August 11, 2004

The Spam Gourmet. For monkeys that aren't fortunate enough to have a gmail account, there's this alternative. It's a disposable email address that's permanent, if you can wrap your head around that. It requires no effort on your part (today was my first return to the site in over a year, possibly two, and I haven't recieved a single piece of spam since before that). Even if you have a gmail account, there's no sense in filling that gig of storage up with spam.
posted by Mr. Knickerbocker 20 years ago
  • I've used this service for two years and it's EXCELLENT.
  • What makes this such a good idea is that st00pid spammers can't spell "gourmet".
  • Along the same lines, I've been using sneakemail for a month now and I'm very happy with it. Here is how it works: When you're about to give your email, you create a new email address and give that one away. All messages will be rerouted to your genuine (hidden) address, and will be tagged with a description of your choice. Eg, if an email is sent to this address, it will arrive in my mailbox with something like 'from monkeyfilter'. And you can delete any fake email whenever you want, of course. I also use to do something similar when I give my snail mail address away: I always add a hint about where this address comes from. Eg, parcels from amazon are sent to 'forename_amz surname'. So if my address is given/sold to a third party, I will know it. I'm happy to report that it never happened so far.
  • Man, I must be really stupid. I do NOT understand what all the pants-wetting for GMail is all about. (And don't bother trying to explain it to me -- everyone keeps doing that and no one has succeeded.)
  • I do NOT understand what all the pants-wetting for GMail is all about. Some of us quite enjoy the clingy, warm comfort of pissy pants, scartol. You dry-trousered freak.
  • I thought you only got your account yesterday quidnunc, surely not enough time to develop an informed opinion on gmail. I agree with scartol, I can't see what all the fuss is about (although maybe if you have an account the 'pants wetting' makes sense). From what I've read it just sounds like webmail with lots of storage.
  • The interface is what really sells it for me. Emails are grouped by conversation and color-coded, can have multiple labels applied, and are totally searchable. It's really the best interface I've ever seen, and no other webmail does that, as far as I know. The big storage is nice, but is really the least important benefit. And I think quidnunc was arguing in support of warm, snuggly pee-pee pants, not so much for the gmail.
  • I thought you only got your account yesterday quidnunc, surely not enough time to develop an informed opinion on gmail. Luckily for you, Gentleman Loser, my honoured friend and fellow panty-wetter middleclasstool has already enlighted you. Thus I have little need to taunt you about the arid desert of your bone-dry groin, you hydrophobic oddball. *walks off, squelching*
  • Erp ... "enlightened". Oh, shut up :( *squelch*
  • *drinks lemonade, soaks hand in warm water*
  • www.mailinator.net - no registration required. Make up any email address on the spot (whatever @ mailinator.net), give it out, retrieve mail if so desired. Great for quickie registrations, persistent drunks and scalawags.
  • Thus I have little need to taunt you about the arid desert of your bone-dry groin, you hydrophobic oddball. with the weather the way it is at the moment (pouring with rain and hot, or just hot) I can assure you there's nothing bone dry about my groin (or indeed the rest of me). *perspires some more*
  • That's pretty nice. It reminds me a bit of mailinator, but with even less effort involved.
  • I see I was beaten. So much for going off to lunch before hitting "post".
  • That sneakemail is similar, but it requires much more effort. Both spamgourmet and sneakemail will forward the email to your real account, but with sneakemail you have to keep returning to their website every time you want to create a new disposable address. With spamgourmet, you never have to return to their site. You create a new disposable just by making one up. I don't fully get the big deal with gmail either. Maybe it would be different if I had a spam problem. My real email address I only have to clean once every +6 months, gmail would save me that inconvenience, but I would have to go through the trouble of changing my address with all of my contacts. Still, everyone makes a fuss over it, so I guess that I'd probably feel different having a gmail account.
  • I have a gmail account and I don't use it. I just wanted to be one of the "in" crowd. If you find you need to make up addresses frequently, why not host your own domain? Then you'd have total control over which addresses forward mail and which ones are blocked.
  • Geez, doesn't everybody have their own domain name yet? ;) Solves all my e-mail problems. I did get a gmail account just because I could. Maybe it'll be worth something someday. Its web interface is indeed the best I've seen by far. (Keystroke commands on a web page!)
  • I have my own domain, as does EVERYBODY since before this century began (unless you're a big fat loser of course! duh!!!) but sadly, I have used my real email address on both usenet and on my website. Hence I get spammed to death. Well, not quite spammed to death, since Spamassassin is pretty good, and Thunderbird adds another layer of goodness. Spam still makes me cry though.... I cry bitter tears of Ci41is. What the fuck is that shit anyway? And what is a |)3|\|15?
  • I'm using Gmail while I wait to get employment, after which I'm getting my own domain. Gmail's nice for a webmail client, but it doesn't hold a candle to a real mail client. I use Mailshell, which is similar to Sneakemail, for my disposable addresses. I managed to keep my real email address totally spam free for the six years I was here. The problem with Gmail is that the spam filter isn't as good as what I was using before, and, unlike Opera Mail, there's no option that allows it to learn what label goes with what type of email. Gmail would be great for mailing lists, though.
  • I have had the same email address since the late 90s, post it frequently in plain text, and also have other addresses forwarding into it. Spamassassin takes care of almost all my spam -- I get maximum 1 a week in my inbox. However, this is only because I have spent a long time tweaking spamassassin's filters and continue to train the Bayesian plugin, especially whenever it makes a mistake.