Ace Spammers

http://in.indiatimes.com/default1.cms was my homepage till 2 weeks ago. I was tolerating their stupid popups for quite sometime. But when the popups started to get full page (like the Manhattan one) and came thru google popup blocker I decided to shift base.

What really got my goat was many of these did not provide a close button & the few that did were only for cosmetic reasons, they never helped to close the ads. To that extent rediff.com also has popups which get thru google popup blocker but they provide a close button which has worked so far. That so far was the LESS irritating part. If any of u r thinking of creating an email id on this webpage,they like to call themselves a ’portal’ + a whole lot of other adjectives that they think portrays them as the worlds best. But the fact of the matter is that the users use a whole lot of different adjectives which cannot be reproduced here :))

To get back to the email id topic, theirs is the most primitive email id interface peddeled around as free. Even the email id’s they peddle for a fee have the same primitive functions abs no value addition. I say this as my friend has registered a domain thru indiatimes.com and I have seen the webpage email interface they provide. The problems he faces has reduced him to tears. To put it mildly its BAD.

My advice to any one who wants a free email id go to rediff.com which is fast & provides more mailbox space. Rediff.com paid email id’s r also good. On the same topic I would like to say indiatimes email ids attract a LOT of spam, even if u use the ’This is spam’ option or the ’Block’ option it does not help & u will notice that all the spam comes from the same domain (ie: @indiatimes.com).

The following are a few of the email ids which are the source of spam.

1) anita@indiatimes.com
2) shalini@indiatimes.com
3) bhartim@indiatimes.com
4) shalini@indiatimes.com
5) amritm@indiatimes.com
6) chrisanne_l@indiatimes.com
7) anita@indiatimes.com
8) anupam_mumbai@indiatimes.com
9) puripooja@indiatimes.com
10) perfect.match1@indiatimes.com
11) anupam_mumbai@indiatimes.com
12) gayatripat1@indiatimes.com
and there are many more

You will notice that most happen to have a female names. Now mercifully all these crappy email's are now directed to a system made folder. They have also increased the mailbox to 1GB after a lots of false announcements & even more trial and error. I wrote to them on this topic to readers.grievances@timesgroup.com & the mail bounced with an error that it does not exist!!!!!!!!!!!! & I had taken this address from their own webpage.

That shows that they dont update their web page or their server was down. Unlike many other free email providers in India, indiatimes.com email pays only lip service to ’fight spam’ they in fact help to generate it. If u want to fight spam go to http://www.spamcop.net/ , register ur self (its free) then from their website interface copy paste all the email ids of spam emails u get.That hopefully should help to some extent to fight this menace of spam.

The site also hapens to down quite often. So when u send any email to an indiatimes email id it will bounce. Can be quite a problem it happens to be urgent mail. Another thing even worse is attachments sent to or from indiatimes email ids seem to get corrupted very often. I have seen the same attachment sent repeatedly over a period of 2 days, to an indiatimes email has got corrupted????????
Have u tried their messenger, WOW that’s a gem. If u have not tried it good for u. Juat forget it ever existed. U will be better off that way. :)

You will notice on their site even if you login you will repeatedly be asked to log in for different options like astrology etc, which shows that it was different modules have not been properly integrated together, its all a mish mash cobbled together. This reflects very poorly on the type of manpower they use. Have u heard of the saying ’If u pay peanuts u get only monkeys’.I could go on & on my original document on this topic was around 11k characters. I have reduced it to this.

In a nutshell;
1) Use their webpage only if u have a lot of time on ur hands or r a very patient person.
2) Avoid @ all cost their email id’s. U will find better options elsewhere.
3) Avoid their shopping site @ all costs. Here too u can better options (Here ’better’ is a relative word)