Spam Control!
Thanks to the guys at Windows Secrets (see their feed in the sidebar), I have a little more info on spam control. Mark Edwards provided a couple of links that I am going to pass on to you guys.
Before I do, though, I just want to say that once again, I have proven myself to be just a bit “dee dee deee”, because I didn’t think of it first. I’ve been using “dead” email addresses since the 90’s, and I never thought to create a site that provides, wait for it…… Temporary E-Mail addresses.
Yep, there’s at least a couple of sites out there that do just that. And here’s the great thing: you can make up a temporary address “on the fly”, without having to go and register for it first. Say you’re slipping around the web and you see this great thing you want to sign up for, a game or whatever. When you get to the part where they ask for a “valid” email address, you just make one up and type it in. The temp service automagically creates it for you on their server and you can go there to validate your subscription or whatever, and then forget about it.
Each of the two have different features, and what might work for one of you may not be what another one wants, so check them both out.
Temporary Inbox is maybe my favorite, mainly because of the extensions for Firefox. If you use the big blue “e”, they have a toolbar that fits in there. Same for Opera. These add-ons will automagically generate a random mailbox name for you, plus you can check that email with a single click of a button. (That’s alot easier than using Yahoo! or GMail…). The emails received at that box are deleted after 6 hours.
The other cool site is Mailinator. They give you the ability to put your mailinator inbox right on your website (if you have one). This way, you don’t even have to leave your site to check your mail. Again, your emails will be deleted after a few hours.
Remember, these email addresses are totally NOT secure. Anyone can read the emails sent there if they can guess your login and password. There is absolutely NO security in a service like this, except for the oblique security you get from not revealing your real address.
Check them both out. I think you will find one or both of them to be a great help in controlling the spam.
And let me recommend Windows Secrets newsletter as a great investment of time. The free version, which I have linked to in the sidebar, is good for learning alot of things you might not ever learn any other way. But the Paid version is great. There is always something to be learned in there, even for a guy like me, who’s been geeking around these things since windows were something to be looked through, not at.
I am Jon, and I still hate spam.
Sweet idea for the temporary inbox! Why didn’t I think of that… ~sigh~ Thanks for the heads-up!