VFEmail.net

Hi Rick,

After having been a free-account subscriber for a very short while I decided to sign up for a Bronze account.

Now I would have a good use for aliases but unfortunately with Bronze accounts one can only have permanent aliases and this is not really useful.

An extension alias is not the best solution either since it displays the real account name first like: USER-alias@vfemail.net, and not: alias@USER.vfemail.net (I prefer the last one).

Why do you only offer permanent aliases for Bronze when setting up a Copper account gives the possibility to have a new account name that can be dumped anytime? Loyal Bronze subscribers would deserve 3 changeable aliases.

There is a provider in Germany (arcor.de, a Vodafone brand) that allows 14 aliases on their free account and, if you want, you can change any of them after a week.

Regards

Thanks for your upgrade! There are two types of aliases available:
1. USER-alias@vfemail.net (unlimited number to all users)
2. alias@vfemail.net (number based on service level, only for paid users)

alias@USER.vfemail.net isn't an option. IMHO, That just sounds like a DNS nightmare to me.

The first type is available to all users, the second is not.


The idea is that most people don't use aliases, and of those that do, only a small set will 'cycle' through multiple names and actually need more than 3. So only heavier users (Silver or higher) would need the ability to change aliases.



VFEmail is supported entirely by it's user base, and isn't a subsidized by any other division. That means a more traditional cost model: the more unique a feature is, the more it will cost.

Rick

On Dec. 29, 2005 (Post subject: Use foldername directly in address) answering a question on the same subject you said:

"Now I'm not unwilling to do it, but there has to be a need for it. Also, I would need to limit it to just paid users. That's not an unmanageable number (at this point!

and:

" Hmmmm I just did some testing, and looks like I can do a partial wildcard... if I can get that to work in the actual delivery, then I just need to modify the email address during delivery - If I have the flow correct in my head

I'll work on rewriting fakeuser@realuser.vfemail.net into realuser-fakeuser@vfemail.net - but it probably won't happen until the weekend.

Rick"
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Many weekends have gone... At that time it didn't seem a nightmare to you. Did you ever try it?





I understand that heavy users need to cycle multiple names, but -since you are generously offering aliases to light users too- would it be that difficult to introduce a "light" solution for Bronze with the possibility to cancel/change the aliases once in a while if needed, maybe after a certain period of months?
This would be very useful in case one wants to stop receiving mails from a certain sender.



This is something I like about VFEmail.

Best regards

Hmmm, well, I can see folder delivery being done with a filter on realuser-fakeuser@vfemail.net.. Partial wildcard. I remember the deliver to a folder subject, but I can't find my copy of this email and I don't know, offhand, why realuser@fakeuser.vfemail.net wouldn't be the problem. Possibly, the MX record for vfemail.net would be used in place of fakeuser.vfemail.net, I may have tested that, but the system would need an alias domain for all of those. That could be it. I really don't remember what the end result was. I think at that time end-user creatable filters weren't available like they are now.

My 'solution' may have been the implementation of custom filtering, and I forgot about the @fakename.vfemail.net part.

Can you post the entire email?

Rick

Hi Rick,

I have to admit my technical inexperience at quoting the entire post in original, so I copied it from the Feature Request Forum

triangulus

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Post subject: Use foldername directly in address

On Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:51 pm
ancasta wrote:


Although I can use the following:

myname-junk@vfemail.net

is there any possibility that the following can be organised:

junk@myname.vfemail.net

(In each case filters would have to be set up, of course, to redirect mail into a folder named 'junk')

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Havokmon
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:12 pm

I've quickly thought about it, but never seriously looked into it.

The first 'stopper' is that I would have to list every single user in my 'rcpthosts' file as a domain to receive mail for. After that, I would need to rewrite all those addresses during delivery so they get in the proper mailbox.

But then - How would they be re-written? What does the username mean in those cases? Should they just be re-written to username-ext addresses like in your first example? I don't know

There are a lot of things that I haven't thought through because there hasn't been any demand for it.

Now I'm not unwilling to do it, but there has to be a need for it. Also, I would need to limit it to just paid users. That's not an unmanageable number (at this point!

Any other comments/suggestions?

Rick

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Havokmon
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:50 pm

Hmmmm I just did some testing, and looks like I can do a partial wildcard... if I can get that to work in the actual delivery, then I just need to modify the email address during delivery - If I have the flow correct in my head

I'll work on rewriting fakeuser@realuser.vfemail.net into realuser-fakeuser@vfemail.net - but it probably won't happen until the weekend.

Rick

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ancasta
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 5:20 pm

I just thought I would mention it becuase some other email clients organise things this way i.e. fastmail and mailsnare.net are set up so that this is possible. I, for one, find it much more intuitive! However, if there isn't a demand for it and/or it's too much work for the benefits involved, then it might not be worth it! I just thought I would mention it in case it only took a few tweaks!

BTW, thanks for your rapid response

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Havokmon
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 9:06 pm

Just a clarification - the extension address filter to put a realuser-ext@vfemail.net email into a 'ext' folder would need to be created in your own email client (or the webmail).

Rick

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ancasta
Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 3:29 am

Yes, that's right. It would be a folder created as part of Inbox...

Ok, let's break this down



That's the other half of the possible DNS issue. The system needs to be configured that each paid user is their own domain. That domain would be an alias of the realuser@vfemail.net account. Assuming proper DNS failover by the sender server (to eliminate the DNS headache on my end), I'm not sure I want to manage that many domains.

But:


That is still a requirement. I guess it's symantics - I don't think the effort needed to make that work for all users (even paid users) would bring enough new users. Especially since that function can be done with a filter on realuser-folder@vfemail.net with no changes to the backend.

I really prefer to not make changes. Introducing new features, especially when the entire service is involved, tends to introduce new bugs.

Rick