# I have 246 emails **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 24, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739 "2003-04-24T01:36:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/1 "2003-04-24T01:36:46Z")
I just know that some of them are actually not spam. Email is supposed to be this convenenient form of communication, but now people are getting mad at me for not returning emails. If I don’t recognize the name I generally don’t open it. I really can’t seem to seperate the wheat from the chaff. I get emails titled “How come you don’t answer me?” and even these are spam. I think I’ve just lost the ability to communicate with email. I know you don’t like Spam either and this is hardly original, but you know what? I **really** don’t like Spam. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/2 "2003-04-24T01:38:59Z")
You are not alone, by a long shot. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179321](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=179321) We all have to deal with this, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/3 "2003-04-24T01:42:25Z")
Ummm,Yahoo and Hotmail both have filtering features. Hotmail allows you to filter out all the e-mail from people you don’t know. So, enter all the e-mail addresses of the people you know (and get e-mail from) into your Hotmail address book, (if you have a Hotmail account that is) and then set your filter to block out any other stuff. Of course, you wouldn’t get any e-cards, but you would get letters. If you have a Yahoo account, click on the “This is Spam” link in the letters, and Yahoo will send mail from that source to your Bulk Mail bin. You can also manuelly block all mail from that sender too. Don’t let spam clog your mailbox. I don’t… Good Luck. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/4 "2003-04-24T01:46:16Z")
> [@](#): > > I **really** don’t like Spam. You are in the minority there. Most people **really really** don’t like Spam. In fact the words FUCK and OFF are usually more common in the minds of the average 50 a dayer. I filter out from the senders address (among a list of about 40 items) ‘korea’ ‘co.jp’ ‘hotmail’ ‘yahoo’ ‘bessdeals’. and from the message body (and subject) ‘penis’ ‘fuck’ ‘teen’ ‘cum’ ‘slut’ etc… And still get a shitload. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/5 "2003-04-24T01:48:34Z")
That’s all well and good **Zabali\_Clawbane** but what if one day. Britney Spears decides to e-mail me and tell me that she has been stalking me and wants to have my babies. If I filtered out all but messages from people (and websites) I want mail from - I’d miss the one from Britney. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/6 "2003-04-24T01:49:47Z")
(as I don’t know her e-mail address) ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/7 "2003-04-24T01:51:12Z")
LOL You’re ever hopeful, aren’t you **Lobsang**? 😛 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sterra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Sterra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterra)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/8 "2003-04-24T01:54:34Z")
You should have one email where you sign up to websites at and one email for communication. I have gotten no spam at all since I started doing that. Yahoo also has a nice anti-spam filter. It cuts down on it at least. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/9 "2003-04-24T01:55:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zabali\_Clawbane \* > \*\*Ummm,Yahoo and Hotmail both have filtering features. Hotmail allows you to filter out all the e-mail from people you don’t know. So, enter all the e-mail addresses of the people you know (and get e-mail from) into your Hotmail address book, (if you have a Hotmail account that is) and then set your filter to block out any other stuff. Of course, you wouldn’t get any e-cards, but you would get letters. If you have a Yahoo account, click on the “This is Spam” link in the letters, and Yahoo will send mail from that source to your Bulk Mail bin. You can also manuelly block all mail from that sender too. Don’t let spam clog your mailbox. I don’t… > > Good Luck. \*\* Of course, this will not help those of us who have ESTABLISHED email accounts, and who must accept email from everyone, even people I don’t know. I’m not ABOUT to enter the email address of every single poster on the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/10 "2003-04-24T02:01:43Z")
So there are ways to get around it. That doesn’t stop a lot of us from wanting to repeatedly insert and remove [garden] forks from the faces of the person or persons responsible for the sending of penis enlargement ads to women (or even kids :eek:) or breast enlargement ads to men, or ‘business proposals’ or ‘natural viagra’ or invitations to to watch ‘susie’ insert a horses cock into her cum guzzling ear. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/11 "2003-04-24T02:03:31Z")
DAMN I should have known that would happen. ruined a perfectly good post. the last ‘)’ turned the eek into a smile! so it looks like I am expressing my aproval that kids might get sent penis enlargements. It is supposed to be a :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/12 "2003-04-24T02:05:59Z")
Sorry Lynn, I didn’t realize that you were experiencing the same difficulty and had started an identical thread on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/13 "2003-04-24T02:13:46Z")
(( **Lynn** )) (( \*\* Scylla \*\* )) Well, it works in some cases. ---
**Author:** ![Thylacine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thylacine/32/1143_2.png) [@Thylacine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thylacine)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/14 "2003-04-24T02:43:18Z")
I find [MailWasher](http://www.mailwasher.net) the most useful proggie I ever downloaded. I cannot restrict my mailbox to only those I know, I get lots of mail I need to read from people have never heard of pereviously but MailWasher checks against known blacklists of spamcop etc. and usually gets it right. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/15 "2003-04-24T02:49:20Z")
With thanks to **douglips** and the Unaboard: [Popfile](http://popfile.sourceforge.net/) ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/16 "2003-04-24T02:53:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lynn Bodoni \* > \*\* I’m not ABOUT to enter the email address of every single poster on the SDMB. \*\* You get paid too much for this gig. Now you’re just acting lazy. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Bottle\_of\_Smoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bottle_of_Smoke)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/17 "2003-04-24T03:17:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sterra \* > \*\*You should have one email where you sign up to websites at and one email for communication. > > I have gotten no spam at all since I started doing that. > \*\* I have the same setup. A yahoo address for all web-related stuff and my [charter.net](http://charter.net) account that only my family and friends know about. Until about two weeks ago when I l opened Outlook and found over 80 spam emails in my charter account. God DAMN that pissed me off. I can use Outlook’s mail handling rules to auto delete most of it, but I don’t want to limit my incoming mail to only those adresses I approve of. What if I forget to approve someone’s address? I’ll be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Spammers are scum. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/18 "2003-04-24T03:20:12Z")
A word of warning **Bottle of Smoke** - If you want your non-spam e-mail address to remain non-spam - don’t display the domain name on an internet message board populated by multiple thousands of people. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/19 "2003-04-24T03:21:47Z")
A word of warning **Lobsang** - Finish readong someone’s post before you reply to it. ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739/20 "2003-04-24T03:29:26Z")
Believe it or not it is worth it to try to remove yourself from their email list by following the provided link. I have gone from about 20 to 3 a day by doind this. Won’t get rid of them all but it helps. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-246-emails/170739.md?page=2)