Hotmail Cracks Down on Spam

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Posted by michael on Tuesday September 28, 2004 @01:14AM from the improved-profit-margin dept.

Magmar writes "The team at Microsoft has decided to restrict free users from using Outlook and Outlook Express for managing email. This is going to be reserved for those who will pay for their accounts. The reason given for restricting the WebDav access of Outlook and Outlook Express is to prevent spammers from abusing the free service."

23 of 427 comments (clear)

Hotmail Cracks Down on Spam? by hendridm · 2004-09-28 01:17 · Score: 4, Funny

Isn't that a little like Borders announcing they're cutting back on books?

/still waiting for Yahoo IMAP
Ummm... by merlin_jim · 2004-09-28 01:18 · Score: 4, Funny

Additionally, Microsoft announced in this article that the upgrade of free email accounts from 2 MB to 250 MB had run into a snag with Microsoft not anticipating the storage that user of the free email accounts.

Complete sentences people. This statement doesn't even parse lexically, let alone make sense.

I'm going to assume the poster meant '... not anticipating the amount of storage that users with free email accounts would utilize' or something to that effect...

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1. Re:Ummm... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 01:19 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Complete sentences people.
  
  Use complete sentences, people.
2. Re:Ummm... by JonTurner · 2004-09-28 01:23 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  >>Complete sentences people. This statement doesn't even parse lexically, let alone make sense.
  
  Welcome to Slashdot.
3. Re:Ummm... by gowen · 2004-09-28 01:39 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Dude, like, y'know, American college students *are* like totally a non-English speaking workforce.
  
  --
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4. Re:Ummm... by mikael · 2004-09-28 01:57 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  Complete sentences people. This statement doesn't even parse lexically, let alone make sense.
  
  Obviously, visited anyone on the planet Dagobah, you have never.
  
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Re:Here is - by Rev+Wally · 2004-09-28 01:20 · Score: 1, Funny

Microsoft not anticipating the storage that user of the free email accounts.
Acctually, that doesn't even seem to ber a matter of bad grammar. It sounds more like a really bad translation from a Japanese instruction manual.

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Hotmail by CaptainZapp · 2004-09-28 01:21 · Score: 4, Funny

Well, in times whhere you can get 1GB mail storage for free with a sleek interface and pop3 access (informally) announced Hotmail seems to make as much sense as, uh the Microsoft Windows XP Starter Edition.

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mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
WebDAV and Outlook!? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 01:25 · Score: 0, Funny

I've had my account since HoTMaiL first came online, before Microsoft bought it. And now for the first time ever I find out there is WebDAV access... just as they announce that it's gonna be killed. Dammit, gimme back my karma!
Quck summary of next 200 posts by grifter7 · 2004-09-28 01:25 · Score: 5, Funny

25 complaning about the grammar in the article

50 complaining how much Hotmail sucks and why not just use Gmail

50 complaining about how much Outlook sucks and why not use a open alternative

75 complaning about how much Microsoft sucks

2 haikus

24 calling for the death penaly for spammers

8 trying to link to JPEG exploits

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Free GMail invite with Free iPods!
1. Re:Quck summary of next 200 posts by cynicalmoose · 2004-09-28 01:41 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  And 20 pointing out that:
  
  25+50+50+75+2+24+8 != 200
  
  --
  Exercise your right not to vote. thinkoutside.org
2. Re:Quck summary of next 200 posts by evslin · 2004-09-28 02:57 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  In Soviet Russia, the lame jokes make the A/C's!
  
  Uhhhh ....yeah
Re:Great Idea by Minwee · 2004-09-28 01:33 · Score: 2, Funny

Well that all depends on what your definition of "spam" is. And what your definition of "is" is, for that matter.
Here at Microsoft, we define "spam" as "a non-paying customer". We have implemented innovative new "spam filters" which discard legitimate email which would otherwise have been delivered to freeloaders, but that wasn't as effective at driving away the dead weight as we had hoped. The next step is to raise the fees on all of our free accounts and see how that will positively impact our revenue stream.
and 1 free iPod sig (your's!) by MarkEst1973 · 2004-09-28 01:41 · Score: 4, Funny

and 1 jackass with a free iPod sign.
Re:Here is - by aussie_a · 2004-09-28 01:42 · Score: 3, Funny

I would think this wouldn't have gotten past the eds...

You're new here aren't you?
Re:Why ya gotta say it like that by generic-man · 2004-09-28 02:06 · Score: 4, Funny

Because Gmail is beta. You are forbidden from saying anything about Gmail while it's in beta.

Before Gmail gets out of beta, they will add a second GB of storage, free POP and IMAP support, and a professional-grade API for mail checking utilities.

Trust me. I heard it from this guy on a message board who saw a link from a blog on a web site that this one guy who delivers coffee supplies to Google once heard this information.

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Spammers - criminal activity by LightSail · 2004-09-28 02:09 · Score: 2, Funny

Gee, Hotmail wants a paid account for me to use Hotmail to generate spam... Now where is that stolen credit card list??
Re:How could they not know? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 02:13 · Score: 1, Funny

Callcenters have less operators then (sic) customers.

What's this now? Since when? I think I need to rethink my callcenter deployment plans...
Roomers (keeping the naming convention) by Bin_jammin · 2004-09-28 02:13 · Score: 2, Funny

Does anyone remember the rumors a few months ago of Microsoft buying out Google? Perhaps this is a plot to drive users away from Hotmail straight into the arms of Gmail. Secret agents working at MS for Google? Or perhaps it's so MS can force Google to do the developement work out of house, work out all the bugs and issues, then when Gmail is out of beta, snap up every outstanding share of Google at any price.
Re:How about.... by psyon1 · 2004-09-28 03:07 · Score: 2, Funny

Havent people with Outlook (not exppress) already paid quite a bit to use Outlook in the first place?
Slashdot outsourced to Asia? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 04:07 · Score: 1, Funny

Has Slashdot been outsourced to Asia? The sentence structure seems to be about the same quality as one might receive in an e-mail from Dell tech support.

...or maybe this is just the editors' clever way of showing that techs in Asia ARE just as capable of communicating as their U.S. counterparts?

Naaah. Couldn't be.
Re:No lie. (Gmail please!) by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 04:09 · Score: 1, Funny

So that's c4@outgun.com right?
Re:tcp/25 SHOULD be blocked by Anonymous Coward · 2004-09-28 04:52 · Score: 1, Funny

Hmm...yeah, that sounds about right.