Efficiency Tip #91 – Junk Email

There is no way to avoid junk mail.  The UF email servers get several hundred thousand email messages each day, and the percentage of non-junk mail is approaching single digits.  Right now, we are at 90% junk mail and that number is rising.

There is nothing you can do to avoid junk mail.  Any time you are asked for an email address, there is a good chance you will end up on someone’s spam list.  That will generate junk mail for you.

Here is something that I have done for ten years to reduce my own volume of junk.  I only give my dog’s address out to people I don’t know.  Any time an online form (Flickr, Delicious, etc) asks for an email address, I give them

scooby@trustyetc.com

For years it was

alvinsdog@hotmail.com (free email)

but once I got my own server, I brought it in-house.

There are two important notes concerning this process.

1 – I still get junk mail, but less of it comes to my main email address.
2 – I am using a real email address for my junk.  If I must get into that account to get something like a confirmation link, I can do it.  The important stuff is usually right there at the top of all the junk mail.

If you are in a hurry and don’t have time to setup an account, use Mailinator.  You can send a message to any address and the server automatically creates an account on the fly.  The email is only stored for two hours, but with no password.  Like I said, you do this when you are in a hurry and security isn’t important.  If you send something to

alvinsdog@mailinator.com

the account will be automatically created and you can go to the web site and check the message without the bother of setting up another email address for spam.

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