Logic.
Spinks wrote a thread on Twitter, highlighting the issue after being locked out of a Google account now for three weeks. That means access has been lost to anything purchased on Google Play, all the data on Google Drive, even the official YouTube account for Terraria cannot be accessed due to all this.
In a follow-up tweet Spinks mentioned that the bridge has been burned and so Terraria for Google Stadia is officially done and cancelled and that Re-Logic will "no longer support any of your platforms moving forward" and in another "I will not be involved with a corporation that values their customers and partners so little. Doing business with you is a liability."
You would think, that if it was coming to Stadia and it was already rated for it by PEGI, that Google would be keeping a close eye on it. Enough to ensure the developer can actually access anything. Apparently not.
A time where Google could really use some good news for Stadia, treating developers like this is clearly not going to go over well with anyone. This will likely put off other developers too, the damage of this happening with such a hugely popular game can't be understated.
It's a shocking reminder that many of us (myself included) rely too heavily one on single provider for multiple things. Personally, I have begun moving from Gmail wherever possible to ProtonMail and might I suggest you try it too. The trouble with Google is they are almost everywhere, I couldn't imagine losing so much and never getting an answer.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: rea987A week ago, I was in a Zoom call with some academicians from Germany
Speaking of relaying heavily on a single provider, it still cringes and scares me to see how quickly Zoom became the go to platform for video conferences.
Quoting: BrisseGood to see all the degoogling advocates here
+1 for Protonmail. I'd like to add https://disroot.org/ and https://tutanota.com/ to the list of the many smaller European alternatives to big tech.
Don't forget Posteo
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I'd still wait for the whole story indeed. I'm not surprised though, crap like this does happen.
Two years ago I was myself locked out of my Google Account for I dunno...about a week maybe?
I've sent them a email basically saying "wtf google?", and they promptly restored it without giving any explanation.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 8 February 2021 at 2:10 pm UTC
Two years ago I was myself locked out of my Google Account for I dunno...about a week maybe?
I've sent them a email basically saying "wtf google?", and they promptly restored it without giving any explanation.
Last edited by dubigrasu on 8 February 2021 at 2:10 pm UTC
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Quoting: psy-qFor those interested in alternatives, Framasoft in France runs a whole bunch of Google-free services, all of which you can also host yourself.
Well, they kind of stopped because the service was originally created to encourage self-hosting, and people were just using their services.
Instead, find a place with a relatively stable internet connection and electricity. Optionally buy a domain name (€ 3-10 depending on the domain). Find an old computer lying around (laptops are nice as they have a battery, and use less power: about 10€/year where I live) and install yunohost on it. Pick the services you need. Enjoy. You can share the services (and costs) with your friends and family, it doesn't take that much maintenance, and you'll be doing a favor to your community.
Having your own domain name is quite liberating, as it allows you to switch providers (be it google, protonmail, another, your private VPS or your own server) if you want to. But self-hosting isn't much harder, and a domain name is one of the most expensive parts.
See this list for a few other services you can host: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted
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OneSubtractOne Feb 8, 2021
This isn't the first time Google has done this weird lock entire accounts thing.
A few years ago they did it to a large number of markiplier fans, because he asked them to spam happy or sad faces in his chat to vote for something or other. When they did as asked, they were banned. Not just from youtube, or from youtube chat, but from the entire google ecosystem. With the same results. Literally just locked out and that was the end of it.
I know a good chunk eventually got reinstated, after Mark made a big deal about it. I don't know if they ever got all of them back. I'm pretty sure google never said a word about it. Just said they were looking into the situation, eventually reinstated some of the accounts, and then just carried on googling.
Putting all your eggs in one basket is a horrible idea. Especially if that basket is run by a whole bunch of people who REALLY don't care about your eggs, so long as MOST eggs are okay.
A few years ago they did it to a large number of markiplier fans, because he asked them to spam happy or sad faces in his chat to vote for something or other. When they did as asked, they were banned. Not just from youtube, or from youtube chat, but from the entire google ecosystem. With the same results. Literally just locked out and that was the end of it.
I know a good chunk eventually got reinstated, after Mark made a big deal about it. I don't know if they ever got all of them back. I'm pretty sure google never said a word about it. Just said they were looking into the situation, eventually reinstated some of the accounts, and then just carried on googling.
Putting all your eggs in one basket is a horrible idea. Especially if that basket is run by a whole bunch of people who REALLY don't care about your eggs, so long as MOST eggs are okay.
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Arehandoro Feb 8, 2021
Email: https://www.posteo.de
Nextcloud: https://www.thegood.cloud
Article vault: https://www.wallabag.it
Password manager: https://bitwarden.com
Comms: https://www.matrix.org (Any client will do, the official is https://element.io/get-started)
Video-conferencing: https://meet.jit.si
External Backups: https://backblaze.com
All of them can be self-hosted too, except Backblaze, but if you lack the time, technical skills, money or simply don't want to worry about backups, configs, etc the above are my favourite providers.
Edit: Posteo itself can't be self-hosted, but a mail server is easily hosted in a VPS. For those cases, https://mailcow.email/ is a very good out-the-box solution. They also provide it as a service.
Last edited by Arehandoro on 8 February 2021 at 2:46 pm UTC
Nextcloud: https://www.thegood.cloud
Article vault: https://www.wallabag.it
Password manager: https://bitwarden.com
Comms: https://www.matrix.org (Any client will do, the official is https://element.io/get-started)
Video-conferencing: https://meet.jit.si
External Backups: https://backblaze.com
All of them can be self-hosted too, except Backblaze, but if you lack the time, technical skills, money or simply don't want to worry about backups, configs, etc the above are my favourite providers.
