Well, there goes hotmail.

[RangerWickett]

You know that place where I do all my business on the internet: my email account? Yeah, well, the landlord repossessed all my stuff.

I was just checking my email, reading a message someone had sent me with an article proposal for the ENWorld Gamer, and when I went to my inbox, it was empty. 72 messages, gone, including some that I was just about to reply to, which I'd waited a few weeks on because I was busy. They're just gone.

I'm hoping Hotmail is just transfering my account, and that the files will come back soon, with a larger account size. Who knows, though.

 

[Dimwhit]

Ya know, I know it's not totally proven yet, but I'd recommend switching to gmail. It's incredibly slick for web-based email, and they're still adding features. Just a thought. My gut reaction is to slam hotmail, but I've never actually used it, so I really don't know how good a service it is. But I've used gmail for a few weeks, and I'm quite happy with it.

 

[Truth Seeker]

You know that place where I do all my business on the internet: my email account? Yeah, well, the landlord repossessed all my stuff.

I was just checking my email, reading a message someone had sent me with an article proposal for the ENWorld Gamer, and when I went to my inbox, it was empty. 72 messages, gone, including some that I was just about to reply to, which I'd waited a few weeks on because I was busy. They're just gone.

I'm hoping Hotmail is just transfering my account, and that the files will come back soon, with a larger account size. Who knows, though.

Hey, if you spent more than 30 days not checking the mail on a regular basis, they will close it up. I honestly don't know about you getting your files back from that...I believe they stated, non-actively, non-returnable on file deletion.

And if it is not that...then, the error is on them.

 

[RangerWickett]

It fixed itself. It was just a very unnerving glitch, I guess.

I don't trust GMail. In fact, the 'stock' of Google worries me. I mean, they only really offer web-searching, and I don't see them talking about expanding into new areas, or offering new services. How do they make money to make their stock worth anything? It's far too speculative for me to want to entrust my email to them.

 

[Kesh]

I've been using Gmail for about two weeks now. Love it. It's one of the most flexible webmail accounts I've ever seen.

 

[MonsterMash]

I now have hotmail, gmail and yahoo mail - hedgeing my bets there.

 

[Vigilance]

It fixed itself. It was just a very unnerving glitch, I guess.

I don't trust GMail. In fact, the 'stock' of Google worries me. I mean, they only really offer web-searching, and I don't see them talking about expanding into new areas, or offering new services. How do they make money to make their stock worth anything? It's far too speculative for me to want to entrust my email to them.

From what I understand Google makes money off of advertising (when you do a search, related items show up on the right hand side that Google is paid to place there).

Google also makes money through what they call "search optimization" which basically means you can pay them to show up on the first page of a certain search.

So not only can you show up higher on the list if you pay their consultants for this service, but you can strive to show up high in the most common search string for your business.

So a 3rd party company might want to show up really high when someone types "3rd party fantasy rpg" or some such.

Note you dont HAVE to pay them to show up high, but optimization guarantees it.

Anyway, you've exhuasted what very little I know about their business model, except to say that they have quite substantial and real earnings that are driving the price up, so I wouldn't expect them to "poof" anytime soon.

Chuck

 

[GlassJaw]

I don't trust GMail

You don't trust it? What does that mean? Do you trust them less than Microsoft?

 

[berdoingg]

Gmail seems good to me

I'm about three months into using Gmail and it works really well. I've got a few invites left if anyone wants one.

It would be daft to expect that Google are doing this out of the kindness of their hearts, but they're certainly not going to be any more power hungry or money grabbing than the owners of Hotmail, for example.

I like the way you can organise your mail by conversation, and apply labels to emails for archiving. It's really clever. Plus in the three months I've been using it I'm only up to 2% of my limit and haven't deleted a thing.

I guess the real lesson is that if it's important you should keep a backup. *sets off hypocrisy alarm*

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Yeah, if you've waited 30 days between sign ins, it's gone gone gone. I don't know if that's the case where you're concerned, though. Hotmail, like any of the freemail services, isn't perfect. I've had a Hotmail account since they were brand new, and for the most part have had little trouble with it. I have begun to switch to gmail for all my personal emails, as my Hotmail address has been around long enough to be a dumping ground for spam, but I do plan to keep the account open...it's almost a habit, now.

When they upgraded my account, and the accounts of others I know, our files didn't disappear. I suspect something else has happened, and I sympathize with the loss of your files. Hope it all works out of for you.