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         LittleBITS: Unlocking the Commons and Extending the Gmail App

   Adam Engst

   Now and then, I encourage a reader to ask for help in [1]TidBITS Talk
   because I don't know the answer to their question, and they express
   surprise that they've been reading TidBITS for years without ever
   checking out TidBITS Talk. It's perhaps unsurprising'many people
   interact with TidBITS solely via email, where they wouldn't see the
   TidBITS Talk-hosted article comments that follow each article on the
   Web. (That said, every article in the email issue does have a comment
   counter at the top so you can see the extent to which the article is
   being discussed.)

   To give you an idea of the popularity of TidBITS Talk, it's currently
   receiving about 1300 posts per month and garnering about 220,000 page
   views each month. That may sound overwhelming, but the Discourse
   software does a good job of showing logged-in users what's new and
   relevant. Even still, the best bits are often individual posts hidden
   within larger threads, and two of those are what I want to share today.

TidBITS Memberships Help 'Unlock the Commons'

   Thanks to [2]Eng Aun Chen on TidBITS Talk for linking to the insightful
   essay '[3]Unlocking the Commons' by Tim Carmody at Neiman Lab. In it,
   he points out that some sites fund themselves much like we do with
   [4]TidBITS memberships, where donations are voluntary and enable
   TidBITS to remain free for everyone. But why do people contribute under
   such a model? He writes:

     Fans support the person and the work. But it's not a transaction, a
     fee for service. It's a contribution that benefits everyone.
     Free-riders aren't just welcome; free-riding is the point. This, I
     think, is key to understanding the psychology of patronage'¦.

     I don't just want my money to buy an object; I want it to support
     institutions and individuals I like, and I want it to support the
     common good'¦.

     This is one of the weird things about patronage. As a consumer, your
     first thought is to your own benefit. As a patron, it's to the good
     of your beneficiary. Likewise, as an artisan supported by patronage,
     you tend to think more about what's best for your patrons and
     audience than you do yourself.

   Well put, and Carmody's pull quote nicely sums up the underlying
   motivation that I hear from many TidBITS members:

     The most powerful and interesting media model will remain raising
     money from members who don't just permit but insist that the product
     be given away for free.

Gmail iOS App Supports Non-Gmail Accounts

   In the 'I Didn't Know That!' category for the week, [5]Doug Miller
   mentioned on TidBITS Talk that the Gmail iOS app now supports non-Gmail
   email accounts. I've tried a bunch of email apps on the iPhone over the
   years, but none have stuck for me other than Gmail. I don't like
   waiting for email to load in Apple's Mail, it was too easy to mark
   messages as read in Spark (so I wouldn't see them on my Mac later), and
   all the other email apps I've tried have suffered from one problem or
   another.

   I don't personally have any use for this feature since I forward mail
   from all my extra accounts to my main Gmail account, but many people do
   need to check multiple accounts and might prefer to do that in the
   Gmail app. The process turned out to be easy, with a few caveats.
     * Whenever I use an iCloud account for email, I prefer the mac.com
       domain variant. However, both that and the me.com domains threw a
       'Couldn't open connection server' error, whereas icloud.com worked.
     * When I tried to set up an iCloud account, the Gmail app required
       that I create an app-specific password for it. It links you to the
       [6]Apple ID site, and the process isn't difficult, but it's a
       somewhat fussy extra step.

   Here's what the process looks like'click the screenshots to expand
   them.

   Interestingly, screenshots now automatically refuse to display the
   contents of password fields, even when the password characters have
   been replaced by bullets.

   In very limited testing, it seems as though everything I'm accustomed
   to in the Gmail app works with an iCloud account much as it does with
   Gmail, with several exceptions:
     * Since we're talking about IMAP here, you won't have the
       instantaneous sync of a Gmail account. The default sync frequency
       is 15 minutes and is configurable for longer times. You can always
       use pull-to-refresh when you're at the top of a mailbox list to
       load new messages.
     * Note that the Gmail app stores only a user-defined range of email
       from 1 to 90 days (the default is 30). Older messages won't appear
       when you're browsing, but searches occur on the server and do find
       messages that aren't stored locally.

   

References

   Visible links
   1. https://talk.tidbits.com/
   2. https://talk.tidbits.com/t/tidbits-needs-your-continued-support-in-2022/17430/8?u=ace
   3. https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/01/unlocking-the-commons/
   4. https://tidbits.com/membership/benefits/
   5. https://talk.tidbits.com/t/has-apple-mail-become-a-bit-messy/17363/9?u=ace
   6. https://appleid.apple.com/

   Hidden links:
   7. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/12/Gmail-additional-accounts-2.jpg
   8. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/12/Gmail-additional-accounts-1.jpg
   9. https://tidbits.com/wp/../uploads/2021/12/Gmail-additional-accounts-3.jpg

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