Well, there goes hotmail.

[The Sigil]

All of this paranoia about e-mail strikes me as a bit funny... but then, I basically keep my Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, and ISP e-mail accounts around for "gaming" and "fun" purposes. Stuff where if someone were to look at it (including the feds) they'd find out that I was acting as commissioner for an online basketball league and got lineups every night. Oohh....

"Business" e-mail? That goes to my own personal webserver on my own personal web domain... and winds up on my hard drive at home. Yes, of course, that can be grabbed with a search warrant, but at least I know who's looking through THAT e-mail - people with physical access to my computer.

--The Sigil

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I abandoned my hotmail account to SPAM a long time ago.

I love gmail.

That was all I had in mine. Bunches of accursed spam. I'd only gotten it to pull a prank on a friend but after that..... I never used it much since then and it went bye-bye due to inactivity.

 

[DaveStebbins]

I think Hotmail's filters improved sometime this past summer. I've been using my account for about seven years and use it for every site where I have to register. I only get a couple junk messages delivered to my inbox per day, compared with over a dozen 'good' messages. I can live with that signal to noise ratio any day. I almost think many SPAMmers ignore Hotmail accounts because they know they won't get through. My work account filter stops two or three times as many messages as end up in Hotmail's junk folder, and I don't give out my work address hardly ever.

-Dave

 

[Starman]

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

Hey, if you've still got an invite, I'd love one. I'm at cosmic_thoughtsAThotmailDOTcom.

Starman

 

[MonsterMash]

I've got some gmail invites left.

Starman - check your hotmail account as I've sent you an invite.

Cheers
MM

 

[Zappo]

I have an email account at my ISP with very good spam filtering, and I use netscape mail with bayesian filtering. Combined, I get very little spam even though I routinely use the address to register anywhere and even post it in clear text on message boards and the like.

However, I have a friend who's just now getting on the internet and is looking for a good email service. I suggested gmail to him, before finding out that it's invite-only for now. If someone wants to help an internet newbie get his first email addy, send an invite to me at filpolo@tin.it (I assume I can register someone else?).

 

[Starman]

I've got some gmail invites left.

Starman - check your hotmail account as I've sent you an invite.

Cheers
MM

Thanks! I've been wanting to get a Gmail account for awhile now.

Starman

 

[Zappo]

About privacy: email isn't safe, no matter the provider. Both the sender and the receiver's providers will store the emails for some time, will (probably) hand them to government or police forces if asked, and have a chance of having dishonest employees.

If you're really concerned about the safety of your emails, do what I did and install a cryptography package. If everyone did it, privacy would be guaranteed and the spam/virus problems would take a good hit, too.

 

[spidertrag]

I've got some gmail invites left.

Starman - check your hotmail account as I've sent you an invite.

Cheers
MM

Hey, if you have any left, I'd like one--my email is NarlethDrider(at)aol(dot)com

thanks (even if u dont have any left)

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Google retains all your personal mail even should you delete your account, they get to keep your private e-mail for as long as they want to keep it on the hard drive.QUOTE]

Don't think for a minute they're the only ones who do this. Not too awfully long ago, I opened my Hotmail box to find hundreds upon hundreds of emails in my inbox... ALL of which I'd deleted over a year before. Evidently, during a system restore of some sort, old emails from my account were "put back". Those had to come from somewhere!