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| Time:
14:18 EST/19:18 GMT | News Source:
ActiveWin Editorial |
Posted By: Robert Stein |
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Hotmail has been the subject of a large amount of media controversy and negative spin as of late. As a long time Hotmail user I have been severely perturbed by the comments that a number of news services have taken from the "public". I'm not saying that these consumers who have a problem with paying for email are anti-Microsoft, I'm just saying they are ill informed.
My first subject for discussion is the 2MB limit, which has been in effect for several years now. At one time, when you exceeded your file limit, you were sent a nice email from Hotmail Member Services telling you to delete some messages. IF you didn't comply your oldest messages were deleted. The only difference since they launched their pay service (of which I am a subscriber) is that you can't receive any mail until you delete messages from your inbox. While this can be annoying it shouldn't be too difficult to prevent this from happening. Even in the case of the "Junk Mail froze me out of Hotmail," it is avoidable and better than the wholesale deletion of your old messages.
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#1 By
IntelliMoo (126 Posts)
at
4/1/2002 2:38:16 PM
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Well, for a long time I've been using hotmail as my primary mail (that is, as my main contact address), but really just for receiving newsletters (mailing lists). I figured hotmail would be one mail system that would never "go away" and be reliable enough because it's owned by rich Microsoft. But now, hotmail is such a spam magnet, it's just too much to put up with anymore, and I decided to finally get everything I use off my hotmail account and never use it again (just keeping it active enough to not lose the mail name since it is my main passport sign-in). Too bad another good net thing has to be put to sleep.
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#2 By
vbtwo (88 Posts)
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4/1/2002 2:47:21 PM
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Set your junk mail setting to "Exclusive" and add all of your newsletters to the Safe List, all other messages will go to the Junk Mail folder.
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#3 By
JaggedFlame (2581 Posts)
at
4/1/2002 2:47:51 PM
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Whoa. I go to activewin.com, and I see "ActiveWin Editorial." Freaky. ;)
Anyway, I think this will clear up some of the misconceptions about Hotmail, although a few will still be issues.
Hotmail is only a spam magnet if you let it be one. I haven't seen any of my friends get attacked the way the people in the news stories have... if you're careful about your address, I don't think spam is much of a problem. If you do get some, just ignore it, and usually it eventually goes away.
I think it's clear and streamlined when you use it in Outlook... it acts just like any other IMAP inbox (I really hate POP3, although it would be useful if Hotmail used a standardized format so other programs could take advantage of it). It's free, easy to access, and easy to use; I don't know what else you would want from an e-mail service.
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#4 By
OpenZine (49 Posts)
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4/1/2002 3:01:31 PM
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Please, $20 a YEAR is nothing.
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#5 By
AW_James (18 Posts)
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4/1/2002 3:07:38 PM
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I probably should have said something in my little note up there but better late than never. I would like to state for the record that I am very happy with the service I recieve from my paid Hotmail account. It should also be noted that this $20 a year makes you a paid MSN Subscriber which allows you to use other devicess which previously costed more (such as the MSN companion, which was $10 a month with use an ISP). Since I'm on a broadband connection at home that isn't MSN I'm aving about $80 a year on the Companion in my living room (My GF has a paid accountas well.)
Just a few more thoughts.
james
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#6 By
Anonymous (64.253.108.241)
at
4/1/2002 3:13:24 PM
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JaggedFlame's right, it'll only be a total spam magnet if you let it. I have one Hotmail account that I use for buying things online, or when I have to register at a website. It gets a pretty good amount of spam. But I just checked another account that I use for ActiveState and Microsoft listservs, and it's received 2 spams on the 29th, 7 on the 30th, 4 on the 31st, and 4 so far today. My *real* email account already has 5 spams so far today, and I *never* give this thing out to potential spammers or use it online. I'm pretty sure I get on the lists from my "friends" sending me things like online Easter Cards or other things they think I'll like. Gee, thanks guys. So basically, I'm not going to bitch at Hotmail too much when I'm getting more spam in my regular non-freemail mailbox, despite zealously guarding that address from everybody but my friends.
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#7 By
Anonymous (64.253.108.241)
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4/1/2002 3:28:06 PM
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Just to clarify, I (#6) meant to point out that those numbers reflect the amount of spam I ever see, that is, which doesn't get caught by the Hotmail spam filters, which I leave set on High (not exclusive). I checked the junk mail folder and it seems like it catches about 10-15 spams per day. But since I never have to see it: Out of sight, out of mind.
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#8 By
Anonymous (66.130.17.180)
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4/1/2002 5:12:02 PM
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I have a good trick for not being SPAMMED!!!
Since i change my hotmail address to my new technic I have had no junk mail at all. I am just a little bit woried that giving my technic away will have spammers fixing their algorythm and therefore I will start receiving junk mail...
Should I share with you guys???
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#9 By
IntelliMoo (126 Posts)
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4/1/2002 5:26:18 PM
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OK, true, hotmail is only a spam magnet if you let it, in the sense that you don't have to look at the junk that slips through all the filters, block list, etc.. But come on, it's still too much effort! My block list and safe list have like 50 entries each; I do use High for the junk filter, but I have to use delayed deletion because sometimes "real" stuff goes there by mistake, so everyday you do still have to look through many headers in the junk folder to make sure you don't miss anything important; even with the setting on High and extensive lists AND filters set up (and the filters are maxed out here--wish ms allowed use of wildcards!), some dirty spams STILL get to the inbox... So while the tools provided do indeed help, the amount to put up with is still pretty annoying IF you want to make sure any possibly important messages are not missed. I can only imagine that if I removed all filters and the list entries, it would be like 50+ spams a day instead of the current 10-20! Oh yeh.. I do stay listed in the hotmail member directory so other people can find me, which is probably the major cause of all the spam --That's just a damn shame that has to be then. :/
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#10 By
Anonymous (66.130.17.180)
at
4/1/2002 6:24:34 PM
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As you all know alot of spammers uses the dictionnary recognition technic to send junk mail... often they add the incremental value at the end to cover people who uses numbers in their mail address...
what i do as a format is this "firstname_lastname@hotmail.com" BUT i remove every voyels from my name so it would give something like this "frstnm_lstnm@hotmail.com"... this way it is very easy to remember and cannot be applied to a dictionnary algorythm... i am telling you it works, i get 0 (zero) junk mail a day... :-)
and of course i am not the the hotmail member directory.
