this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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Just a little storytime about Vinted.

I just wanted to register on Vinted to sell some second-hand stuff, because I haven't had much success elsewhere. I would have never imaged that they will reject my addy.io alias. After a couple of annoying e-mails detailing how to register an account, I was left with the answer on the screenshot after trying to get an explanation why the domain I am paying for (not some random free gmail address) is not worthy of their services...

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

The worst part about this is the lack of explanation.

Even if I personally disagreed with their reasoning, I’d appreciate a thought-out, sensible reason, and most likely accept it.

But they’re not even giving you the common courtesy or respect that a simple, clear reason would provide (i.e., “we don’t allow registrations from .io domains, because we see too much hacker shit from that TLD.” Or any explanation, really, would suffice).

“Just because” never sits well with me.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 days ago

My guess is that the agents answering are also not shared any information why some domains are blocked. I would also think that they have no idea what a domain is. Not the chatbots that answered the first couple of mails. :D

[–] mindbleach 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It provides no reliable remedy. Without knowing why this address won't work, you can never be sure the next will work.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago
[–] ItsComplicated 25 points 5 days ago (1 children)

More and more sites are moving away from allowing users access when creating accounts with temporary or alias addresses, and usage with vpns. Identity based accounts can’t be tracked if they don’t know your true identity.

In the not too distant future, everything you do online and off will be connected to your real world identity.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That will drive so many people to IPFS and darknets like Freenet. And with population, businesses will come. You may never be able to access Wells Fargo from it, but there will be options.

Mastodon exploded with the Twitter drama. Lemmy's grown substantially with Reddit fuckery. Neither are exactly mainstream, but you know what? I lived through the time when banks weren't online, and shopping wasn't online, and the internet and the web were much smaller: smaller is in many ways better. Sometimes having just enough, and not everything and everyone, is better.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Yeah there's a beautiful size, Lemmy isn't quite there yet, but it's closer than Reddit is. And hopefully it'll be way harder to enshittify.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

"A beautiful size." I like that. It describes the phenomenon exactly.

Like, Gemini (the protocol) is too small. It's below the threshold is usefulness. I still cross publish (serve) my content in Gemini format, but I never actually browse it anymore.

(Tiny rant) That said, I think Gemini went too far; gmi is smaller than it needs to be, and it was locked down and made immutable prematurely. Client/server interactions need to be a little more complex; I think the extreme simplicity has contributed to its lack of adoption: it's almost impossible to serve a functional and user-friendly search engine with, leading to what's largely a dark network - not intentional dark, but filled with isolated, unreachable nodes and practically no discovery. And with its failure, it shut the door on that solution space. It was popular enough that early adapters who tried it are going to shy away from something Gemini-like, but a little more full-featured. I'm bitter about Gemini; if only Solderpunk had had a little more vision.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I was curious so I tried to register with a Proton Pass alias which is @passmail.net and they also refuse those. I think they are afraid of services which allow to easily create multiple aliases, because people could create multiple accounts very easily (scammers maybe)? It's a dumb rationale because it's not much harder to create many Gmail accounts but that's the only reason I can think of.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Most probably true. It is sad though that they are not straightforward about it so that they send a list of domains they like.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I get that a lot with all kinds of services. Specially digital stuff. And for MMOs it is more common than not.

Recently the Path of Exile game stopped letting me purchase cosmetics because they changed their payment processor and the new one doesn't like my email address.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

Sucks to see something go this way. Recently I was forced to flash stock ROM on an older phone to be able to use revolut, because they cracked down on custom firmwares...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I’ve had a similar experience. They accepted my email on a personal domain with a recent TLD but after about 15 minutes of connecting and browsing, I was banned. I suppose it’s because I had the audacity to use a VPN l, but their response was basically no more helpful— “you violated the T&Cs.”

I haven’t been on Vinted since.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

Oh, the good ol' T&C violation, of course not saying which part... vinted is smashing hard on people not using big tech solutions.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

I know I cannot win this one, but on my last attempt to reason with them, I asked for a list of allowed domains...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If you're using addy.io domains then it's not on a domain you're paying for..

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Alright, not 100% correct, but I am paying for a plan at addy.io and I used my personal "subdomain" at addy.io that I don't want to share here, because it does not matter.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Yeah it sounds like the company is blocking domains they don't understand or something, and not bothering to care that you are an actual person who asked why it was blocked.

I bet they don't block gmail despite 90% of the spam I get coming from @gmail.com addresses.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

I've had the same thing happen for my own personal domain that I run through Addy. Its frustrating because people can't tell what a "good" domain is, so how can you have any rules about it? And if you do, then have a verification system with your customer service team.

But I've always said to myself, if this service won't take my email then I don't really want to be their customer. What else are they going to screw up when I give them my data?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Only thing I could suggest is to make sure your DKIM and SPF stuff is set up right, but that only effects other email servers accepting mail from yours.

[–] ruplicant 1 points 5 days ago

I'm using the website with a SimpleLogin e-mail and through a VPN, for some months, without problem

I did have problems with other websites and they're mounting. Not Vinted though

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Sucks bro. What domains does addy.io hand out? Is it all like [email protected] or do they have different ones with .io TLD?

We definitely need to get more people running NOT @gmail.com. Thank you for your service. 🫡

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

You practically either have the option to use your "subdomain" e.g. [email protected] or if you are fine with random characters, then you can have an address on the main domain e.g. [email protected]. Unfortunately this is not the first provider I see only accepting big tech addresses/accounts...