Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Spammer until proven innocent

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  • Hadyn Green,

    The sooner Marc Ellis is shipped off to some remote place with no media communication the better.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Mark Easterbrook,

    Here's a factual, non-emotional summary of my recent experiences with Xtra.

    I've been with Xtra for a few years. Before the Great Xtra Migration debacle, I had received maybe half a dozen spam messages - ever - referring to my penis size, cheap prescription drugs, rolex watches and stay-at-home money making opportunities.

    I now receive several a day. Even if Xtra's webmail sends them into the spam box (which is uncommon) I have to manually delete them to stop them being delivered into my Outlook inbox once I get home in the evening.

    Happy customer? Nope.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 265 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Maybe Ellis needs to go one stage further and provide free EEE machines and connections to people who are prepared to click ads all the day. It could become the new pokies.

    I would hope that those having their ads served through mintsauce or whatever it's called aren't under the impression that the clickage is coming from normal punters?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Why on earth would you use your ISP provided email address for *anything*.

    You're locking yourself into the ISP if you do that (not to mention that you often can't send mail when not connected via the ISP).

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Finn Higgins,

    I've got a customer in Auckland at the moment who're having all kinds of hell because - for weird historical reasons - their email is configured to forward to an Xtra POP3 account from a domain default address. As of a couple of months ago Xtra have taken to swallowing everything in their spam filter.

    It's probably possible to try to fight this filtering through Xtra, but given the configuration I don't see the point. Google Apps just added IMAP, might as well just migrate them to that for free...

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    Heh, an email reply from a friend (about Marc Ellis):

    [Ellis] seems to be above the law. The police say they were "disappointed they were not advised." And they do nothing.
    The Police weren't "advised" there were a bunch of people running around the bush in the bay of plenty wearing camo gear and swearing at the government, and they launch operation 'Overlord' to supress it. Ellis sets fire to a national icon and he doesnt even get a 'Market Garden'!

    (I've been watching 'Band of Brothers' lately)

    re: Xtra. I got rid of them ages ago after really bad service, but now I'm worried that my new house won't have Telstra cable!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Can someone tell me this - what parts of Telecom, other than sales and marketing, aren't outsourced?

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • John Farrell,

    Is there any irony in having that ad at he top of the page?

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 499 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    Why on earth would you use your ISP provided email address for *anything*.

    Because most people don't have the knowledge to set up a hosted domain for mail (or the willingness to pay to keep it registered). I know it's really really easy but it's all relative. And it didn't used to be that easy either.

    My observation from managing mailing lists is that there is a class of person who changes email address promiscuously, from hotmail to gmail to ISP to work and back again, blissfully unconcerned with maintaining a consistent identity.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Adrian Wills,

    It's probably worth telling people who don't know (as i'm not sure it's widespread knowledge) that if you own a domain name, you can have Google host your emails via here:

    https://www.google.com/a/

    There's relatively straight forward instructions to setting it up with whomever your domain is through and it means you can setup up to 100 different email addresses at that domain as you please - each one has a massive inbox and google are still the BEST at filtering spam. i still check my spam inbox everynow and then on my gmail - the number of which is always around the (4XXX) mark but never miss an email and perhaps get one spam email a month, if i'm unlucky.

    I've been running my domain through them for 4 months now and have no complaints. Sure it's big brother, but until littler brothers figure out what the hell they're doin, i'm happy!

    Parnell, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 45 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    I had a personal domain and switched to gmail.

    I now have two gmail accounts (social and non-work business) which works well except that gmail doesn't allow me to login to both at once. I really don't see why anyone would use anything else. It's even quite classy to use a gmail account - I think some people still believe it's invite only?

    But then, I have a home page of about:blank in my browser.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Can someone tell me this - what parts of Telecom, other than sales and marketing, aren't outsourced?

    GenI - coz it's a Telecom owned outsourcing (anong other things) company.

    With the Xtra deal, I assume that Yahoo pays Telecom to be set up as the default portal for their customers?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    Why on earth would you use your ISP provided email address for *anything*.

    I ask that question all the time too, but even more I wonder "why would people ever share an email address?" - the idea of doing that just totally freaks me out. If I was in a relationship, I wouldn't be sneaking around on my partner, and I'd happily cohabitate, have a joint bank account, share a toothbrush even if necessary, but an email address? No way!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Finn Higgins,

    I had a personal domain and switched to gmail.

    Why do that when you can use Google Apps and have Gmail on your own domain? The advantages are obvious: You get all the stuff you get with Gmail, but you can set up up to 100 accounts for free and if Google ever do a Hotmail or Xtra and fall behind other mail service providers you can ditch them while retaining control of your existing email addresses.