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#11 By
Anonymous (4.46.69.90)
at
4/1/2002 6:54:09 PM
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I have had Hotmail since long before it was a MS porduct.. I get all the email I want and none of the spam because the only ones that can send me email have to be in my address book. I too would pay the $20 not because it is right but because I have had the same email address for such a long time.
I just hope it doesn't come to pay only as many others are doing now.
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#12 By
sk858 (76 Posts)
at
4/1/2002 7:02:44 PM
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I discovered Hotmail long before MS ever bought them. I set up an account using my first and lastname@hotmail.com. I never had any problem with spam back then, but then again, the spammers weren't as active as they are now.
Once MS bought them, I started receiving HUGE amounts of spam. I don't blame MS at all for this, but it was an unfortunate side effect of being bought by MS. It became a target at that point. I had to abandon that Hotmail address altogether. In the meantime, I set up a Yahoo mail account.
I haven't had a problem with spam at all with my Yahoo mail account. I enjoy its POP access (which they are now charging for) and its tight integration with the Yahoo web site, but I do wish they used a IMAP server.
I avoided signing up for another Hotmail account until relatively recently. I did not like the first redesign MS did to the Hotmail web site (the one prior to this one). It was too simplistic for my tastes. I do like the new redesign though. Also, Hotmail lacked strong spam filtering tools until about a year or so back. Their new spam filtering tools are much better, however it still lets more spam through than Yahoo unless you set the filter level to "exclusive." When I signed up for my new Hotmail account, I made sure I chose a user ID that would not be easy to for spammers to guess, and this has made a HUGE difference as well.
I really like Hotmail's integration with MSN Explorer and Outlook, although reading Hotmail in Outlook Express still leaves something to be desired. In regards to the new, premium extra storage service, $20 a year is relatively cheap, but I don't like Hotmail's "lock the account" policy. Many Hotmail users (like my Mom) are not familiar enough with filters to know how to change to "exclusive" or what to do to put mailing lists or addresses on a safe list. I feel that this new policy takes advantage of people like her.
Bottom line, Hotmail is a very capable and full feature e-mail client IF you know how to use it. I would probably have it as my primary e-mail address if I had not already set-up my account with Yahoo.
Just my 2 cents...
This post was edited by sk858 on Monday, April 01, 2002 at 19:10.
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#13 By
Anonymous (24.77.112.90)
at
4/2/2002 11:19:59 AM
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I just find it funny that you can create a hotmail account (that's not listed in the directory) and give your email address out to no one (i.e. just let it sit for a month) and yet still receive spam within your inbox. Yes, spam is a reality in this day and age for those who actively use and give out their email address but if you never give out your email address, that is a load of crock. This tells me that either Hotmail is allowing these global broadcast messages or their system is inadequately designed which allows spammers to broadcast their messages too easily.
As for those who have Hotmail with the "Exclusive" setting, yes this is a good way to use it (and the way I used it before I dumped my account). However, let's put it another way. A Hotmail account is useless unless you specifically set it to "Exclusive".
What I find even more hilarious is the promoting of the MSN Browser with Hotmail geared towards kids. Ya, I'm really going to let my kids (if I had them) use a default Hotmail account with all its porn related spam and so forth. Wish someone would make a spoof MSN ad that showed a 10 year old boy getting porn mail in his Hotmail inbox. "You've got porn!" Now that would be hilarious!
In a nutshell, the realities of the Hotmail system (even with the current workarounds that people have come up with) still point the finger back at the company for its broad acceptance of spam (either intentionally or unintentionally). It practices such as this that make people leave to look elsewhere (i.e. I'm not going to let my kids use Hotmail because of the companies allowance of broadcast porn spam.). Heck, if I'm going to have to pay for a service, I'd rather pay a company who is going to treat me like a "person" instead of a "stupid consumer".
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#14 By
Anonymous (128.146.24.173)
at
6/21/2002 3:05:48 PM
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I have had the same problems as 13. Even with my spam filter set to exclusive, I now get tons of spam. Before the pay service the exclusive filter used to work pretty well, but since then I get tons of spam. I reported this to MSN since none of the spam mail is in my address book, but I guess you already have figured that I have gotten no response. This kind of deception should be reported in the news.
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#15 By
BGates (3 Posts)
at
9/25/2002 5:02:42 PM
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This comment has been removed due to a violation of the Active Network Terms of Use.
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#16 By
benjstarratt (2 Posts)
at
7/9/2004 4:05:27 PM
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My hotmail account is set to exclusive, but I have found that adding the major ISPs to the white list works very well. So in my white list I have @aol.com @yahoo.com @hotmail.com @rocketmail.com, etc. I suspect MS must verify that email coming with spoofed suffixes from the major domains through some sort of business partner arrangement. I was getting the hundreds of crap emails before and now I get maybe one a day. In addition, nearly any of my friends with free accounts can still email me with no work on my part.
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at
12/16/2008 9:01:48 PM
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at
12/23/2008 1:51:56 PM
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