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I've been using yopmail for years to avoid spam, but the problem is that a lot of services have blocked yopmail and other disposable email addresses. The nice

I've been using yopmail for years to avoid spam, but the problem is that a lot of services have blocked yopmail and other disposable email addresses. The nice thing with "hide my email" and Fastmails "masked addresses" is that the two services use a popular domain, so sites can't easily block it.

ratww 5y ago
Yep, I used to use Mailinator, sometimes others, but they eventually end up blocked in Marketing-hungry websites. Even myname+random@gmail.com and similar can get blocked from registration on some websites now. The difference here is the power of iCloud. Services can't afford to block it. This is similar to Domain Fronting [1]. Maybe we should call this email fronting? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_fronting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_fronting
- Underphil 5y ago
  This raised a bigger question for me- How did the system get to a point where only big players can set up a service like this?
  - bb88 5y ago
    Email marketing ruined communication for everyone. I once ran my own email server for several years off a domain from no-ip.org running from a local server in my home. Most places accepted email from it just fine, occasionally though some places had their mail server reject my IP because it was in a DNS black hole. Then you had the spoofers pretend to be att.com/verizon.com so they had to implement SPF and DKIM. Then you had to uphold your reputation and the security of your servers otherwise your address would get put on one of the DNS black hole blocks. Worse was if your IP address was already used to send spam -- you somehow had to get the black hole lists to remove your IP. At some point about 15 years ago, I gave up and moved to gmail, and I never really looked back on it again.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ratww 5y ago
    It's not really big players per se, but "domains with a lot of users that I can't block". Which of course means "big players" for regular people. I agree with sibling that the problem is with Email marketing, but for different reasons. Companies are so addicted to spamming users and selling user data that it becomes unacceptable that users might not want to give away their email. Another problem is emails being required for signing up to accounts. Honestly IMHO we gotta get rid of email for signups. I don't know what to replace it with. Hardware keys, maybe?
- bb88 5y ago
  The "+" symbol is easy to detect. The other benefit for apple is that if a generated email address for Home Depot has non Home Depot content, it's easy to block, since it's clear it got sold to a email marketing company. And then Apple can then threaten the corporations to not sell their mailing lists or risk being cut off from sending to icloud, or worse, having a header in the email from Apple saying that "Home Depot doesn't respect your privacy and sells your email address to 3rd party marketing companies. Here's a telephone number where you can complain."
kingcharles 5y ago
I still get sites from time to time that reject custom domains and want an address on yahoo.com, gmail.com etc, which is infuriating. The worst thing is that so many sites have stupid email validation rules. Even cameo.com, which is a mid-size ecommerce site, doesn't accept a lot of TLDs created in the last 8 years, including mine.

ratww 5y ago

Yep, I used to use Mailinator, sometimes others, but they eventually end up blocked in Marketing-hungry websites. Even myname+random@gmail.com and similar can get blocked from registration on some websites now. The difference here is the power of iCloud. Services can't afford to block it. This is similar to Domain Fronting [1]. Maybe we should call this email fronting? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_fronting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_fronting

Underphil 5y ago
This raised a bigger question for me- How did the system get to a point where only big players can set up a service like this?
- bb88 5y ago
  Email marketing ruined communication for everyone. I once ran my own email server for several years off a domain from no-ip.org running from a local server in my home. Most places accepted email from it just fine, occasionally though some places had their mail server reject my IP because it was in a DNS black hole. Then you had the spoofers pretend to be att.com/verizon.com so they had to implement SPF and DKIM. Then you had to uphold your reputation and the security of your servers otherwise your address would get put on one of the DNS black hole blocks. Worse was if your IP address was already used to send spam -- you somehow had to get the black hole lists to remove your IP. At some point about 15 years ago, I gave up and moved to gmail, and I never really looked back on it again.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ratww 5y ago
  It's not really big players per se, but "domains with a lot of users that I can't block". Which of course means "big players" for regular people. I agree with sibling that the problem is with Email marketing, but for different reasons. Companies are so addicted to spamming users and selling user data that it becomes unacceptable that users might not want to give away their email. Another problem is emails being required for signing up to accounts. Honestly IMHO we gotta get rid of email for signups. I don't know what to replace it with. Hardware keys, maybe?
bb88 5y ago
The "+" symbol is easy to detect. The other benefit for apple is that if a generated email address for Home Depot has non Home Depot content, it's easy to block, since it's clear it got sold to a email marketing company. And then Apple can then threaten the corporations to not sell their mailing lists or risk being cut off from sending to icloud, or worse, having a header in the email from Apple saying that "Home Depot doesn't respect your privacy and sells your email address to 3rd party marketing companies. Here's a telephone number where you can complain."

kingcharles 5y ago

I still get sites from time to time that reject custom domains and want an address on yahoo.com, gmail.com etc, which is infuriating. The worst thing is that so many sites have stupid email validation rules. Even cameo.com, which is a mid-size ecommerce site, doesn't accept a lot of TLDs created in the last 8 years, including mine.