undefined | Better HN

0 pointsunyttigfjelltol1y ago0 comments

Spam exploded in 2003[1] to the modern experience of it. Before that, spam was somewhat infrequent, even without countermeasures.

I recall in the 2001 time period being so annoyed by each individual spam note that I would respond to the appropriate "abuse@" email. By 2004, it was a torrent and totally impractical, and I don't think it was because of my own notes to administrators.

[1] https://www.emailtray.com/blog/email-spam-trends-2001-2012/

0 comments

blitzar1y ago

When Gmail launched on April 1, 2004, there were two big selling points for me - storage and spam.

Diederich1y ago

...and search. That was amazing.

znpy1y ago

I can confirm it was amazing.

I got my first gmail address via an invite and it was light-years ahead of everything else.

Nowadays it's possibly worse than most other providers, and it doesn't filter spam as well as it used to. Nowadays I just dislike it.

bbaron631y ago

I remember the first spam I ever received. It was in 1998 on my first day working at AOL. It promised an advanced degree from a prestigious, unaccredited institution. The spammers were somewhat honest back then.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse