Why no Hotmail email address?

[andrejurt 0]

Hello,With amazement I noticed that a hotmail email address is not allowed on Avsim. I have been a *paid* subsciber with hotmail for many years and my ISP email address is only known to my family and some of my clients I've had for a long time.This has been very effective to control the junk mail. So here my question to the Avsim staff: why is a hotmail email account not allowed? And don't try to tell me that it has anything to do with security, because that would be a lie. I have been an IT professional for almost 20 years and I know better than that.My guess is that Avsim reserves the right to sell the email addresses for profit to advertisers / spammers but if you have a good reason other than the above I'd be very interested in it.Andre

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Your "guess" is wrong. We don't allow hotmail accounts (and others) for a very good reason. Hiding behind the anonymity of those accounts encourages some to believe they can get away with or say anything they wish in these forums. We started out by allowing them, but quickly learned our mistake. That's why. And your "guess" about us selling email address is even further off the mark. We do not, have not and will not sell email addresses and that has been our position during nearly 9 years of existence.

[andrejurt 0]

Tom,OK, I see you're using a somewhat different definition of 'security' than me, but I accept your explanation. Of course I do not support people being rude or unpolite and at the same time hiding behind anonumity.At the same time there are no more than about a dozen people / clients having my real ISP email and that has worked like a charm in handling all the junk / spam.Andre

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Andre, I certainly understand the concern about spam and the logic of using something like hotmail as an antidote. However, if you do not post your email address in these forums and only allow Private Messaging in your preferences, you won't see spam resulting from your email address being used here. We have a pretty good way of blocking spiders here.

[Guest iholrf]

>Tom,>>OK, I see you're using a somewhat different definition of>'security' than me, but I accept your explanation.SNIP>AndreI don't actaully. I decided not to persue this topic, but now that you bring it up...I, like you, use Hotmail. I never give out my "real" personal email and I get about two spams a month on it.Any person who has the personality that goes along with consistantly rude and impolite patterns of behaviour knows how simple it is to get literally hundreds (if not thousands) of email addresses. It is so easy to get around online security like this its not even funny.Not allowing the use of Hotmail because of "anonimity" is overkill. The restriction here is the first I have seen of its kind, and I visit forums for work related development that have significantly more traffic than here. Heck, the address I used to log in here could never be used to trace back to me if I so choose.Things were different when this site was first started in '96/7. Hotmail had overly loose policies and a bad rep. The same can not be said now. There is no demonstrible effectivenes for use in the manner described in 2005.I think its time to consider changing the policy as it really is unfair to Hotmail users.ThanksShad

[C-JEAN 1]

Hi, all.If we had to vote in a pool we would vote for:================================ We do NOT want "Hotmail TYPE" addresses here for thereasons mentionned in previous messages (hidding).================================ Maybe you, Tom and Shad and... I, we would be matureenough, for AVSIM to trust us with our Hotmail typeaddresses, BUT I DON'T TRUST many other usersthat would abuse of the anonimity ! ! !( OK OK, I know "real" can be tricked, but it issurely done by very few... jerks ). B-)=============================So PLEASE, site admins, do not change that !Real addresses only, is fine for us !=============================( And I have VERY RARELY spam type messages! ). I know what to do, and what not to do, on the nets.I do public type connections since the IBM XT 5 Mhzcompatible clones, and the good old days of BBS. With Hotmail type ones ??? It could get awfull !!It could be miserable on forums, and flying online.Blue skies.

[mgh 89]

I constrast to you, I have found many sites that that don't allow the use of "anonymous" email addresses.Apart from the point about abuse, anonymous addresses allow a banned user to return almost immediately under another name. I've seen this happen several times, with the poster boasting about it! Banning them again imposes a further, uneccesary workload on the administrators.Also, for legal reasons, site operators need to take all reasonable measures to protect themselves agains claims agains libel or breaches of criminal law. They can hardly claim to have done that by allowing untraceable posters to use their site.Finally, this is a private site and can adopt whatever rules it likes as long as it doesn't break any laws. I don't think discriminating against hotmail users is yet a criminal offence.

[Guest silverfern]

Its a misconception though that you can hide behind a hotmail address or other free address.As soon as you send someone a email with it the ISP address you sent it thru is logged in the body of the message. Biggest mistake is made by those who use a hotmail address rather than there regular email address to send malicous emails to people.I know I tracked someone back who tried it to me :)

[mgh 89]

Many dial-up services use dynamic ISP addresses, allocating a different address at logon-on.

[Guest silverfern]

Thats assuming they realise there mistake! This person did not and was caught even if they did relogon the part of the ISP address that indicates the server dont change. The server can then trace and match the IP user at the time of the email. Remember there is no international law governing privacy is up to individual countries.