response 1 of 45:

Feb 17 16:41 UTC 2003

The argument historically has been:

  - providing mail service is something like our tertiary goal.
  - the demand for mail service is high, as seen by the size of the free
    commerical mail servers.
  - if we provided fully convenient mail service then we would be innundated
    with users who use Grex only as a mail service.  Few of them would donate
    to the system, many resources would be consumed.

So we've been leery of proving POP-mail or web-mail.

response 5 of 45:

Feb 21 16:03 UTC 2003

I use squirrelmail on my site. It's a good option considering that my company
has blocked every known source of webmail for me

response 7 of 45:

Feb 21 21:21 UTC 2003

They've blocked the more popular ones, and whne they catch people using others
they block those too. I have an accout on yahoo, and don't think it worth it
making an account on an obscure webmail server, just so i can check it at
work.

response 9 of 45:

Feb 22 03:06 UTC 2003

They haven't blocked telnet yet, which is how I bbs from work. I'm not
desperate about getting email at work. If at all I require it, squirrelmail
on my site suffices.

response 11 of 45:

Feb 23 05:05 UTC 2003

Hi to all
It happens in most of companies that they block email sites..what they all have
to do is to block the site which conatain the keyword "mail, free mail " in
their META tags.So its not that wierd its common and i would like to ask keesan
(#8) why he like this website email.seznam.cz that much. I have been there but
I found it pretty badly organised when I opt for english version the next link
it shows was in the language that dunno...so don't u suggest this website to
anymore... thanx regards mukesh :) 

response 13 of 45:

Feb 23 14:18 UTC 2003

If Grex implements web-based e-mail, Grex will just get blocked by
all the companies which block web-mail providers. 

Then there is the CPU overhead of web-anything.  PicoSpan is very
efficient, and runs quickly even on a heavily-loaded system.  In
contrast, Backtalk is many times as CPU-consumptive, which probably
accounts for a lot of the slowness of Grex during peak hours.  (The
major part of the CPU load may come from other factors, but PicoSpan
runs much faster than Backtalk during those times.)

Now you, greycell, are suggesting that we add ANOTHER CPU-hog utility
to our already-oversubscribed Grex.  Do you really have a grey cell?

I offer a counter-proposal:  eliminate off-site e-mail service to
new accounts.  That will remove a lot of load on Grex's CPU and
net connection, and make everything else much better for everyone.

response 15 of 45:

Feb 23 21:41 UTC 2003

Russ has a tendancy to confuse ignorance with stupidity, I think.

response 17 of 45:

Feb 24 15:41 UTC 2003

re13> You've been proposing that we stop external email t onew user accounts.
Of course you do. YOu already have outgoing email, that change wouldn't affect
you. However, that's pretty unfair to new users. And what about old users
whose accounts have been reaped, and need to make a new account?

That solution smacks of short-sightedness and selfish reasons. If you think
that resources that grex has does not permit external email, then I think that
the external email should be provided to people who are contributing to the
physical resources in some way, like maybe paid members, rather than how long
the users have been on Grex.

No, I'm not proposing that we let only paidd users use mail forexternal
purposes. And no, what is decided either way doesn't affect me. I don't use
grex of external mail, and don't think I ever will.

response 19 of 45:

Feb 25 04:09 UTC 2003

Next russ will be proposing a Pat Buchanon-like wall to keep out 
everyone that's not from America *rolls eyes*