offering free e-mail

[Kara]

I was considering offering free e-mail through something like everyone.net (if anyone knows something better I'm all ears).[nbsp][nbsp]With everyone.net you have the option of co-branded or fully branded.[nbsp][nbsp]If you choose the full branded it can't be the same exact domain as what points to your site right?[nbsp][nbsp]

Kara
[nbsp]- dang crickets are keeping me awake!

[Paul]

Hi Kara..

Actually it can indeed be the same with the full branded, but by doing that.. ALL of your email is then handled by them, and they would be the one you turn to for the support of the email as FutureQuest would no longer have any involvement. (This involves an MX record change)

An alternative would be to use the .net or .org version of you domain name (if you currently use .com).. so you can offer a web-based email service to your visitors, but still use the FutureQuest service for your primary email (as an example).

Hope that helps..
Paul

[Jeff]

At one point, I wanted to offer free email addresses @mydomain.[nbsp][nbsp]However, I had (and have) two concerns which keep me from doing this:

1.)[nbsp][nbsp]Futurequest is strict about spam, which is good.[nbsp][nbsp]However, what would happen if a_free_address@mydomain.com spammed a thousand people... Would I risk deactivation of the domain?[nbsp][nbsp]Would terminating that user be enough, or could a really bad event, even if I did take diligent action, put me in harms way?

2.)[nbsp][nbsp]I signed up with everyone.net a year back to try them out, and found that their interface was really, really slow.[nbsp][nbsp]Then a few days after I signed up, all my customizations were gone and the account was somehow reset to the standard template... not a good sign of stability.[nbsp][nbsp]It also seems like they upgrade (=downtime) quite frequently.

[Terra]

Jeff:
With our Spam policies being extremely strict, the domain would be held accountable for any Spam abuse regardless if it was from a free email account or not...

Those that want to offer free email services, need to think very carefully of the ramifications of doing so...[nbsp][nbsp]The decision to place ones domain at risk, rests solely on the account holder...

The reason we must be so strict is for several reasons:
a) Reducing Spam takes a concerted and cooperative effort between everyone that runs a mail server - so we are doing our part to help stem the tide of spam.
b) It costs us money in bandwidth, server resources, customer dissatisfaction, etc........
c) Our upstream bandwidth provider has their own strict Spam policies, that we must adhere to.
d) We don't like dealing with SpamCop issues when they hit our abuse box.
e) It wastes my time, and the people involved that receive the Spam.
f) We can have our mail servers blacklisted, and it takes some teeth pulling to have those blocks removed (MAPS, ORBS, etc)
g) insert a ton of other commonly known reasons here.

FutureQuest, Inc., as a whole, has absolutely zero tolerance and zero patience when it comes to Spam...[nbsp][nbsp]We would rather be building new tools and servers, instead of dealing with hostile and irate netizens...

Hope that helps to better define our Spam policy...[nbsp][nbsp];)

--
Terra
--$100 dollar fine paid to each recipient + mandatory 2 year jail term + Spam served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner--
FutureQuest

[Monty]

FQ, I have a question about this particular subject.[nbsp][nbsp]

Those that want to offer free email services...
Is an alias any part of what you are referring to?[nbsp][nbsp]Since an alias can only receive email, and not send it, is there a danger with giving those out?[nbsp][nbsp]I don't give them out to just anyone, but I have about a dozen or so I gave to folks who surf from work, and want to be able to post a legit email in my forums for credibility.[nbsp][nbsp]I wouldn' dream of giving a pop box to anyone, but I thought aliases were fairly "foolproof" regarding spam issues.[nbsp][nbsp]

Mont

[Rich]

Monty:

I believe the reverse is the worst-case scenario. Eating Spam is not a crime but serving Spam is.

Rich
-- More JiffyWheat, please

[Monty]

Rich, sounds like I am OK with what I am doing then.[nbsp][nbsp]I hate the spammers as much as anyone else, and if I ever meet Mike Becker and his advanced search engine submission in person, I am going to rebuild both of them, personally ;)

Mont

[Kara]

Thanks for all your input.[nbsp][nbsp]I think IF I do offer web based based e-mail I'll follow Paul's and Matt's advice and use a totally different domain which is not parked on FQ.[nbsp][nbsp]

Thanks for your help!
Kara
[nbsp]- no spam breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 years for me :P

[Matt]

Hi Kara,
I've been using Everyone.net for a week or two now. I chose it over BigMailBox based on postings on UBB. I have a domain hosted with FutureQuest. I also purchased domainmail.com to use for mail (not associated in any way with FutureQuest). This avoids the problems brought up: Spam and MX Records.

I do like Everyone.net based on my short experience. The level of customization that it allows is great and you can use the banner ads to help promote one of your sites or sell the space to others. Also, you can specify a text-based footer for every e-mail sent using your service, e.g. "Get your own web-based mail account at www.domainmail.com." (http://www.domainmail.com.")

Ideally the service wouldn't require cookies or ask to place ad cookies. I doubt that you will find a free provider that doesn't place cookies, however. Also, speed could be a little better, but the competition isn't too quick either.

If anyone knows of something better, I'd like to hear about it as well, but for now I'm satisfied.
-Matt