What is Digg?122 Comments
- acrodev, on 10/10/2007, -0/+72Or you can get a single permanent account and forward traffic from there.
Perhaps from domain ownership, which is 100% portable. - KevenM, on 10/10/2007, -3/+68Duh. It's called GMail.
- ccheath, on 10/10/2007, -0/+42what if your email provider is not US based... there's no way they'll ever abide by some US regulation
IMHO the idea's just dumb - justinjstark, on 10/10/2007, -1/+36Yes, let's force more rules and regulation upon the internet. Great idea.
- wjackson, on 10/10/2007, -0/+31No.
- funchords, on 10/10/2007, -1/+28Having had several ISPs, I learned quickly that it is a mistake to use the ISP's e-mail account as a primary e-mail address. For a long time, I used the service offered by bigfoot.com -- still at http://www.bigfoot.com/ef/en/index.jsp and still free. But I finally got my own domain.
- strictnein, on 10/10/2007, -0/+24"They should at least offer to continue forwarding your mail. Doesn't take any space on their servers.."
But it does take bandwidth. And server resources. And maintenance. - yoda17, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19The FCC should require that the ISPs give money to me. I like that.
- clearwaterlab, on 10/10/2007, -0/+16Yeah, really, get with the program, N00bs
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18Email portability isn't realistic since any other ISP or email service could easily have that name slot filled. However, a year or two of forwarding to your new address is a good idea and definitely feasible. As someone already mentioned above, use your own domain. :) I, on the other hand, have allowed Gmail to take over my life and be the central landing point for all my personal domain names even though most still go through publicly owned domains.
- jcaino, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14seriously...domains are pretty cheap and you can use a domain with google/gmail and you dont even need a hosting plan per se.
edit: not to mention the mess and headache this would take to implement. other domains/server's would be receiving mail from any other domain...it would be a messy thing to do. - strictnein, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Thankfully, the article itself explains why this one of the stupidest ideas out there.
- maexus, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11No, this is a stupid idea. The big difference between email and a phone number is that you can maintain an email address completely vendor independent from your own home if you so wish. Also an area code isn't the same as a email domain when it comes to grouping the email name/phone number.
- pintomp3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9how many people actually use the email addresses from their ISPs?
- pixel, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10As soon as you're born, you should a Gmail account, good for life.
- ccheath, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8uhh... that's not what I said... thanks for the interpretation though...
I would counter that the US shouldn't try and regulate the internet, since it is a worldwide medium
The US does have the power to regulate it's citizens, but I don't really agree with that position either... freedoms and all, you know? - jcaino, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7dumbest. idea. ever.
as someone who works at a web hosting company, this may give me a nightmare tonight...
offering a transition period for an e-mail address is one thing; but permanently? - marc2242, on 10/10/2007, -3/+10I can't say that I really care either way.
- diggik, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8It's a good thing there is no physical equivalent for home addresses (other than temporary forwards). Just imagine the piles of junk mail headed for all of your old residential addresses. It's bad enough I get the last resident's junk.
- amrush4th, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6It's a good business practice to offer mail forwarding...making it law? That's what happens when people who don't get the internet get together and try to make ***** up. We need a test that a law maker must pass in order to deal with internet age related issues.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Its just for that reason that I purchased my own domain names. You also want to buy a business one, and a personal one. If you have a business (if you run your own business), and sell it at a later date, you will probably loose your email account unless you make it a part of deal in the sale of your company/business.
I have been able to host my own email since 1997 on my own domain. Its been great. I always hear about comcast this / AT&T that, roadrunner this, some other cable company name that. Where each time the merge, get bought, sold what ever, your email address changes. Now usually they will forward for you, but it certainly is not an effective way to do business. Shoot. People mentioned gmail here.. Here is a better option :
1) Buy domain < $10.00 /yr (use registrar to do DNS, or use something like xname.org)
2) Host for free w/ google - familiar interface, and pop3/smtp access if you like.
https://www.google.com/a/org/
3) If you don't like google, move your email elsewhere.
4) Be happy - you have your own email you can take with you where ever you want. - cal0140, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7jcaino is right.
This would require an overhaul of every popular email system, and go all the way up to needing a paradigm shift away from MX records. This ain't happening soon, folks. - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5This suggestion is totally ignorant. A domain costs what, $18?
