# Is yahoo mail dead yet? It is for me. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 16, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545 "2006-03-16T01:10:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/1 "2006-03-16T01:10:56Z")
Yahoo mail was never great, but in just the past few months it’s gone from bad to flat-out fuckin’ useless. Spam unfiltered litters my inbox. And yet, e-mails from friends and family and business colleagues that used to arrive unhindered are now–of a sudden–spam-filtered to a “Bulk” box so stuffed it’s impossible to look through. My friend sent me three e-mails, important ones too. I even suspected that they were coming to me–I even searched a bunch in “Bulk.” No dice, never arrived, never seen by me. False positives are a pain in the ass but, so long as they don’t number above twenty or so per day, I can live with them. These new false negatives, however, mean I can’t use the account any more. Yahoo mail is dead to me. ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/2 "2006-03-16T01:18:07Z")
Interesting. I don’t have a problem with them. I don’t get a lot of spam (probably less than 1 a day), so when something ends up in my bulk folder, it’s easy enough to check and make sure it’s not legitimate. Do you have your friend’s email listed as a contact? At any rate, I hate to piss all over your rant by asking questions and shit, because maybe you just hate Yahoo Mail and wanted to rant without some internet idiot coming in to pick it all apart :D. Which is fine by me. If that’s the case, carry on… ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/3 "2006-03-16T02:07:30Z")
Not really a rant, just disappointed. Yahoo doesn’t offer a customizable spam tool with its free e-mail. Yeah, like I’m going to pay for their shit. Your not having a problem is no surprise. How long have you had your account open? I’ve had mine since 1999 or so. The spambots find you eventually. ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/4 "2006-03-16T05:11:47Z")
I’ve had a Yahoo Mail account since 1998 or 1999 (can’t remember which) and it has always worked very well for me. I use it for everything except personal communications and I get very little spam, with what spam I do get always being directed to my bulk folder. ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/5 "2006-03-16T05:15:42Z")
I have had a Yahoo mail account for 8 years. For me the spam filter works great. I get over 1000 pieces of spam each month and only one or two get in my regular in box. I use my Yahoo address for any transactions that might generate spam so I don’t ruin my real address. The mail from my paid internet service, in the other hand, filters nothing. ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/6 "2006-03-16T05:18:13Z")
Also, you have the meanings of “false positive” and “false negative” backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/7 "2006-03-16T05:58:27Z")
I used to use Yahoo as my primary address (for about 4 years) until Gmail came out. By that time, I was getting quite a bit of spam, and decided it’d be swell to keep my primary email address spam free, and started using my yahoo account as a spam dump. Currently, my bulk mail folder has 2062 emails in it, and it looks like I get close to 50 new spam mails a day, with one or two leaking through the filter and into my regular inbox. It’s weird, though, because everytime one slips past, I mark it as spam, but whatever filter they use never really improves. Aren’t those things supposed to learn? ---
**Author:** ![rkts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@rkts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rkts)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/8 "2006-03-16T06:15:21Z")
> [@Electronic Chaos](#): > > It’s weird, though, because everytime one slips past, I mark it as spam, but whatever filter they use never really improves. Aren’t those things supposed to learn? They do learn, of course, but as I understand it, they do so by pooling the input from _all_ users, so your contribution is a statistical drop in the bucket. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/9 "2006-03-16T14:12:11Z")
Yahoo mail user since 98, use it for almost everything but business. Just checked my bulk folder - over 6000. I think they clear it after 30 days, so that’s 200 a day. Probably get 2 or 3 spams a day into my inbox, so can’t say that’s too bad. I will admit that in past years, I’d get maybe one spam a month into my inbox, so the spammers are “improving” a little bit. I don’t check my bulk folder for real emails very often, but I think I’ve only once seen one. About a year and a half ago, my yahoo account got locked up for a few days, that was traumatic. Never realized till then how much I depend on Yahoo! Never could get used to gmail’s interface, I do use it for some things. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/10 "2006-03-16T14:29:29Z")
Another yahoo mail user. For the most part the spam filter works great. Every now and then spam slips past it, and I just mark it as spam and go on. Even rarer is the case where it identifies real mail as spam. But I scan my spam bucket every now and then anyway, because I’m looking for good titles to submit to the “Spamusement” guy, and occasionally to use myself to post funnies in the Spamusement Guest Comics forum. FWIW, I have spotted exactly two good emails sitting in my spam bucket over the last year. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/11 "2006-03-16T15:13:07Z")
