Back in 1998, web-based e-mail was touted as the on-the-go solution solution for people tethered to a desktop client. Widespread use of the Internet was still new enough that folks more than familiar with UNIX shells could bypass these free web-based services in favor of telnet, rlogin or ssh.
I scoffed at the idea of having a Hotmail account. I had one, of course, but I would log into it rarely. I would rather telnet into my e-mail and use pine than be bombarded with obnoxious animated GIFs.
But I was reckless with my e-mail address. It was my default address for every account to which I signed up. As a result, it managed to get on every SPAM list conceivable, and by 2000, the number of SPAM I received outnumbered mail by real people. The advent of online journal writing — which would eventually become blogging — made correspondence through e-mail more of a business action. Why write to individuals when I could just point them to my site instead?
I installed a shell-based SPAM filter so good, it filtered out legitimate e-mail. It was then I got into the habit of moving over false positives to the inbox, which would then be sucked down to my desktop client. I'd clean out the filters every day.
Having learned such a hard lesson, the Hotmail account then became my SPAM catcher box. Every site to which I registered would use that account. As a result, it's become the area to which I'm willing to be marketed. I don't mind if some business puts me on a notification list with that address — that's why it's there.
My shell account changed hands, and the business with which I original signed up got acquired by another company. After a major change in e-mail platform, the rot began to sink in. The overprotective shell filters became too permissive, and the number of SPAM messages filtered out dwindled against what went through. By 2008, Twitter, social networks and web-based communication essentially made my desktop e-mail client neglected. I would go for months without firing it up.
The shell access came with its costs: $16/month. However portable ssh is, the shell e-mail account had lost its value. It was not worth that expenditure.
So after 10 years, an e-mail address familiar to everyone I know is no more. I canceled my Illuminati Online (actually it's Prism.net) account today, and nemesisv@io.com is no more. I would usually try to obfuscate addresses, but the SPAM scrapers took that address a long time ago.
I couldn't really kill it since it was already dead.
At the same time, it almost feels like I've torn down a house. It's a destination that hadn't changed for a decade. When all else failed, you could always hit up nemesisv@io.com. Well, not any more.
So goodbye, nemesisv@io.com. You lasted in an environment where permanence is an anomaly.