I'm still around Edwin's forums. I just don't get to check in very much.

With Computermail.net growing by leaps and bounds, we are all a little busy here. We have even recruited some help from outside the family! As long as cash reserves are intact and income still exceeds payroll and expenses, we will still be around.

2002 has been very good to us! I wish to thank all the email services that have closed down or gone for-fee and continue to drive a steady flow of kind, desireable subscribers to Computermail.net.

I still don't see Computermail.net in the directory....

SnapperMail (e-mail client publisher)

spl.at (and despite the Austrian registration, this provider appears to be based in London)...

HotPOP Is Here
 

I know it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but I figured I'd "officially" accounce that HotPOP is here.

Since there are a number of sites represented here, would there be a possibility for a forum (limited to provider representatives) to post important news about the various services? My reason for asking is that the main directory doesn't seem to get updated very often any more.

It's easy to see that Emailaddresses.com is a valuable tool for both email users and providers, and I think this would be a very beneficial enhancement to the site.

Eric Savage

Hi Eric,

I think this is a great idea. I'd like to know what's going on at HotPop and other companies too. I use Hotpop and don't know when there are updates, etc.

I wonder if Edwin would let you start a thread and post updates in that thread all the time. You could just amend to that thread when you have new news.

Lisa

One of the latest members of this forum is mailandnews.* (I uspect that their membership might be my fault — sorry, doing).

I second this — Steve Pierce of MailAndNews.* has already started such a thread for his service...

Here's an idea that's really off the top of my head i.e. I have only just thought of it...

What about a forum that only email providers can post to, where a provider can buy their own thread for an annual fee of (e.g.) US$25. They would then be able to use it to post updates and news about their service at a predefined frequency (e.g. max 4 updates per month)

The token fee would stop the forum being buried in 500 threads as every co-branded site under the sun descends en masse to post about their service. (Think of it as a low quality-control hurdle combined with a chance for providers to contribute to the upkeep of the Forum)

The posting frequency cap would make sure that providers didn't just keep "bumping" their own threads to the top of the forum.

Finally, there would of course be additional rules required e.g. providers are only allowed to post about developments to their OWN service in that forum, and they would only be allowed to post "news" e.g. a post saying "Hey, check us out..." wouldn't count.

I'm going out on a limb a bit by outlining the above on this thread in "raw" form i.e. before I've had a chance to think through the ramifications in detail - but I'd be very interested in all feedback.

I think it's a good idea Edwin. It would also be convenient to normal users like myself if we can see the updates on services right at EMD.


I suggest you give it a trial run to see what everyone's reactions are:)

That might work, but my first reaction is that there is unlikely to be enough serious email providers around for it to be worth your while setting it up... Although there's a lot of providers listed at emailaddresses.com, I bet only a dozen or so are serious enough about email to get involved in such a scheme.

Although I think Mr. Howard's thoughts are on-point, I think the time spent in setting up such a forum would be a wise investment on the part of the forum. $25 would be a fair "gating factor" (combined with a little human intervention).

Also, would it be possible to have registered provider representatives to be noted as such on any posts in other forums? I haven't seen it yet, but it could be problematic if someone posed as a representative when answering questions.

That too is a good idea; both I (more than once!) and lux have been mistaken for official FastMail.FM representatives...

i use mail.vu, mostly for mandatory registrations, where I expect to get some spam. they dont offer much web space, nor filters, but I do have an acct there for free...
(after usa.net got taken over... :mad: )

Wrong thread/forum
 

Dear fearless,

Sorry, but this thread is about e-mail services that have representatives participating in these forums. If you like mail.vu, post about it in the "Favorite free e-mail" thread. :)

Best wishes,
David P.

Regarding the $25 fee for a service-specific forum, what would the fairness of this be compared to Fastmail and Runbox that currently have their own sub-forum categories on here?

Would these other providers be in the same category heading?

Email Service Provider-Specific Forums

Or would there be a new category for service providers that want to pay the $25 annual fee to have a sub-forum on EMD.

I think it's a good idea, but the category above that contains only Runbox and Fastmail could become quite cluttered if many other services were added. Therefore, I'd suggest a link for Email Service Provider-Specific Forums and place all the email service providers under that heading as sub-forums.