Some of the problems can be solved as: - Spam: What I do is use different email addresses for each correspondent and service. I can then edit my /etc/aliases f

Some of the problems can be solved as: - Spam: What I do is use different email addresses for each correspondent and service. I can then edit my /etc/aliases file to get rid of addresses which are receiving spam. And as mentioned, some other services also support aliases too, so if you have aliases, then you can do the same kind of things too, perhaps. - HTML email: Just avoid HTML email; plain text is much better. I use email software that doesn't even support HTML email (it will display the plain text part if it is a multipart message, but if not, then the HTML code will be displayed without attempting to render it). - No real privacy, even if you self-host: Well, there is encryption if needed, if you know the recipient's key. However, of course some things will need to be unencrypted in order to transfer the message, such as the recipient's mailbox (although with SMTP over TLS, you can encrypt the username too, even though the target server will still be known). - Attachments fill disks: You could use compression. You can also delete messages you no longer need. You can also program the server to reject messages longer than a certain length. - There is no good support for group discussions: Use NNTP instead. NNTP is a superior alternative to mailing lists and web forums.