Registration e-mail addresses

[Webmaster]

Effective immediately, we will no longer accept new members registering with either Hotmail or Yahoo e-mail addresses.

These two e-mail services aggressively block many e-mails from getting into users' Inboxes. And e-mails from this forum are some of those e-mails.

We work very hard to keep spammers from disrupting this forum and one line of defense is to require registered e-mail verifications. When a new member registers, the forum sends two e-mails - one to me and one to the new member. (And you know, I always get my copy. Go figure...) The e-mail contains a link that the new member must click on, in order to complete the registration process. Until that confirmation action takes place, the new member has virtually no forum privileges. Which results in my Inbox being flooded with requests to 'fix broken accounts' that new members cannot post from.

Since Hotmail and Yahoo are going to block these confirmation e-mails from their mail servers, we are now going to respond in kind. We are going to block those addresses from new registrations. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but there is a very simple solution. Register with the e-mail address provided by your Internet Service Provider, or ISP.

Here is the bottom line on the e-mail addresses being used to register - each new member can easily hide their e-mail address from everyone but the forum staff members. We take personal privacy very seriously and will not provide our members' e-mail addresses to anyone. So the e-mail account you use to register with is secure.

Additionally, we may need to notify our members of forum news via e-mail. For this reason, we ask that all members maintain a working e-mail address in their User Control Panel.

If any prospective, new members are still concerned about how secure their registration information will be, please follow the following instructions:

Disconnect your computer from any modems or ethernet connections. Place the computer in an open and well-ventilated area. Thoroughly soak the computer with gasoline or other flammable liquids. Strike a match and set the computer afire. Dump all identification cards into the blaze, including driver's license, Social Security card, library card, credit cards, debit cards, etc. If it has your name on it, lose it. Call all the utility companies and disconnect all services. Cancel your subscription to the local newspaper. Pull all the shades in all the windows. Open your closet door, step inside and close the door behind you.

You are now as secure as you can possibly be in the 21st Century.

If you prefer not to so actively protect your identity and still do not want to use a real e-mail address to register here, all I can suggest is you Google the phrase 'conspiracy theory forums' and go register on those sites.

If you've registered for this forum with either a Yahoo or Hotmail address, you now know why you are unable to post on this forum. If you want to work around the problem, you will need to whitelist this domain name (tbucketeers.com) in your freebie e-mail account and request a second confirmation e-mail be sent.

 

[tfeverfred]

When I way back when, my confirmation went to my Hotmail "junk" file. I marked it as safe and responded with no problem. I'm not sure if that is still the case now, but maybe this info may help someone.

 

[Webmaster]

That is the secret - understanding that the Hotmail and Yahoo e-mail accounts are being filtered without the users' knowledge. If a user were aware this was happening and whitelisted this domain, then there would be no problems. If you're going to use one of those accounts, you need to spend time looking through the Junk folder, because an e-mail filter cannot always be 100% accurate in scoring spam. Bayesian probability filtering is some neat stuff, but it is not infallible and false positives do occur, on a regular basis. If you summarily delete the contents of the Junk folder without first reviewing them, then you are risking the loss of legitimate e-mails. Nearly all of this, of course, is falling on deaf ears, so I am wasting zeroes and ones in attempting to explain.

Since most Internet users are completely unaware of what 'whitelisting' even means, we've fixed things by other means. No more Hotmail and no more Yahoo. End of problem.

 

[Yogi]

I don't know if it's been a problem here, but at work our domains has been whitelisted by AOL too. I know there hadn't been any spammers using our domain (or at least I am pretty sure), but a few of our clients use AOL and our mail started having problems getting to them. I tried for a month to get us cleared with AOL and finally my boss said to give up and we had those clients set up a G-Mail account just to recieve stuff from us.

 

[datonamanmike]

is Gmail ok ???

 

[Webmaster]

is Gmail ok ???

We've not had any GMail issues. Yet. If they become a problem, we'll eliminate them too.

 

[Mike]

Since it has been 5+ years since the original post, there have been several other e-mail domains that have been added to our blocked list. I will provide the current list and will make additions as they become necessary.

*@gmail.com
*@hotmail.com
*@live.com
*@mail.ru
*@outlook.com
*@rocketmail.*
*@rocketmail.*.*
*@webmailservice.co.uk.pn
*@x1mail.uk.pn
*@yahoo.*
*@yahoo.*.*
*@ymail.*
*@ymail.*.*

(The asterisks above are wildcards.)

