Mail Grumbles.

[swestrup]

Up until a few weeks ago I had used the exact same email address for something like 12 years. I just switched over to a different address for a domain that is owned by my best friend _sps_ and which is currently (mostly) physically located about 6 feet to the right of where I am sitting. As a result I have far greater control over how my new email address gets processed (or I will as soon as I finish getting the mail system correctly set up here -- in the meantime my mail is being handled by a friend with a working mailserver.)

Anyway, I've drifted off topic. What the topic IS is that I now have to inform half the world that my email has changed. Now, I'm quite dilligent about this. I sent out an email notice to just about everyone I've corresponded with in the last year, and to a number of folks with whom I haven't. Of course the problem is that most of THEM aren't so dilligent. Many of them have changed email providers a number of times without ever telling me, so I had to read through all of my received mail, noting the latest address used by some of my friends. Of course, even then some of those addresses don't work because folks have changed email and not sent me mail since. 

And then there are the mailinglists. I'm a member of something like a 100 mailinglists, only 20 of which are very active.  Some have, I am sure, died without telling anyone. Others send me an email once or twice a year. Many of THEM have had their subscription methods / mailhosts and whatnot changed since I joined without ever updating me. Heck, a fair number of the mailing lists were gobbled up by groups.com which was gobbled up by yahoo.com, so now I have a bunch of yahoo groups that I never subscribed to as yahoo groups. Luckily Yahoo has an online system for dealing with groups en masse, but it was neither easy to find, nor obvious in its use.

Of the independant ones, some simply allow you to send a change-of-email address, some have a webmail change-of-address form, and some *cough* Schneier *cough* say in the subscription info that they have a webmail form, but instead that URL is for a page which tells you to send email. MANY of the rest have no way of changing addresses, AT ALL and you have to unsubscribe and then resubscribe. DUMB! What's worse, most of the systems without change-of-email methods are running on mailinglist software that I know for a fact supports that operation.

And, of course, there are all of the places like Slashdot that I have registered an email address with, but which are not mailinglists nor normal correspondants, which I've had to visit, one by one, figure out their ideosyncratic registration system, and try to change my address.

So, although I sent out my change of address 3 weeks ago, I am STILL in the process of converting over. Since I woke up at 1:00 pm today, I have spent the entire morning just reconfiguring my account on the spamcop site because 1) you have to resubscribe to change your address, 2) subscription involves sending multiple copies of test mails to every single email address you own. There are valid technical reasons for #2, and there are subtle consequences that made them choose #1, but its still a major pain in the patookus.

So now, I'm awake and SICK of dealing with mail troubles. And what's #1 on my agenda? Debug pooq.com's new mail system...

Is it ANY WONDER that _sps_ and I want to replace the net with something that WORKS???

Comments

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

I just dumped the email address I'd had since 94 last year. Registered my lastname.net, and used both addresses for a year. Anyone that didn't contact me on the old account in that time, I figure they can google if they ever want to get in contact again.

[swestrup]

Some of my friends wouldn't know how to google if they were bitten by a were-searchengine during a full moon. Granted, most of the people I write to regularly are completely net savvy, but they're the ones that KNOW to send me change-of-address emails and have already updated their books. Its folks like my sister-in-law or my aunt in austrailia that will probably never know what to do if email to me bounces. (Okay, technically in both of those cases there are other, obvious, ways to contact me, but it was mainly for illustration purposes.)

And yes, my old address will work for a full year, assuming my current ISP is competant, that is. Then again, I'm leaving them because as the years have gone by they've become less and less competant..

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

My ISP started getting sold back and forth. Sure enough way as any to shake off the competence!