I have three yahoo mail accounts that I have labeled **throw-away, name, and daily**. **Throw-away** is the account I use when I have to provide an email account name to get info from various legit and shady sources. I’ll give that address to anybody who asks for it. **Name** is Bubba’sRealName@yahoo.com. I give that one as a contact for my internet purchases **Daily** is the account attached to my yahoo home page. I only provide that to friends. I also use a gmail account that is strictly business use. My system works pretty well. My **Throw-away** account is crammed with spam inside and outside of the bulk folder. Don’t Care. **Name** gets a lot of adds from Circuit City, Ticketmaster, and a host of others I don’t care about. And my **Daily** account stays happily uncluttered. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/12 "2006-03-16T15:29:42Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > I have three yahoo mail accounts I have one yahoo and one hotmail, and I use it pretty much the same way. I have simply abandoned 3 junk mail accounts and created new ones beceause the spam became pretty bad after a while. No pain there. The reason the OP is getting so much spam is that they are using their email to sign up for crap. The spammers didn’t just come upon the addy by guessing, they bought a list. Even appearingly legit companies sell their lists. Those folks sell their lists to others, and soon you are on hundreds of lists. Even worse, maybe the OP decided that they were receiving some spam mistakenly, and clicked on the link to unsubscribe. If you do that, the spammer now has a CONFIRMED email address, which he can sell for more than he gets for the unconfirmed ones. Those lists are more in demand, and get picked up quickly. Soon you are on even more lists. Or maybe, Bubbadog has his email on his website. There are software programs that simply surf the web all day looking for emails. There are a lot of folks doing that, and you can get on a lot of lists quickly. Either way. The problem isn’t with Yahoo. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/13 "2006-03-16T15:37:05Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > Or maybe, [strike]Bubbadog[/strike] **Aeschines** has his email on his website. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/14 "2006-03-16T15:38:14Z")
okay. What the hell is the strikthrough command? Man. I shouldn’t have gotten out of be this morning. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/15 "2006-03-16T15:40:52Z")
All e-mail clients have some issues with spam–I don’t get much in my inbox anymore (thank you hotmail) but I do have to check my junk-mail periodically for legit mail that gets sent there by mistake–I get little mail so that happens rarely but I’ve had to add both one of my professors and a classmate (both using school e-mail addresses) to my safe list, because they were getting filtered as spam. Fortunately, I’m not receiving a lot of spam either–the only reason filtering is even on for me is because Hotmail did it on it’s own, I was getting that little. I’ve tried the junk e-mail account thing before–I can’t be bothered to keep up with more than one account. Heck, I can’t even be bothered to check my school account, and that’s with a professor who refuses to use my Hotmail address. ---
**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/16 "2006-03-16T16:30:57Z")
Yahoo had a golden age there for a while but has sunk into darkness recently. About a month ago I started receiving spam from legit sounding first and last names with really odd subject lines, ie, “Sublime anorexia couch.” I have been completely inundated with that. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2006, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/17 "2006-03-16T16:45:18Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > okay. What the hell is the strikthrough command? > > Man. I shouldn’t have gotten out of be this morning. [del] [/del] [del]Strike III[/del] ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/18 "2006-03-16T17:17:15Z")
> [@Aeschines](#): > > How long have you had your account open? I’ve had mine since 1999 or so. The spambots find you eventually. I’m not sure exactly, but it’s at least been 3 years. I’m inclined to say more, but I couldn’t be certain. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-yahoo-mail-dead-yet-it-is-for-me/348545/19 "2006-03-16T18:00:19Z")
I’ve had my primary (netcom) email account since I got online about eight years ago. I was tormented by spam until I started using SpamBlocker. Now most spam is automatically deleted. Spam that gets through is easy to delete (and report). People have to be on my list to email me, and I can see those in my suspect email folder. I’ve had a yahoo mail account for a few months. I decided I needed a more ‘professional’ email address for résumés and such. To date, the only ‘spam’ I’ve received has been a couple mass-mailings from people who found my address through my [monster.com](http://monster.com) account. (‘Hello, Jobseeker! We have an opportunuty…’) Those are rare, though. I think I’ve received three. Of course I don’t give that address to anyone. I also have a hotmail account I set up for my late mother. Never use that one. I’m a little miffed at hotmail because of the many, many hotmail addresses that show up in my SpamBlocker.