I understand many of you use one or more of these mail services. I have addresses with five of these services, myself. But all of these domains are the root of the spam registrations we are seeing. And whilst you do not see what is happening, because our blocking efforts are quite effective, over the course of the last week, we have been blocking an astonishing average of 384 spam registrations a day. A little over a week ago, we had one individual submit 100 registration attempts in just 13 minutes.

When it became obvious we were going to have to block Gmail addresses, I hoped it wold be a temporary thing, but that has not been the case. Gmail, Hotmail and mail.ru are the three biggest offenders, in that order. That being the case, I have to be honest and say I do not see Gmail ever being allowed again.

If you are trying to register an account here and do not care for the domain blocks we have established, your options are to either get over it or get used to it. You're really wasting your time by contacting me to give me a piece of your mind. You wouldn't be getting a cherry, as I've been cursed by the best in the business and the rules are still the rules. And before you ask, no, I don't make exceptions. I really don't like this situation any more than you do, but I can say I would like it even less if the forum staff members and myself were having to flush a lot of spammers down the drain every day. Beyond that, hatters are going to hate, so keep it to yourself.

We take matters of privacy very seriously and our Privacy Policy can be seen on this page. I am not aware of any Internet Service Providers who do not offer their customers an e-mail account, so my recommendation is to simply register with that address. Other members will not be able to see your private details and we will not share those details with anyone who cannot present us with a legal warrant for the information. Registering with something other than a throw-away e-mail address will save both of us time and hard feelings.

I am not dictating, nor will I dictate to anyone what e-mail address they can and cannot use. However I will keep you updated on what e-mail accounts we will not allow for new member registrations on this privately-owned Web site.

 

[T-Test]

Disconnect your computer from any modems or ethernet connections. Place the computer in an open and well-ventilated area. Thoroughly soak the computer with gasoline or other flammable liquids. Strike a match and set the computer afire. Dump all identification cards into the blaze, including driver's license, Social Security card, library card, credit cards, debit cards, etc. If it has your name on it, lose it. Call all the utility companies and disconnect all services. Cancel your subscription to the local newspaper. Pull all the shades in all the windows. Open your closet door, step inside and close the door behind you.

You be Funny! But Right! Off the grid is the only surefire way of being secure, if at all possible. Just no friends or communication to be safe.

 

[Mike]

*@mailcatch.com has been added to the list.

 

[Mike]

I get a lot of people asking what e-mail provider they should use. This ends up being a trick question for me. If I recommend an e-mail provider and someone has problems or complications with that provider, can you guess who is going to get blamed?

I have several Web sites and I typically use the e-mail accounts I have set up on those domains. I prefer to use those accounts, because I can run SpamAssassin on them, which gives me the ability to tailor my spam rules the way I want.

What a lot of Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail users do not know is that those services are running their own spam filters. If I send you an e-mail on your Yahoo account and the Yahoo spam filters do not like the looks of the message, it gets shunted off into a Junk folder. How many of you actually check the Junk folder on your Yahoo account/s? Of that number, how many of you actually go through the messages marked as Junk, to be sure that legitimate messages have not been marked as junk?

In short, I prefer to make the decisions on what is and is not spam, thank you very much. I don't need my e-mail provider making those kinds of decisions for me.

This forum software can be configured to send a lot of e-mail notifications for various features and functions, so it is always best to associate a regularly-used e-mail account to a forum account. I get a lot of members who sign on with an obscure e-mail account and then let it slide, until the account starts bouncing e-mails. I want to remind everyone that one of the expectations we have for our members is that they always be sure to have a valid, working e-mail address associated with their forum account.

So, let's get on with it. Here are some suggestions for some e-mail providers.

My #1 suggestion is to simply use the e-mail account supplied by the Internet Service Provider. I know a lot of people are concerned about the security and privacy on those types of accounts, but I'll wager I hate e-mail spam more than you. As a result, I have a very comprehensive Privacy Policy in place. I am not in the business of selling, or even giving away anyone's private details. I've had members of this forum ask me for the e-mail details on other members and I refuse to supply them. If someone wants the private details on any of our members, they are going to need a warrant.

For those who just cannot see their way clear to using an ISP e-mail address, there are some very solid and very secure commercial alternatives.

