Spam's a problem. But why don't software vendors provide users the tools they need to fight spam? I'm not talking about filters. I don't think too highly of filters because of the possibility of false positives. But what about plus-aliases? I have two accounts with two different ISPs, and both of these ISPs allow plus-aliases. But in order to use plus-aliases effectively, you must be able to send email using different "From" addresses. From my cursory investigation, neither Outlook nor Outlook Express makes it easy for you to use one POP3 account and use several "From" addresses. I used Eudora for a long time, and it is pretty good in this area. Now I'm using Mozilla, which has some features I like, but doesn't support alternate "From" addresses as well as Eudora does. (Eudora calls them "personalities".
One of my goals for this year is to begin a personal campaign to educate email users everywhere about plus aliases. ISPs should support them. Mail client software should take advantage of them. Web developers should be aware of them. (Many web forms for "registration" reject email addresses that contain a "+" sign.) And users should recognize them an understand them.
Posted by Doug Sauder at January 16, 2003 09:34 AM