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Email Comments, Questions and Miscellaneous Share your opinion of the email service you're using. Post general email questions and discussions that don't fit elsewhere. |
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4 Nov 2012, 07:08 PM | #1 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 153
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Why would I want to use pobox.com?
I don't understand what problem their service solves. I used to use forwarders and disposables like sneakemail to hide my "real" address, and as spam control, back in the day when anti-spam wasn't so good. Now that many services have things like plus addressing, aliases, and subdomain addressing, along with passable anti-spam, I dropped my forwarders entirely and receive emails directly at my provider. Much simpler to manage one site rather than two, and I still hardly get any spam.
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4 Nov 2012, 10:42 PM | #2 |
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 4
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I'm currently asking myself the same question. I'm thinking of moving from Google Apps/Gmail to Polarismail, and thought about using Pobox.com as an intermediary service in case I wanted to move again. However I will be using my custom domain so could simply change my MX records over to the new email tool, so why pay for Pobox? Many people have said that they found Pobox useful when switching their ISP, but I fail to see what benefit Pobox would provide in that situation. Pobox does spam filtering, but so do most email providers these days.
Pobox has been profitable for 14 years, so surely there must be a use for it? |
4 Nov 2012, 11:34 PM | #3 |
Ultimate Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Canada.
Posts: 10,355
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Unlike many companies (domain name registrars etc) Pobox's forwarding is dead solid perfect.
Though they now offer many other features (besides forwarding) they have advanced their forwarding technique to a level beyond what any other company has been able to offer. IMHO. Pobox are not a flash in the pan either. |
5 Nov 2012, 01:21 AM | #4 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 2,281
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5 Nov 2012, 11:51 AM | #5 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Macao
Posts: 2,160
Representative of:
tls-mail.com |
I also don't think we have the need to use a pobox account in today.
If you have a domain, then google apps, live domains, zoho domains email are all free for you. if you don't own a domain, then many free mails have the forwarding feature, i.e., gmail, hotmail, yahoo (in some countries), gmx, zoho and many others. |
5 Nov 2012, 12:02 PM | #6 |
Ultimate Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Canada.
Posts: 10,355
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6 Nov 2012, 04:31 AM | #7 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 155
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There is perhaps less of a need for the pobox service now that many people control their own domains and can reconfigure mx servers quite easily. However, pobox forwarding (which allows for multiple redundant recipients) has been extra-ordinarily reliable over very many years and by surpasses that of any other email service I've ever come across. I'm sticking with them!
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6 Nov 2012, 03:44 PM | #8 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 812
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Yes, really it is very useful service.
Don't see it just as forwarding address only, it is your permanent address too. Like I gave this address to my friend during my education. but I bought my domain later on. than later I bought business domain. but still old friends are using same email and no need to send reminder than my address is changes. even it is good for newsletter subscription too. it is not too costly, it is worth of money. |
6 Nov 2012, 04:07 PM | #9 | |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Macao
Posts: 2,160
Representative of:
tls-mail.com |
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6 Nov 2012, 04:11 PM | #10 |
Cornerstone of the Community
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 812
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6 Nov 2012, 05:43 PM | #11 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 155
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6 Nov 2012, 05:54 PM | #12 |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 441
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7 Nov 2012, 04:11 AM | #13 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 155
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Well, I don't have any statistics to back up what I've said. And the comparison would be unfair as gmail is a relative newcomer so hasn't had a chance to establish the track record of pobox.
I use pobox to forward to both fastmail and gmail currently. As far as I can tell pobox forwarding has never failed for any noticeable period since the mid 1990s. Both fastmail and gmail (and the other email services I've used previously) have gone down occasionally, but fortunately never at the same time, which means that I've never had any noticeable downtime in nearly 20 years. |
7 Nov 2012, 09:18 AM | #14 |
The "e" in e-mail
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Macao
Posts: 2,160
Representative of:
tls-mail.com |
pobox and AOL let people think the internet is old of age.
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7 Nov 2012, 05:34 PM | #15 | |
Essential Contributor
Join Date: Dec 2011
Posts: 441
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