One reason to use free E-Mail
Since I have my own servers, and am a network geek, I’ve had very little incentive to use a service like Gmail, or (shudder) Hotmail over the years. There’s something to be said about having 100GB of disk space, fully-scriptable filters, unlimited aliases, and so on.
But, one feature of the free webmail providers that I have wanted occasionally, lately, is the “Report as Spam” button for unwanted corporate mail. Not the random junk from zombie computers. I’m talking about the companies (like, for example, everyone’s favorite we-shoot-gerbils-out-of-cannons company from the .com era) who insist on sending me monthly E-Mails offering their current back-to-school promotions even though I haven’t ordered from them in over four years.
Not that I can’t (or don’t) filter most of it out, but it actually has ramifications when you hit that button on Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and others. And when companies find out that they’re suddenly getting a 25% or more bounce rate from an E-Mail campaign because a couple of these giant providers has blocked them, it should hopefully produce some changes in their marketing practices. Maybe they should go back to using gerbils.
