Spam. It's a plague, it's a nuisance and it irritates us all. But what are you actually doing to stop it. In the past I have discussed the complicated operation of Bayesian filters, the pro's and con's of blacklisting, whitelisting and filters. Today I am going to take a slightly different path. Today we are going to discuss the simplest solution of all. A buffer e-mail address.
Now I have previously spoken about the shortcomings of whitelisting, namingly that any 'unexpected' legitimate mail is filtered out right away. There is a rather simple way around this problem, although it takes a little setting up and initial 'faffing around'. That solution is multiple web-based email addresses.
Now I keep three online accounts - one each with the three biggest webmail providers - gmail, yahoo and hotmail. Now all of these mails have their own built in way of dealing with spam, and they are usually quite efficient at it. Hotmail has a black list, a whitelist and a junkmail filter. Yahoo also has a block sender list(black list), custom filters and spamguard, which is a form of communcal Bayesian filter. Yahoo's latest beta version also includes disposable e-mail addresses as a direct measure against spam. The idea is that you whitelist your friends on your main account and then use disposable email addresses for other online activities, such as buying from online stores, or subscribing to a newsletter. When a disposable address gets too much spam mail - you simply delete it and create a new one. Gmail has the fewest options in regards spam-protection, but it also seems to use those options most efficiently. Most spam is caught right away and delivered to your spam folder. I suspect that they use a combination of a personal and a communal bayesian filter for this. You can also set up filters to catch anything that is left over.
Of the three yahoo is a clear winner in it's options for fighting against spam. The disposable e-mail address concept is a great way of organising your online life, provided you have the time to set yourself up properly. Unfortunately Yahoo undoes most of their good work by splashing their own spam all over your mailbox. Yahoo and hotmail also both have the unfortunate habit of completely revamping their website every 3-6 months, leaving you struggling to find some feature or other you previously made very good use of. Gmail, by comparison provides a very clean interface, their advertising does not impose on your email session and when they make modifications they always seem to enhance the site, rather than clutter and disorganise it.
If I were to make personal recommendations I would recommend gmail, followed by yahoo, followed by hotmail, but any of the three are more than useful for creating a 'buffer' email address.
