[APP][5.0+] FairEmail - Fully featured, open source, privacy oriented email app

[nadir husain]

Hi Marcel,
It is sad, that you are discontinuing the project as there is nothing like FairMail. However I understand and support your decision. Working with Google is incredibly frustrating and you have to deal with every whim they have with no way to defend yourself. While I would love to see FairMail maintained I don't want the person behind it to feel shackled by it.

I know first hand how frustrating working with Google is. They make random decisions, do stupid API changes and more ****. In theory Android is open, but thats not really true, because if you want to go outside the Google bubble, you either have to be in China or reach only a tiny audience. For developers who do it mostly because they want to, it becomes work rather than a hobby. I maintained an open-source app myself and over time I spent more time just updating it for newer Android version than developing anything new. I ended up burnt out and basically switched to maintenance mode only.

I hope the legacy of FairMail will continue in the future in someway. Once you take some time from this, please give another thought to the future of FairMail. It's fine if your decision stays the same, but sometimes time is enough to give you another perspective and maybe find a new way forward, even if you are not the one who maintains it. You put so much work into it that I think it would be a shame just let it collect virtual dust.

I wish you the best of luck on whatever you decide to do next. Thank you for creating FairMail in the first place. It's obvious it took a lot of work and passion to create it.

Beautifully written

 

[SethGeckoXDA]

The balance

The few euros I receive in return for what's being offered and the fun of developing things are no compensation for the thousands of questions I answer every month, for unfair Play store reviews and for stress about unclear Google requirements.

Core problem

Google. There is no sensible way to appeal in case of bad reviews or alleged violations of Play store policies.

People. They are generally pretty demanding and on the other hand everything should be free.

Myself. An old and grumpy developer, who maybe should retired.

Some suggestions for the People part:
- first-level-support: instead of answering thousands of questions yourself, redirect them to a support thread on XDA where users can help users.
- community managers: find volunteers to help you with bug triaging (e.g. via Issue Templates on GitHub) and PlayStore review handling. You would only have to deal with actual bugs and reasonable feature requests from there on.

This might shield you from negative people and let you do what you love: focus on writing excellent apps.

Thanks for the many hours you have put into this!

 

[mrrocketdog]

goodbye marcel , i hope life is good to you & your lady friend and your families.
dave

p.s. if ever in america come on by. plenty of room and food (seriously)

 

[nadir husain]

goodbye marcel , i hope life is good to you & your lady friend and your families.
dave

I will never say bye to Marcel! I will keep using his app and keep hounding him via email
He has always been kind enough to respond to me and knowing him he always will. Kind and gentle man!

 

[M66B]

There is a mini FAQ here now:

https://faircode.eu/faq.html

Please let me know if you have other questions and I will consider adding them.

 

[mrrocketdog]

I will never say bye to Marcel! I will keep using his app and keep hounding him via email
He has always been kind enough to respond to me and knowing him he always will. Kind and gentle man!

of course i will also continue using FE. and , of course i will honor and support his decision. just saying

 

[borisSweden]

I won't be coming back, sorry.

Then we will switch to K9 Mail. Open source and PGP setup is easier.

 

[M66B]

A reminder why I did stop:

Link

I need to add to this that I also received a lot of friendly messages the past days. Unfortunately, there were some rather unfriendly messages too.

 

[M66B]

Then we will switch to K9 Mail. Open source and PGP setup is easier.

K9 mail uses OpenKeychain too, so there is not much difference.

Anyway, it gives me the never-good-enough feeling, confirming my choice.

 

[nadir husain]

A reminder why I did stop:

Link

I need to add to this that I also received a lot of friendly messages the past days. Unfortunately, there were some rather unfriendly messages too.

That is terrible! What kind of sadistic human beings push down a man who is not having the best day if his life?

 

[M66B]

That is terrible! What kind of sadistic human beings push down a man who is not having the best day if his life?

Besides that my girlfriend is sick (there seems to be improvement today), I am not unhappy, Nadir.

 

[nadir husain]

Besides that my girlfriend is sick (there seems to be improvement today), I am not unhappy, Nadir.

Glad to hear she is better

 

[M66B]

Google's response of today:

Thanks for your reply.

We understand the inconvenience this may cause and we appreciate your patience and understanding.

I see your app, FairEmail, privacy aware email (eu.faircode.email), was resubmitted earlier and has been approved.

However, it seems that you are using "Managed Publishing" for submitting your app. To make your app live on the Play Store, please make sure to select the "Review and publish" button in your Play Console. Please note that when you select "Review and publish" and confirm that you want to publish, your changes will be available and visible to Google Play users.

You can visit our help center for more information about managed publishing.

Thanks for working with us to fix the policy issues and for your support of Google Play.

Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

My "level 4" response:

Yes, I made random changes, just like the time before, which means that the app can be rejected or removed at any time again. Therefore I want to know why exactly the app was rejected.

I am reminding you once more that you are required to answer in an individualised manner and drafted in plain and intelligible language, as required by EU regulation 2019/1150 article 11.1c

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32019R1150#d1e1069-57-1

You still haven't been 100% transparent and told what exactly is or was wrong. This is without doubt unfair business practice according to the referenced regulation.

I am requesting once more to tell me what exactly is wrong. If you can't, you should escalate to someone who can.

 

[de_Wolf]

A reminder why I did stop:

Link

I need to add to this that I also received a lot of friendly messages the past days. Unfortunately, there were some rather unfriendly messages too.

I can't open the link -> The requested URL was not found on this server.

 

[M66B]

That is terrible! What kind of sadistic human beings push down a man who is not having the best day if his life?

Another question: the app is not available in the Play store anymore. How is it possible that people can write reviews?

 

[nadir husain]

Another question: the app is not available in the Play store anymore. How is it possible that people can write reviews?

 

[M66B]

I can't open the link -> The requested URL was not found on this server.

The link works fine for me.

 

[de_Wolf]

The link works fine for me.

The problem is probably because I am calling the Play Store URL from Germany.

 

[M66B]

Keep hitting at my sensitive places and the chance for return will only be slimmer.

Link. (1 star German Play store review)

 

[La_Globule]

Another question: the app is not available in the Play store anymore. How is it possible that people can write reviews?

Marcel,
From the Play Store app on the phone on which FE is installed from Github, I managed to modify my review. So I suppose it's the right way...