# Hotmail, how do I hate thee, let me count the ways...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 14, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052 "2010-04-14T09:56:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/1 "2010-04-14T09:56:55Z")
Not only do you prompt me for passwords at idiotic and random intervals, only to let me bypass them by clicking on a different box, but now you decide that my password is no good, and further, that you don’t even know where my Mother was born! Of course, the only other option is to have you send a password to my HOTMAIL inbox!!! 😕 As if I could get in there!!! :mad: I have been looking for any excuse to ditch your sorry ass, and now it looks like you have given me no choice. So, screw you up the ass with Satan’s dick.
And so this is how it ends, Hotmail, after 20,000 messages or so, at last we part, and good riddance to your slow, buggy ass.
So, dopers, should I try gmail? Or something else?
---
### Author:  [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2010, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/2 "2010-04-14T10:29:00Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#):
>
> So, dopers, should I try gmail?
Should you try to eat free caviar instead of turds ?
---
### Author:  [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2010, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/3 "2010-04-14T11:18:33Z")
go gmail and never look back
---
### Author:  [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/4 "2010-04-14T11:22:17Z")
Am a bit disturbed that it took 20,000 messages before enlightenment.
---
### Author:  [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/5 "2010-04-15T04:42:12Z")
Well, it sucks, because I have had this account forever and this is how people know me, and it also contains all my e-mail contacts, so it is really screwing me up. Why on earth would it suddenly forget my password and the answer to my test question? Just ridiculous.
---
### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/6 "2010-04-15T04:52:34Z")
_Ducks for cover._
I use Yahoo.
---
### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/7 "2010-04-15T04:54:24Z")
I like gmail all right, but I’ve been using Yahoo mail for close to twenty years now, and I’ve had exactly zero complaints about it over that span of time.
---
### Author:  [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/8 "2010-04-15T04:54:28Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#):
>
> _Ducks for cover._
>
> I use Yahoo.
Even what you use is a step up from Hotmail.
But still, Gmail \> others.
---
### Author:  [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/9 "2010-04-15T04:55:27Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#):
>
> _Ducks for cover._
>
> I use Yahoo.
_Brother_! ::Runs up, gives awkward hug::
---
### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/10 "2010-04-15T04:58:00Z")
> [@MTCicero](#):
>
> _Brother_! ::Runs up, gives awkward hug::
Yte power, brother, Yte power.
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#):
>
> Even what you use is a step up from Hotmail.
>
> But still, Gmail \> others.
I understand that you all think Gmail’s totally tits but what’s wrong with Yahoo? Or YIM? I’ve used both for ages and never had any issues with either.
---
### Author:  [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/11 "2010-04-15T05:04:46Z")
Have you _really_ been working with computers for 33 years, dude?
People know you by your hotmail account, _really_?
---
### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/12 "2010-04-15T05:58:07Z")
Not only should you move, but, if my password suddenly didn’t work, and my password question didn’t work, I’d be concerned I got hacked.
You really do need to get back into that account, though. AT the very least, you need your address book so you can tell everyone who knows your old address about your new one. If you’re lucky, you can send a mass email to those you talk to regularly, and have an automated response for everyone else who tries. (Oh, and find out any mailing lists you’ve signed up for and want to keep, and switch them. Oh, and user accounts.)
I pulled it off with my yahoo account when I started getting spam in my main mailbox everyday, and got tired of having to use YM to catch incoming mail as it happened, especially once I got a version that would hang up my computer at 99% CPU rather than work.
The rest of my family, who do not check their email as often as I, find Yahoo to be fine, even if they still use the classic interface.
Finally, Gmail has it’s quirks. Folders aren’t really folders, but tags. Tweaking contacts requires going to a separate screen. But you get a lot of fun toys.
---
### Author:  [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/13 "2010-04-15T06:53:29Z")
> [@Palooka](#):
>
> Have you _really_ been working with computers for 33 years, dude?
>
> People know you by your hotmail account, _really_?
Well, I have had it for years, and I got it before gmail was around, and so yeah, all my contacts are there. And yeah, 33 years. [My first computer.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COSMAC_ELF)
My lawn, get off it!
---
### Author:  [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/14 "2010-04-15T06:57:30Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Not only should you move, but, if my password suddenly didn’t work, and my password question didn’t work, I’d be concerned I got hacked.
That was a concern of mine as well. But I have resolved the problem. I tried an older password, and got back in. I don’t know if Microsoft had a farkle, or if I reverted to that password when I was drunk, or what. All is well. Thanks for the gmail suggestions, I have an account already that I set up do direct junk to, maybe I will look into it. Hotmail is pretty slow and annoying, but I have not yet found enough reason to change, and go through the bother of updating all my contacts with the new address.
Thanks for all the advice!
---
### Author:  [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/15 "2010-04-15T12:00:36Z")
Don’t get a gmail account.
Spend $10/yr on a domain and then use email forwarding (included with domain purchase) to forward some address to your isp email account (or whatever). That way you’ve a respectable looking email address that’s also mobile.
---
### Author:  [@hankhill911](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hankhill911)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/16 "2010-04-15T15:44:13Z")
I automatically save every message I type because I know it’s a given that the stupid thing will time out and I’ll have to log in again…
As for Gmail, it’s good but then again, ANYTHING is better than stupid hotmail—incredibly bogus and Windows Live is such a big waste of system resources…
---
### Author:  [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/17 "2010-04-15T16:06:48Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#):
>
> . . . and go through the bother of updating all my contacts with the new address.
You do know you can export your contacts to your new account en masse, right?
---
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2010, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotmail-how-do-i-hate-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/536052/18 "2010-04-15T16:18:23Z")
I have a gmail account, somewhere. Actually, I think I have two. But I mainly use my isp account, with a secondary college email and a throwaway yahoo account (that I’ve had for about 15 years now) for doing business with any and all companies and for people I don’t know personally.