Runbox offers e-mail services for as little as $19.95/year. If you cannot afford $1.67/month for a secure e-mail account, I have to wonder what you are doing online, in the first place. That price will get you 1GB of e-mail storage space (by comparison, accounts on my own domains are all set up for only 10MB of storage) and 500MB of bandwidth a week (last month, all of my accounts on this domain used 558.08MB a week). You can step up to 5GB of storage and 1GB of bandwidth for $34.95/year. I cannot imagine burning 1GB per week, but the option is there. They are currently running a special on the larger account, which is a really huge savings. Sign up for a free trial and if you pay them for a year's service within 24 hours of the signup, you get the second year at no charge. $1.46 a month. They are also based in Oslo, Norway, so you can kiss the NSA good-bye. (Speaking of the NSA, everyone wave to them and say hi, because I know they are watching.)

Countermail offers some great services, but their accounts can get a little pricey. But if encryption means anything to you (and in this day and age, it should), then suddenly the prices are not so bad. They are located in Sweden. They nuse OpenPGP encryption, and can even offer you a USB Key option, which will prevent your e-mails from being accessed without your key inserted. 3 months service for $19.00, 6 months for $35.00, 12 months for $59.00 and 24 months for $99.00. To be honest, $4.12/month for that level of security is a bargain.

Neomailbox also uses OpenPGP encryption, is located in Switzerland, and will sell you 1GB of storage for $49.95/year. You can bump all the way up to 10GB of storage for $109.95/year.

Hushmail is another option. They are based in Canada and offer 10GB of secure storage for a $9.99 set-up fee and a recurring $5.24/month. If you are into using the Web to access your e-mail, they will even give you 25MB of storage for free. If you want to use a stand-alone client for your mail, then you can get 10GB of storage for $49.95/year. I would only add that Hushmail has known to be cozy with the authorities in British Columbia, so proceed with caution.

If you are one of those people who actually believe everything on the Internet deserves to be free, then check out GMX, Mail.com, Inbox.com, My Way, AOL or Juno. I am sure there are many other alternatives, but this is as far as I am going to go with doing your research for you.

For my money, Runbox has got about the best deal going. The price is definitely right and I like that I can set Runbox up in Mozilla Thunderbird in a matter of seconds. They run their services out of the Digiplex datacenter in Norway, so it requires warrants from Norwegian courts to access any account information. Good stuff, so far as I am concerned. Your mileage may vary.

If you are in baby chick mode (cheap, cheap, cheap), then there are some freebie suggestions on the list. All I can say is this - a person does not have to spend much time on the Internet to quickly learn you are going to get exactly what you pay for. Companies that are trying to run scams are outed within hours, if not minutes. So do your own research and make your own decisions. If something gets borked up in the process, the decision was all yours, so don't start pointing fingers at me.

 

[Mike]

Here are some more commercial e-mail options for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you don't want to hear the word commercial, but let me keep reminding you there is no such thing as free e-mail.

Polaris Mail can provide you with their basic e-mail hosting for as little as $12.00/year. What, you can't afford $1.00 a month?

FastMail has a handful of options, starting as low as $10.00/year. You can spend $40.00/year and use your own domain name, so the options are there.

Atmail is another relatively inexpensive service, starting at $2.00/month, with a minimum of 5 users. So, for a sawbuck a month, you can get 5 members of your family, or five employees of your business hooked up.

Rackspace offers some plans, one of which is a plan to allow you to use your own domain name. This plan also starts at $2.00/month, with a minimum of 5 users.

Zoho Mail offers some small free accounts, as well as some larger commercial accounts. Again, they also offer you the ability to use your own domain.

I like the ability to use these commercial services to host e-mail for me. That way, I can use my own domain name, rather than something like @acme-mail.com, or @brandx-com. Let's face it, if you were looking to hire someone to do Web site work for you, where does the perceived professionalism come into play - when I tell you to contact me at my @helix computing.com address, or at my @some-freebie-email.com address? One suggests I am serious about my work, whilst the other suggests I am a squeak who is too tight to spend a couple bucks a month on a real e-mail account.

Which just offended everyone with a freebie e-mail account, but let me remind you, yet again, there is no such thing as free e-mail. If you want to be convinced there is no such thing as privacy, keep taking those blue pills and washing them down with that Kool-Aid, but there are most certainly ways to keep e-mail messages private and that privacy is priceless. For those who say they don't care about privacy, do you have window coverings at your home? Does your bathroom have a door? Does your bedroom have a door? Do you undress in your home, or on your front lawn?

If I get some time, in the next few days, I will prepare a quick tutorial on how easy it is to set up Runbox on your own domain name and then use Mozilla Thunderbird to access your account. It is like child's play and gives you a very easy way to access your own e-mail domain.

 

[Mike]

Here is yet another secure mail service - Sendinc

Their free package doesn't include any frills, but it does offer security.