Edit: Posteo itself can't be self-hosted, but a mail server is easily hosted in a VPS. For those cases, https://mailcow.email/ is a very good out-the-box solution. They also provide it as a service.
Last edited by Arehandoro on 8 February 2021 at 2:46 pm UTC
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Arehandoro Feb 8, 2021
Quoting: DrMcCoyQuoting: TheSHEEEPE-mail wise, I thankfully host my own (or, well, pay a provider to host it for me)
Yes, and then Google just randomly throws half the mails you send to people with gmail accounts into their spam folder, where the recipients never see them...
I have a VPS in Digitalocean running a mail server for over 3 years and didn't really have an issue with that. There is, https://postmaster.google.com where a domain can be included so Gmail validates the authenticity of said domain. With that in place, everything goes to normal inbox.
Having said that, using a provider like some mentioned in the post is more reliable, painless and in most cases cheaper too.
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Everyone knows the level of engineers at Google. And Stadia (and most of Google dead projects) actually worked technically. Those failures, from an external perspective at least, look like a pure management issue.
I mean, literally every influencer and journalist out there warned that Stadia business model was flawed when it was announced. Even if management was borrowed from non gaming world and just did a mistake because of lack of knowledge of their business, by that time were they smart they would have take notice. But no.
Also, since the product is technically valid, I don't understand why they are killing it. Surely they complicated things a lot for themselves but it's not like that VG streaming market is settled. The competition now is really only started.
I can't help though, a part of me still hopes that videogame streaming dies horribly. Even though as an engineer I'm aware that it's just the "natural" evolution of things and it cannot be stopped.
I mean, literally every influencer and journalist out there warned that Stadia business model was flawed when it was announced. Even if management was borrowed from non gaming world and just did a mistake because of lack of knowledge of their business, by that time were they smart they would have take notice. But no.
Also, since the product is technically valid, I don't understand why they are killing it. Surely they complicated things a lot for themselves but it's not like that VG streaming market is settled. The competition now is really only started.
I can't help though, a part of me still hopes that videogame streaming dies horribly. Even though as an engineer I'm aware that it's just the "natural" evolution of things and it cannot be stopped.
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Quoting: MalAlso, since the product is technically valid, I don't understand why they are killing it.That's just Google for you...
Technically valid? Yes.
Can be fixed to be otherwise valid as well? Yes.
Is actually used by people? Yes.
Was an immediate great success and is on a trajectory to the moon? No - cancel it!
Stadia still has yet to be cancelled, of course, but I don't know many people who are very optimistic about it. Which might turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 8 February 2021 at 3:25 pm UTC
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EagleDelta Feb 8, 2021
So, to be fair to Google, after reading about the Sony Music lawsuit against Cox Communications over Cox not enforcing its DMCA policy, I can't blame Google for how they handle this. The whole of how DMCA works is complete crap. Basically, as was seen in the lawsuit against Cox (who is appealing), they didn't completely enforce their DMCA policy against their customers and as such lost the immunity that the DMCA gives them. As such, a Jury found Cox liable for Music piracy by their customers and, as of now, Sony Music has been awarded 1 billion dollars in damages that Cox must pay.
Basically, the way it's written, you either submit to crappy DMCA requests or you face huge liabilities :facepalm:.
Basically, the way it's written, you either submit to crappy DMCA requests or you face huge liabilities :facepalm:.
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There is nothing friendly about google. Behind their clown colors skulks a very wealthy --- and very powerful --- data-mining concern. Whatever they do, they do to collect and collate and profit from people's data. I've only ever used their search engine, and that stopped in 2004 when I first found Scroogle.
Anecdotes and articles like Liam's here are why I've been working for the past month or so climbing a steep learning curve setting up my first smart phone (yes, really), an old Note 4 given me by my father-in-law.
I've hidden all of the google, Samsung, and Verizon software that I couldn't remove or disable, and installed replacement goodies from F-droid, including using the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, Bitwarden password manager, and Tutamail (because they have a desktop client).
Whatever exclusively-Play Store app I want (Steam's app, for example), I'll get via Aurora Store, an anonymizing Play Store client. I'm currently looking into which smart phone I'll buy to be my daily driver based upon which custom ROM I can use; LineageOS or Resurrection Remix being the most likely options).
I feel for Sprinks, I really do. His ordeal is one of my worst nightmares. I can never forget that everything digital is as ephemeral a soap-bubble.
Last edited by Nanobang on 8 February 2021 at 3:48 pm UTC
Anecdotes and articles like Liam's here are why I've been working for the past month or so climbing a steep learning curve setting up my first smart phone (yes, really), an old Note 4 given me by my father-in-law.
I've hidden all of the google, Samsung, and Verizon software that I couldn't remove or disable, and installed replacement goodies from F-droid, including using the DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser, Bitwarden password manager, and Tutamail (because they have a desktop client).
Whatever exclusively-Play Store app I want (Steam's app, for example), I'll get via Aurora Store, an anonymizing Play Store client. I'm currently looking into which smart phone I'll buy to be my daily driver based upon which custom ROM I can use; LineageOS or Resurrection Remix being the most likely options).
I feel for Sprinks, I really do. His ordeal is one of my worst nightmares. I can never forget that everything digital is as ephemeral a soap-bubble.
Last edited by Nanobang on 8 February 2021 at 3:48 pm UTC
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