Is email dying?

[oilyriser]

I don't mean going obsolete, I meat being killed by spam. I've had a few incidents lately where I sent out emails, and got almost zero replies. These were replies to ads I put up on craigslist and kijiji, where the person said they were interested. I send out my phone number and ask for theirs, but get no further contact. I've done this a year or two ago, and there was a much better response. I organized a social event, sent out emails to 30 friends, via regular email, and got zero replies.

Have people suddenly become incredibly flaky, or are most emails disappearing into Junk folders all over the place?

 

[Shannow]

my phone bill doesn't get to me anymore, as my IP considers it spam, but can't tell me how to tell them that it's not spam, as I can't identify the emails that it's spam filter doesn't let me see.

email is dead.

the emails that my better half gets that have to be jammed through the connection with a broomstick are essentially spam, as often the sender doesn't realise that the same message has the same recipient in it 3 or 4 times.

 

[Smoky14]

I find I have the same response from most companies also, send an inquiry and get zip in return. I called one and they said they don't have time to answer emails, I in turn don't have time to do business with them.
If you don't do business by email, don't list an address just a phone #

 

[oilyriser]

I could list my phone number in my ads, but some idiot from Auto Trader always starts phone spamming me.

 

[tomcat27]

More needs to be done to stop this. Legally, they only go after the huge offenders, who simply regroup and start again anyway. filtering should be easier, as its pretty easy for me to spot spam (I get at least 30 a day) when the subject line is either 1) telling me I can make a ton of money brokering their bad check 2) discount meds 3) increase the size of my oil filter

 

[StevieC]

I dunno... I use GMAIL, get very little spam which always seems to be caught in the right folder. Maybe 3-4 messages a week.

I have a domain e-mail address and a "catch-all" forwarding to my GMAIL account and still get no SPAM, yet all my messages get to me. I send/receive a lot of e-mail and I'm signed up with retailers for flyers etc. I also have had my GMAIL account since they first started the service and was invited by a friend.

for GMAIL!

 

[sciphi]

Fastmail does very well on the spam front. In the years I've had it all my mail has always arrived, even bills and other notices.

Now my university email account is hopelessly idiotic about spam filtering. Spams legitimate messages and lets the spam on through.

 

[JHZR2]

I get next to none with my email provider.

 

[greenaccord02]

Gmail does well with this, but I hate the threading of topics and the lack of folders. It's a PITA. I use thunderbird client to deal with it and webmail only when I'm forced.

 

[TooManyWheels]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
These were replies to ads I put up on craigslist and kijiji, where the person said they were interested. I send out my phone number and ask for theirs, but get no further contact.

Have people suddenly become incredibly flaky, or are most emails disappearing into Junk folders all over the place?


I think it is partially a case of your mail going into spam filters, and partially a case of less serious users of the online ads coming into being. I know I have tried to respond to CraigList ads (in most cases, shortly after their appearance) and either gotten no replies, or replies days later. My theory is that with the connectivity we have, the idea that the seller and buyer should conduct themselves in some sort of businesslike manner, each with an obligation to the other, has gone out the window.

Also, a lot of ads are being placed by teens, who have a whole different concept of "doing business". ("Oh, you expect this motherboard to work? I thought you would just buy my trash, site unseen....").

 

[SrDriver]

I shut off all email spam filters that my ISP offers.

I use the filters in Thunderbird. Simple to setup.

My I have 6 email accounts including a junk account I use when I must give an email address.

Have my filters setup so if you are not in my address book, I never see the email as it is deleted.

You too can setup it so emails not in your address book go to a junk account, etc.

I have 2 POP3 accounts and 4 IMAP accounts. You can setup the filters for each account separately.

Just remember when setting up more than one POP3 account in Thunderbird to take the check mark out of Global when setting them up.

A quick search in Google, etc., will give you some info on how to setup the filters.

You also can ask for a return receipt when sending email so you know that the individual got it.

 

[NJC]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Gmail does well with this, but I hate the threading of topics and the lack of folders. It's a PITA. I use thunderbird client to deal with it and webmail only when I'm forced.

+1000 for Gmail and Thunderbird. No spam at home but LOTS at work.

 

[NJC]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
I organized a social event, sent out emails to 30 friends, via regular email, and got zero replies.

Unless you were acting like a complete jackapple at the last party, that is strange. Surely 30 emails didn't get marked as spam.

I like communicating via email - quick, to the point and without a lot of excessive blather. But I think I'm in the minority as it seems to be pulling teeth to get family and friends to reciprocate.

 

[PandaBear]

Definitely not dead.

I receive about 50-100 on a regular work days and about 10-20 of them are important. The key is to make sure you filter them out correctly and still keep a phone near by when you are not getting the response in time from email.

Also keeping a junk email account for all the junks is important too.

 

[Vilan]

I get 80-100 spams a day on my home account. Can anyone top that?

Once in a while it drops to 10-20 a day. Probably a botnet getting busted. But within a week it's back to normal.

 

[StevieC]

300 overnight every night with my old provider runbox.com

 

[XS650]

I get 100 to 200 a day in Yahoomail pro. The majority of them end up in the spam folder where I scan the titles and from line before I flush them.

I don't get more than 2 to 4 false positives a week and maybe 5% of spam makes it past Yahoo's filters to my inbox instead of the spam folder.

It's just not a big problem if you handle it right.

 

[oilyriser]

The batch email probably got junked because I always send mass emails BCC to myself in case one of my recipient's computers is infected by a virus that's looking for valid addresses.

 

[eljefino]

I've gotten craigslist responses with return receipts. I always wonder if those guys are so anal they will then harangue me a year later over some small quibble. Of course I treat them the same; their money's green too.

I include a disposable cell # in my ads saying "if you MUST call, call XXX-XXXX", many like to use the phone, even though it bugs me. CL's anonymized email seems to get through reliably. Am on roadrunner.

There are times when it takes many hours to respond to potential CL buyers if I'm meeting the first responder when he gets out of work or whatever. The rest are "queued" and will either get a "come on over" or "sold", as things sort themselves out.

Wife's cousins take days to respond to email but cell phone texts are instantaneous. My cousin is best reached with a facebook PM.

 

[DragRace]

Originally Posted By: oilyriser
I don't mean going obsolete, I meat being killed by spam. I've had a few incidents lately where I sent out emails, and got almost zero replies. These were replies to ads I put up on craigslist and kijiji, where the person said they were interested. I send out my phone number and ask for theirs, but get no further contact. I've done this a year or two ago, and there was a much better response. I organized a social event, sent out emails to 30 friends, via regular email, and got zero replies.

Have people suddenly become incredibly flaky, or are most emails disappearing into Junk folders all over the place?


Try gmail,98% of the junk gets filtered outta my inbox