When e-mail first became popular in the 1990s, it was viewed as
nothing short of wonderful. There was no need to go to the post
office, no need to purchase paper or stamps, and no waiting days
for a reply. People could easily and quickly send written
messages to anyone else with an e-mail address. Life was good.
Then, abuses by commercial entities began to creep in and ruin
the fun. These spoilers were playing the numbers, and sending
out to millions of addresses that had been bought, stolen, or
otherwise obtained. They knew that if only an extremely small
percentage of those receiving their spam advertisements were to
respond, this would generate enough money to make the exercise
worthwhile. So communication was changed to reflect this abuse.
No longer was e-mail freely sent between writers. Now there
were filters for e-mail accounts. Internet Service Providers
(ISPs) were also on the lookout for spammers using their
services. Something as simple as sending out a newsletter
could prove tricky. If the ISP thought someone was engaging
in spamming, or had received complaints about unwanted emails
from recipients, the ISP could move quickly to shut the
newsletter, and sender, down. An easy way to avoid these
issues is by using a service such as the phantom writers
(http://thephantomwriters.com), which distributes to thousands
of sources, and leaves the writer free to create.
Safety has become a watchword for e-mail. Before opening any
message, it's important to recognize who the sender is. Going
beyond the enormous clutter caused by spam, computer viruses
abound, and many people are quite rightly hesitant to open any
sort of attachment.
Some web based e-mail accounts are not as good as others. Many
have size limits, forcing one to either pay up for more space
or open additional accounts. Some are difficult to access,
even when the correct password is used. With some of the
filters used, one never knows how much mail that is actually
wanted isn’t getting through the electronic walls.
Perhaps a better option is to use a password protected, secure
web site where only those you invite have access -- for the
times when you care about receiving communication. In this
way, messages can be sent directly, safely, and virus free,
to the intended reader. Keep the e-mail account for “junk”
correspondence.
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