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April 21, 2003
Lovely Spam
I remember signing up for my free Hotmail email account back in 1996. Since then, the service's user base has grown to the tens of millions, and so has the spam. Over this weekend my inbox accumulated over 30 unsolicited emails for various products and services, most of which are inappropriate for anyone under 40.
This came as a surprise to me, since I had set up an elaborate system of filters (over 30) to weed out the spam. Occasionally some would slip through, but on average I could expect less than 5 a day. That was until this weekend.
It turns out Microsoft has now put a limit of 10 filters, in addition to its inbox size cap, for non-paying Hotmail members. Now, being that it's a free service with an exponentially growing user base, I can understand the need for these restrictions. The problem is, even if I start paying for the service (which I won't), I'll still get inundated with spam. So I guess I have two options:
- Stop using Hotmail. This would also mean I would need a new Messenger log-in, and the spam cycle would start anew.
- Empty my inbox of spam manually every other day, lest I go over my size limit.
I bet the guys who sold Hotmail to Microsoft are laughing all the way to the bank.