Strap it on and get a domain. - turpenine, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6"I have no strong feeling one way or another" neutral leader.
- diggduggjoe, on 10/10/2007, -3/+8The fact is telephone and mail can not ever be owned by yourself. Anyone on the planet can buy a domain for peanuts.
Stop crying like a baby and take control of your freaking life. It is not surprising considering the wimps that modern civilization has spawned.
Need a tissue? F off! - eviltuxking, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5You're a dork. A lucky dork. A dork who actually reproduced.
- vvaduva, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Great idea...that's what we need..a bunch of U.S. bureaucrats dictating how to handle e-mail addressing. Let's do it!! :)
- dickbain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5E-mail address portability would be impractical if not impossible to implement. Example: If you send an e-mail to goon@host.net, your outbound mail server dpes a dns record lookup for host.net. It will find the ip for host.net and forward the message to a host.net smtp server. Portability would require host.net to then forward it to another server 3rd party server. It requires the original host to maintain permanent forwarding for life. What if the original host doesn't renew the domain? What happens if you switch your address to another host again? If this were implemented, I would expect mail reliability to become poor and tons of pointless traffic would begin dragging the internet down.
- pnmoore, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4First off I will say this is a stupid idea for email. Not nearly the same issues that caused telephone numbers to be made portable.
This is not how it would actually have to work, however. It could work just as telephone number portability works - In today's telecom world every number has another attribute behind the scenes called the LRN (Location Routing Number). This number indicates where your number currently resides (the actual voice switch for your particular provider which houses and provides service for your number). Every voice switch is has an LRN (kind of like a unique IP for a server).
There is also a national database that numbers are added to for "portability" reasons. When you make a call this database is dipped to find the current valid LRN. This is then used to route the call to the appropriate voice switch. For example - when you have service with AT&T your LRN may be 555-555-9999. The database knows to route your number to the switch with that LRN when someone dials your number. If you "port" your number to Verizon your LRN would change to say 444-444-0100. Now all calls to your number will route to the switch assigned that LRN. This is a gross simplification of the process, but is pretty much how it works (I was on the implementation team for one of the telecoms when LNP [Local Number Portability] was first rolled out).
A national database of email addresses would have to be created and maintained by somebody (big $'s since email addresses are created on the fly, and MUCH more complicated to maintain than for telephone numbers where you have to get the number from a regulated company). Then every email sent would have to dip that national database to see where it really needed to go.
That works great for telephone, but is stupid for email! - tfitzgerald, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5hmm sounds like people should start buying domains, look the domain isn't expensive, and the hosting of that email domain is cheap.
- harlowsmonkeys, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4As many have pointed out, the problem is already solved for email--just get your own domain and decouple your email address from whatever ISP you happen to use.
What I would like to see is portable addresses for *physical* mail. You should be able to get from the post office two permanent addresses (probably would just be numbers, similar to PO box numbers), and you tell the post office the physical address you want these to go to. If you move, you just tell the post office to change the mapping. Your senders do not have to know.
(Why two? One would be kept private--the post office would not tell senders where it is mapped. The other would not be private. Anyone could ask, and the post office would tell them the physical address. This would allow using this second one as a shipping address for other services. E.g., if FedEx had a package for you at the second virtual address, they could query the post office to find your current physical address). - Drahkar, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4I think she is just one of those poor souls who think that a Federally mandated everything is the proper way to live life because they are fundamentally inept at living their own life and being responsible for their own actions.
- av4rice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4No, I don't want spam from my old emails to get forwarded to me.
- peregrine, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5no the best part of the internet is anonimity, if you have one email they can trace your ass.
If i want to go to a porn site I make a fake email then use it if need be. I dont want anyone even having the ability to spy on me. I don't care about child molesters or drug dealers or w/e.
THIS IS A BAD IDEA> - jcaino, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4um....so the ISP typically owns the domain.
this would result in either a ton of forwarding or god knows what for getting your new ISP your old mail.
not only that, but you're going to be bringing more points of failure in. while a phone number can be easily re-assigned, e-mail is another monster all together. this would be a nightmare to try and implement. - Cambo, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5ummm .forward?