    Remember folks: a dot-com email address only costs about $15 a year if you buy it from a US registrar, a .co.nz is only $35 from DiscountDomains. Once you own your domain then you can switch providers all you like without losing your email address.

    It amazes me how many expensively painted business vehicles I see with xtra addresses on them. C'mon folks, you're spending thousands on the paint job - why not spend $35 on the damn domain name?

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Adrian Wills,

    On a completely different but desperate note... who is this!!!!!???

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/blogs/hitlist/2007/11/14/get-your-thinking-caps-on/

    Parnell, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 45 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    With the Xtra deal, I assume that Yahoo pays Telecom to be set up as the default portal for their customers?

    The promise of the joint venture was that there was going to be lots of lovely advertising loot via the YahooXtra portal. For various reasons (read the column I linked to) it hasn't worked out that way. Theresa Gattung left Paul Reynolds a real stinker.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • samuel walker,

    I'm not really sure that people who can't afford to buy stuff in the first place are a premium advertising audience.

    if only someone had realised that before they started spending all their money.......

    Since Nov 2006 • 203 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    Would I use this as my principal line? I'm not sure. The call quality seems a bit squawky, and certainly isn't a patch on my bangin' Ihug digital phone, which runs over the Wired Country connection.

    I thought it's a great deal. Fixed line is basically the same price, but all national calls to landlines for free? That's blowing the major competition out of the water.

    I'd have signed up already, except vodafone coverage is no good at my place. To have a decent conversation at my house on my mobile I need to go to one side of the house. It gets better if I stick my head out my lounge window. I'll stick with ihug and see how things develop with options over my broadband.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Rich of Observationz,

    Gmail on your own domain?

    I don't really see any point having a domain for personal use. They have a couple of downsides - anyone who wants can look your contact details up on whois, and they attract spam. Especially one-off, human generated spam that the spam filter can't block.

    I guess I'm taking a risk that Google stuff up. However, we might be only a few years away from some sort of all-pervading social networking identity thing that obsoletes the old-fashioned email address.

    Theresa Gattung left Paul Reynolds a real stinker.

    One of many. Remind me again why she was considered such a business genius?

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    When you think about it, the business case for providing POP email as an ISP sucks.

    You have to invest massive amounts in hardware and staff time to filter out shit that no one wants, and people hate you when you screw it up, which is absolutely inevitable. Unless people use webmail with ads, there's no way to get revenue from it.

    If I were starting a new barebones ISP, I'd say that we don't offer email - email's just another service you can get from a 3rd party - and remove an enormous cost centre from the business. Let those suckers at Google pay for it.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I'd have signed up already, except vodafone coverage is no good at my place. To have a decent conversation at my house on my mobile I need to go to one side of the house. It gets better if I stick my head out my lounge window. I'll stick with ihug and see how things develop with options over my broadband.

    And coverage is the main problem with the offering at the moment. It uses Vodafone's old mobile network, and is thus prone to the same problems -- although we get plenty of signal in Pt Chev. That's why they haven't gone fully national with it yet.

    Price if you make a lot of national calls? Brilliant. For me, in the position of interviewing and being interviewed via the phone, the call quality is a showstopper though. I think it's actually worse than my Telecom landline, although I've yet to try it with handsets other than the ones supplied.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Stephen Judd,

    It's important to you Russell, but voice quality has never made much difference in the mobile market - I doubt that it will in fixed either.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 3122 posts Report Reply

  • JP Hansen,

    Had a look at mintshot yesterday. I *wish* it was tic-tac-toe you played for the minor prizes!

    You play the 'game' for the minor prizes. It's more akin to minesweeper, but with no clues given out when you click a spot. 30 spots on a grid, randomly placed Xs and ticks. Keep clicking until you get an X. The person with the most ticks at closing wins the prize. Each 'game' costs $20 of the Mint dollars or whatever.

    So it does indeed come down to who has the most time to waste.

    Waitakere • Since Nov 2006 • 206 posts Report Reply

  • Gareth Ward,

    Mintshot did leave me scratching my head for a while until I realised that the customers they are trying to hoodwink are your large corporate marketing teams looking for "quantifiable justification".

    Undoubtedly Mintshot will gloss over the fact that the database of responses is likely a fair distance from representative of the market and assure them that they are getting indepth interaction info from people who really care about the brand. And take a nice slice of that $Xmillion advertising budget for doing it...

    Auckland, NZ • Since Mar 2007 • 1727 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    So it does indeed come down to who has the most time to waste.

    And a high tolerance for mindlessness too ...

    Then again, pitching a highly-educated high-earning audience hasn't gone so well for us lately, and I've just written a post highly critical of the advertiser we do have this week, so ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

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