No, but then I don't get tons of emails. I think this is a benefit of being "older." At 36, most of my friends don't just pop off an email to me every time a thought jumps in to their heads. People my age tend to be a little more reserved with emails, text messages and the like.
I think this is more of a problem of people from a generation younger than mine, and people in certain professions. If someone constantly sent me email after email, eventually I'd tell them to stop or simply spam filter them.
I did this when I switched to Gmail. I had a Hotmail account for about 5 years and the amount of crap that was filling up in it was getting ridiculous. I have a Yahoo account that is used for online purchases and such so all the soliciting emails end up there.
I don't really receive stupid forwards any more, mainly because every time I got a chain letter, or a warning, or something else equally asinine, I would do a reply to all on the message with a link to the snopes.com page that explains how that particular email is bogus, followed by a simple request to stop forwarding this garbage. Either people that sent them to me wised up or stopped including me in their forwards. Either way I'm much happier.
I declared e-mail bankruptcy when I switched from Hotmail to Gmail. Hotmail was just inundated with newsletters, announcements, chain letters, forwards, and most of all, spam.
I couldn't take it, and when I discovered Gmail was starting up a few years ago, I dug around on the Internet for a long time trying to snag an invite from someone. (When Gmail first came out, only a small number of users had an account and each had 5 invitations they could send to whoever else wanted Gmail... you couldn't go and sign up. There was a "Gmail Invite Exchange" that I happened on where people would send you an invite in exchange for just about anything. I sent some guy in India a post card in exchange for my invite. Isn't that cool?).
When I switched, I dumped Hotmail entirely, but I would check up on it once in a while. I told every one of my contacts that I had switched over, but some were still sending to Hotmail... eventually, I stopped check Hotmail entirely and settled into Gmail full time. Best thing I ever did by the way; now I get zero spam in my inbox, and even my spam folder doesn't have much in it. Plus, with 1 GB of space (it's up to 2.8 now) I didn't have to constantly empty it like hotmail, which allowed something like 25 MB. I know both them and Yahoo have upped their capacity since Gmail hit, but that was Google's biggest selling point... never delete an email again. And I don't, because I just archive it and if I never look at it again, fine... but, I can search for any email I've received in the past 3 years. It's pretty nice.
I think, just this year, Gmail has opened for business and no longer requires an invitation. So, I suggest doing what I did and switch over. I got to dump my silly email address I made up when I was 14 for something more professional, and it's really not as life-hassling as you may think to switch to a new email address entirely.
Plus, Gmail really is the greatest thing to happen to email since the @ symbol.
If you're a battery, you're either working or you're dead....
ironman wrote:I did this when I switched to Gmail. I had a Hotmail account for about 5 years and the amount of crap that was filling up in it was getting ridiculous. I have a Yahoo account that is used for online purchases and such so all the soliciting emails end up there.
I don't really receive stupid forwards any more, mainly because every time I got a chain letter, or a warning, or something else equally asinine, I would do a reply to all on the message with a link to the snopes.com page that explains how that particular email is bogus, followed by a simple request to stop forwarding this garbage. Either people that sent them to me wised up or stopped including me in their forwards. Either way I'm much happier.
Amen to that. Snopes has been a Godsend in that respect. I do the same thing, and the amount of bogus e-mail I receive from friends and family has dropped precipitously. It's even got to the point now that people will generally include a link to the Snopes story with the e-mail in order to save on me replying to it.
ironman wrote:I did this when I switched to Gmail. I had a Hotmail account for about 5 years and the amount of crap that was filling up in it was getting ridiculous. I have a Yahoo account that is used for online purchases and such so all the soliciting emails end up there.
I don't really receive stupid forwards any more, mainly because every time I got a chain letter, or a warning, or something else equally asinine, I would do a reply to all on the message with a link to the snopes.com page that explains how that particular email is bogus, followed by a simple request to stop forwarding this garbage. Either people that sent them to me wised up or stopped including me in their forwards. Either way I'm much happier.
Wow, I think I was writing my message as you posted this... bizarre!
If you're a battery, you're either working or you're dead....
knapplc wrote:You don't get spam to your Gmail spam folder? I'll have as much or more spam there as I will with my hotmail account.
Is there something I can do to cut down on all that Gmail spam?
I think he meant that he hardly gets any Spam in his actual Inbox. I don't really pay attention to my Spam folder. It fills up quite a bit, but I just empty it. As long as I don't have to sift through a bunch of Spam in my Inbox I don't really care if my Spam folder gets really full.
knapplc wrote:You don't get spam to your Gmail spam folder? I'll have as much or more spam there as I will with my hotmail account.
Is there something I can do to cut down on all that Gmail spam?
I think he meant that he hardly gets any Spam in his actual Inbox. I don't really pay attention to my Spam folder. It fills up quite a bit, but I just empty it. As long as I don't have to sift through a bunch of Spam in my Inbox I don't really care if my Spam folder gets really full.
Oh, I get plenty of spam in my Gmail spam folder, however I have less in there than I had in my Hotmail inbox. I never even open the folder, everything just sits in there. It seems to be up to nearly 3000 spam messages... if it doesn't empty itself out, that's 3000 messages in three years. Not too shabby IMO.
Also, I have two Gmail accounts; one is a spam account. Anytime I need to sign up for something, I give my spam Gmail. I check it periodically to make sure I'm not missing anything important, but for the most part even that is good at filtering the Spam.
If you're a battery, you're either working or you're dead....
So you guys never cruise through your SPAM folder to double-check that something didn't get misrouted? I do that in both Hotmail and Gmail. Maybe I should stop.
I kind of feel guilty about the Gmail thing. A guy I met for like two hours while on vacation in Paris gave me an invite and now I have an account, but I barely use it. I still use Hotmail as my primary account, mostly because I've had it since 1997 and everyone knows it now. I think it would be a pain in the butt to switch over now.
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