Why don't email systems let you resign?

[Nessy]

The only way to get off their system is to let the box "expire from disuse".

There should be a way to simply reject messages, so people know you aren't ignoring them. (Yes, some have "vacation answers", but they expire before the box is deactivated, so they are no use for this.)

I just went back to try my email after 3 months of disuse (the rules said 60 days), and it still let me in. There was mail from my aunt (an expired e-greeting card) and a friend I really wanted to hear from, who has my number but must think I'm ignoring her.

I've written to web-masters who just reply they don't know how to drop me and I have to wait it out, but that's so stupid.

Since they do have a way to get rid of you, why don't they let you trigger it yourself?

[fredicus]

1) the # of "live" email addys available for sale
2) admin costs

[sailor]

If you do not want to use an email address you can just fill it with garbage messages until it overflows and rejects all subsequent messages.

[Achernar]

I don't know what E-mail provider you're using, but if it works the same way Hotmail does, then your account did in fact expire. After 60 days, they put your E-mail account back on the market for anyone who wants to take it - if someone registers it, you've lost it. But if you come back and sign in before anyone else claims it, then they let you keep it for another 60 days.

[panamajack]

If you actually were to resign, the mysterious powers that be would knock you out and whisk you away to a Welsh village where there's no internet access. You'd be pressured to admit why you resigned until you eventually overcame the monkey-masked man and escape back to London.

At least that's what happened to me.

I think they're just trying to prevent this from happening.

P. McGoohan (not John Drake)

[tygre]

Well, if it's a free email service, you get what you pay for :D

Seriously, we do this kind of thing often for people (I'm an admin at an ISP). It takes about two seconds to remove an address from our system or set up a forwarding order or "vacation message". Perhaps your provider is overworked and behind.

You could always keep resetting the vacation message, or open another account to read emails at if you don't want to use the first one.