- starsky51, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I bet you phone in to TV opinion polls and vote 'Not sure'
- diggduggjoe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Technically, that is true, but it is far better than any control you get over your telephone or snail mail. It is far better than renting your home, as long as you pay and do not commit crimes, it will be yours until you die. Of course, the Internet could become obsolete, but then who will give a damn.
Simple fact is with such a law, I would NEVER let anyone use an account on my domains. Who would want the liability of hosting mail for others forever. - DigitAl56K, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Agree 100% with everyone who suggested getting your own domain name. It'll cost you about $10/yr.
One thing I would not recommend, however, is entrusting your e-mail service to a free provider, even GMail. It's way too easy to have your account canceled because somebody claims you've spammed them (or some similar offense under what is usually a very broad terms of service). Hotmail has in past been called out for doing this, for example.
I've been using LunarPages for a long time now, for ~$80/yr I get up to 350GB of storage, 3500GB of bandwidth, a catch-all e-mail address (SMTP/POP3/IMAP), and as many additional e-mail accounts as I care to set up. I barely even use the web hosting (though it's useful when I need to share files with family and friends), but having moved e-mail providers several times now I wish I had simply spent what is really a very small amount of money to have my own e-mail hosting years ago. - bib4tuna, on 10/10/2007, -5/+8anyone not using gmail doesnt deserve to have abilities
- DigitAl56K, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Wanted to add: E-mail address portability is a really, really bad idea. You would essentially be relying on your old service provider to continue to provide you with reliable service even though they see no value in you any more (you're no longer their customer). The first spam complaint they got, even if it was fake, would probably see them shutting down your account with no recourse because you no longer have any kind of service agreement with them and they'd be desperate to find reasons to close ex-subscriber accounts.
- grumpyrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3What if you print it ;p
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html - drewish, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3written by someone totally in the dark. for the love of god, get a clue. This is inherently stupid, and NOT TO MENTION, email is already portable. www.godaddy.com and buy a freakin domain.
- Nerys, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I love junk mail. I really do. its free home heating. I shred it and soak it in water. I them compress the goop into BRICKS that burn surprisingly well and surprisingly like wood :-) I could not heat my home solely on this (and our wood burner will only really heat one room leaking a little heat into another but it DOES reduce our heating expenses measurably (about 15-18%) Wood can be expensive so junk mail reduces our wood load. Now that I know it works I just have to figure out how to assembly line the production of these paper logs :-)
SO please send me ALL the junk mail you want. Costs me nothing. Now junk e-mail thats another issue. It costs me and does NOTHING for me :-) - expert01, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4I foresee a situation where email is bounced in an endless loop from GMail to AOL to Yahoo to MSN, with none of them deleting forwarded mail. I wonder how long it would take for a single message to fill up a gmail account...
- Genma, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3that's the only solution that would make sense, not something the auther of this petition would understand I guess. it's amusing how she says there's "no technical reason at all" not to do this. when anyone it would matter to, with any basic "technical" understanding of how email works would have their own domain anyways.
- OwdenBowden, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2If you have an AOL email address (e.g ME@aol.com) and you want portability like with phone numbers, you should understand that AOL owns the domain (as do most email providers) so to take your email address and make it portable you would have to own aol.com. And that will not happen. Another idea, and a better one at that, is to create a new domain like telephone.com and use that as the universal domain for all phone numbers. So if you have a Phone number that is portable then you email address would be YourPhoneNumber@Telephone.com (and that would also include all phone services like cell numbers.
- bungoman, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Whoever came up with this idea is dumb and doesn't understand that not everything on the internet is analogous to something in the real world. Also, the government should have no say in anything on the internet, ever, period. They'll only ***** it up.
- Nerys, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2actually I do not mind this. The trick is to teach them not to get spammed so badly (I gave my sister an e-mail address and she must have put that address in EVERY single e-mail entry form she could find. within a MONTH she was geting 30+ thousand message a WEEIK !!! holy S&%T I cut her off and said NO more e-mail for you. She learned REALLY uick not to do that :-) ie you do it once if they abuse it you educate warn and redo. No third strike. 2nd strike your out goto gmail and have fun :-)
-
Show 51 - 100 of 123 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is