| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 09:15:55
How would you like to pay per email you send? Or have your email program give preferential service to those emails that were paid for, putting them at the top of email inboxes, perhaps delaying other emails that were sent free and clear? You know, for now, until free email is something that we tell our kids about like 8-track tapes and CDs.
Well, it's on the way. Yahoo! and AOL are both implementing a scheme that starts to do this. Who benefits? Well, Yahoo! and AOL of course. It's a mixed blessing for spammers/'corporate newsletters' as they get guaranteed delivery but now have to pay. But certainly, the end user does NOT benefit.
There's already plenty of discussion on the net for those who want to know more, but I'm pretty against this and if you are using either AOL or Yahoo! as your email provider, I strongly plead for you to switch to Google or even <gulp> Hotmail. Don't support companies that are trying to use the internet to suck you dry by changing the very reason the internet exists as it does. My two cents.
 "If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Crispy Water |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 17:17:08
quote:
Originally posted by VoVat
It's obviously a stupid idea, but I don't know what the odds are that it will actually happen. Don't stories like this come up all the time, and rarely amount to anything?
I thought the same, but something must be more serious now because this story even made the front page of my local paper one day last week.
Nothing is ever something. |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 14:21:42
Nope, wouldn't be worth it. They won't be billing us until after they can justify the price upward enough to make it worth while, and even then it'll probably be a flat rate/month.
In the meantime, your inbox will have more spam than ever and yahoo/aol will make money as a result of it.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| VoVat |
Posted - 02/08/2006 : 14:07:07
It's obviously a stupid idea, but I don't know what the odds are that it will actually happen. Don't stories like this come up all the time, and rarely amount to anything?
quote:
I've heard the idea of charging an incredibly low rate (like 1/100 cent per email) that would mean little to us, but would add up for spammers.
But if they charged these fees to EVERYBODY, how would they collect them from regular users who don't send many e-mails? You can't very well bill someone for a fraction of a cent, can you?
"If you doze much longer, then life turns to dreaming. If you doze much longer, then dreams turn to nightmares." |
| Daisy Girl |
Posted - 02/07/2006 : 19:03:31
It's very intersting hearing this. My husband was the one who got me onto AOL. I will pass on this info to him. Thanks for the info. |
| jediroller |
Posted - 02/07/2006 : 10:35:01
Thanks, Dean. Not perfect (can't organize bookmarks, can't access bookmarks via toolbar, and the strangest one: can't link to feeds that are not in French!), but a good enough start. If Y! kicks me out...
--> FREE MUSIC <-- |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/07/2006 : 06:49:30
I think it's wide open now, but if not I also have invites sitting around. There's a Google toolbar too but I don't use any toolbars so I don't know what features it has/doesn't.
What you can do (and what I do) is actually have a personalized Google homepage. You can decide what RSS feeds you want on there and add whatever links you want to it. Makes google.com load a little slower, but handy to have all that info at your fingertips. I wrote a little thing about all the uses of Google (http://dean.katsiris.com/2006/01/everything-coming-soon-to-internet.php), and here's a screenshot to save you some reading:
http://dean.katsiris.com/uploaded_images/google.jpg
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| jediroller |
Posted - 02/07/2006 : 00:43:49
Do you still need an invitation to register on Gmail? I can offer a few of these, I already have 2 Gmail accounts that I don't use (yet).
I like Yahoo because of the toolbar. It's nice to be able to access your bookmarks whatever the machine you use. Oh well.
--> FREE MUSIC <-- |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 14:00:16
Exactly. It creates a class system AND allows spammers relatively cheap access past the spam filter AND blackmails legit companies into paying so they're not filtered AND is only the beginning.
I'm shutting down my Yahoo account as of tonight.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| Llamadance |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 13:03:40
Something I guess I would be worried about.
quote:
So a "business class" email will go straight to an AOL-subscriber's inbox marked with a stamp saying "AOL Certified Email" while a free email will have to run the gamut of AOL spam filters. Free mails may also have images and web links removed.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/02/06/aol_yahoo_charge_emails/
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
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| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 11:10:29
Yeah, they've been touting that as the reason, darwin, but I'm not sure I buy it. Many spammers are already not following the rules of ediquette (I'd argue by definition that all of them are not) so how would them paying or not paying make a difference? They could continue to spam without paying. Or, for that matter, pay a little. What it WOULD do is ensure that people sending bulk email AND paying get a guaranteed pass through the spam filters. The stipulation is that it would have to include an unsubscribe link, but who clicks on those? Most of them just unsubscribe you from the current list and add you to a list of confirmed recipients to resell.
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| PixieSteve |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 10:11:52
a lot of the uses of email are covered by IMs, blogs, message boards... i wouldn't really be bothered if free email became 2nd class. i would fight to keep free email as an option though.
Your mum |
| darwin |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 10:07:45
Isn't this switch being justified (correctly or incorrectly) as a way to lower spam? I've heard the idea of charging an incredibly low rate (like 1/100 cent per email) that would mean little to us, but would add up for spammers. But, I agree it probably is the beginning of a tiered system like regular mail. |
| Cult_Of_Frank |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 09:52:43
Well, I guess if the fallout from a proposal like this was that Yahoo et al lost a bunch of their users just from the proposal, it might die before it is born. If people are indifferent or don't switch, they'll see no reason not to press on. Google still makes a lot of money advertising in Gmail, so if they see users switching from Yahoo/AOL en masse as a result of this, would it be wise of them to do it. As for philanthropy, I still think they do have the best interests of the internet's users in mind, and that they retain a lot of the talent they have and users loyalty by maintaining that. Same with freesaskachewanemail.com. Except I never receive any mail there because noone spells it properly. :)
And yeah, Llama, if you use your ISP's mail then I'd agree that you are already paying for it. Otherwise, you generally pay by having ads. And no, of course the news release doesn't talk about 'perhaps delaying' or any possible negative aspects. BUT, if you're sending out thousands of emails, millions even, at 1 cent, you're still going to want SOMETHING out of your return that you wouldn't get sending it for free. Which means that either:
a) Preferential service based on moving other emails down in the inbox.
b) Faster times than regular emails. Given that servers currently use best effort send-now schemes, there is no way they can send faster than that. Which means, my friend, that the only way to make this email faster is to slow other mail down.
c) Eliminate free mail so there is no standard to compare against.
Maybe there are other ways to create a tiered system for email that don't hurt the end user's experience, but I haven't thought of it yet (please share).
"If we hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate." |
| jediroller |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 09:37:15
How long before Gmail goes the same way though? Google hardly strikes me as a philanthropic venture. But I promise I'll switch to freesaskatchewanmail as soon as it's available.
--> FREE MUSIC <-- |
| Llamadance |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 09:35:36
I actually consider that I do pay for email through my ISP.
As for this, I assume that anyone who does pay to send email will have obvious and meaningful unsubscribe links, under penalty. And as you say 'perhaps delaying' other emails. Not set in stone is it? I would imagine the end user may benefit by getting less insidious spam as a result, with the companies bearing the cost.
I use BTYahoo as my ISP, and I would be surprised if this impacted on my email 'times'
Hmm, that's a point, if you use any of the above email clients with POP forwarding, it won't matter who your email is with, all that matters is your ISP server. (I'm not sure if I've put that across well)
That which does not kill me postpones the inevitable.
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| kathryn |
Posted - 02/06/2006 : 09:33:05
Also worth thinking about:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/chester
The End of the Internet?
The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.
I got some heaven in my head
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