Posted on 10/16/2002 8:07:35 PM PDT by JameRetief
Daily Hotmail at it again
By : Wednesday 16 October 2002, 18:25
Filtering out the incoming mails with the word 'debt' in the subject line works a treat for example, dumping a fair proportion of the spams wending their merry way into the size-limited inboxes of Hotmail users. Users determined, as we know, to keep using the service for free, as Microsoft promises they can
Adding filters for the words 'penis', 'enhance', 'babes', 'free sex', and 'viagra' can further cut down your spam intake to a more manageable level.
The INQUIRER received a mail from one wise user who says he had "almost 40" filters set up to weed out the junk from the legitimate. "This has been working GREAT at blocking HUGE amounts of spam," wrote Rob, "since nobody that actually _writes_ me ever uses those words in the subject."
Rob continues: "Anyways, today I went to my filter list to add a couple more words to the list, and I notice the GUI has changed a little bit... I went to "Add" a new filter, and I get a popup message-box, informing me that now, you gotta be a PAID MEMBER to set up more than 10 filters!"
"Now they're not even letting us fight spam OURSELVES without paying them," writes Rob. "That's a bummer, man..."
Now, we had ourselves previously set up a few filters that were working pretty effectively on out own Hotmail account, limiting the spam to around 20 messages per day (sheesh!). But to check out Rob’s claim we added a few more. And sure enough, he’s right. At 10 filters, up pops the message: "You have reached your filter limit. You must delete an existing one, or sign up for MSN Extra Storage to increase your filter limit."
We toyed with the idea of calling the UK’s handsome Mr Hotmail to offer him the opportunity of explaining the development, but lately he doesn’t return our calls. He has previously confessed, however, to be involved in "product development, enabling an increase in profitability."
Naturally, gradually tweaking the Hotmail service so that is becomes virtually unusable to free users is one way of (cough!) leveraging an increase in profitability.
Unfair, Mr Whiteway? Give us a call then, you have the number.
Click here for previous issues of your occasionally Daily Hotmail. µ
I've been giving some thought to paying. I think it's a cruddy service, except when I'm traveling. My kids were able to use it in Europe at cyber cafes. It's almost certainly worth 10 bucks a year.
On the other hand, I don't get anything like this amount of spam on my pop3 account. how does everyone get your hotmail account?
Correct. But Microsoft, when they took over Hotmail, said that the free email service would remain free. The Machiavellian methods of incremental deconstruction of a service in order to weasel their way out of a commitment is just morally bankrupt. If they don't want to keep the free service they should just cancel it and be done with the mess.
Check out the guide on About.com here: Apply Filters to the Hotmail Inbox Manually
this server is primarily an equipment, software and network testing service that provides email accounts for them to real-time "beta" test systems. It offers spam and virus filtering (automatically- I got this message the other day:
the only drawback I have found is that there are occasional "down" times as they work out bugs on tested systems, but it amounts to only a slight delay in access.
my previous server got so spam loaded that I had to finally change servers and haven't regretted it yet.
As for moral bankruptcy, I suggest you start and maintain a free service yourself, ensure that all those working on it hasve paychecks and benefits, and then criticize.
I never said that they made this a legal contract. They made a public relations commitment to keep it free. Now they are doing everything they can to eliminate the service without saying so.
As for moral bankruptcy, I suggest you start and maintain a free service yourself, ensure that all those working on it hasve paychecks and benefits, and then criticize.
I never chose to make a commitment to do so, Microsoft did. If you tell someone you are going to do something and then try every trick in the book to divest yourself of the moral obligation, yes that is morally bankrupt. It would have been more ethical to have simply said "financial considerations make it untenable to maintain the free service" and cancelled the service. Instead, Microsoft continues to secretly downgrade the service.
As of 10/14, the released upgrade handles hotmail. It's free to use, the author asks for a $20 donation if you like it. After logging on, start up MailWasher, it previews the spam, compares it to your filters and to the various databases of identifiable Spam.
With a click of the mouse, it will delete all identified Spam and bounce the mail back to the sender...hopefully they will get the message (as will their host server) that you don't exist in their eyes.
Pass it on if it works for you! AJ
The full text of the link:
Please keep in mind:
1. Messages in your Sent, Draft, and Trash folders all count toward your storage quota, as do messages in any other personal folders you may have created. To see where you have messages, click on "Folders." In every folder that contains messages, view the folder's contents and check the size of each message. Adding these up will most likely show you why you're still over (or near) your quota.
2. It isn't the number of messages you have, but the size of those messages that count. A few very large messages (or possibly even one) can fill an entire account. Check for large messages in your account, especially messages with attachments.
Hint: Check your Sent folder for messages with attachments. Each time you send an attachment and save the message to your Sent folder, the attachment is stored in your account. These attachments can add up fast.
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