Web-based email accounts

[thomas]

I just wanted to announce that it's no longer possible to sign up to the Japan Forum using a free web-based email account (hotmail.com, yahoo.com, excite.com etc. etc.). According to our experiences people tend to forget about these accounts, resulting in bouncing emails once the allocated account space has been exceeded.

Users who signed up with web-based email addresses will be able access their accounts normally, once they change their settings they will have to provide a new email address (e.g. the email address allocated to you by your local ISP - please check our Privacy Statement in case you have concerns about that).

Thanks for your understanding!

 

[Maciamo]

This poses a problem for those who don't have any other email address. I always use hotmail and don't have any address provided by my ISP. Even if I had one, I would never check it because everybody know my hotmail address(es). I used to travel a lot and have lived in 7 different countries in the last 5 years. It's impossible for someone like me to keep a fix ISP address. What about the people having a single ISP for several people (families...) and who can't have a private ISP email address ?

I think it will limit greatly the number of potential members on this forum, what is a pity.

 

[thomas]

Thanks for voicing your concerns, Maciamo. I was aware of the implications, and have to admit that I was considering to waive this policy.

It has proven nearly impossible to block all web-based email providers, they're just too abundant, secondly, as you stated, it might scare potential users away. Guess we have to live with bouncing mails.

 

[moyashi]

did hotmail cancel a whole bunch of accounts recently? I remember seeing something that they changed policies or something and lot's of folks had problems. Or maybe it was just the inbox??

I can see the concern but like maciamo said ... it might not be a good idea.

how about turning off all the emails that go out on reply to messages by default. Might be a better solution.

 

[thomas]

They have reduced the account size to 2 MB. Funny, I signed up for a new account, haven't used it pulicly (no mails to friends, no subscriptions, nada), nevertheless I receive one or two spams daily.

It's become a daily habit to report spam to Spamcop.

 

[AutoBot11]

well, i am using an html box because my primary box reveals my first & last name

 

[lineartube]

Why not delete members accounts that haven't been active in the past.... 3-5 months? That should help...

 

[budd]

that would discourage members from joining again?

 

[nikki_the_insane]

Why not delete members accounts that haven't been active in the past.... 3-5 months? That should help...

Instead of deleteing accounts if they're unactive, why don't you just block them until they re-activate the account. That way, if they are unactive they don't get emails and no bounce emails and what not from the forums. Then if they decide to come back and post, they just need to reactivate their account some way.

edit: Something I just thought of. If there account is unactive for like 3 months you could send them a final email saying: 'Your account has been unactivated because of inactivity for the last 3 months. You can reactivate your account 'here' if you would like." Yeah and then put a link to where you could reactivate it.

Don't take anything I say seriously, just a minor suggestion.

 

[Uncle Frank]

Ok, Quit Dragging These Old Posts Out Of....

the old trunk in the back of the closet. Too confusing to the "crazy ol guy"!!

Frank

 

[Keiichi]

I think the downside is, a lot of people don't use their ISP accounts for this kind of stuff (or even at all, due to the fact many can't pick a good username and such, and people don't know how to use POP, or their web interface bites), which as mentioned, scares people away.

Is it possible to disable settings that sends email to those that have bounces from emails? I did that for my site once, but my user database is probably not as large as yours, and I had to do it manually. -_-

 

[nikki_the_insane]

I have a comcast.net account and if you go to their webpage they have a tutorial on how to set up your POP3 account. I had to do that to put it on Outlook Express because I didn't know how to and my dad (who's the only one who knows how to do it) was away on a business trip. I'm sure that other ISP providers have a POP tutorial.