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Why Mail?

no, this isn't a flame, or a troll, or anything like that. it is, however, an honest question. i'm trying to understand why i should bother setting this up and running my mail through it. i have a yahoo email account and a gmail one. i have to have an internet connection for Mail to work, so why not just go directly to my two email sites to see my mail? why put another layer of computer stuff (this program) between me and the original source of my mail? i do understand one advantage - i could download and read my email while offline. i can see how, for some people, that could be a godsend. but to be honest, i can live without my email for a few hours while i'm on a plane, so it's not really an incentive for me. i can't help but think there must be a few other good reasons to use this program that i'm just not seeing. can anyone explain to me why they think this is an advantage over just going and seeing my email online? thanks

Posted on Nov 16, 2012 5:44 PM

Reply
36 replies

Nov 16, 2012 6:10 PM in response to f16smoke

I like mine to be separate for security/privacy reasons:


I like Mail and use it with my "real" email address from my ISP - used strictly for my friends. No form or other place on the internet gets this address.


For other contacts (companies or anyone else), I have Yahoo, Gmail and a couple of others and have not associated them with Mail; I check/read/answer mails while online - my Yahoo account has been hacked into several times and my contacts stolen, so I don't want my Mail email address associated with any online account because I'd rather keep that one spam free (I am getting spam in my Yahoo account from my Yahoo email address to my (same) Yahoo email address!!!).

Nov 16, 2012 9:54 PM in response to babowa

this makes a lot of sense to me. i travel for a living, so i don't have a 'real' address from an ISP like cable or satellite or something. i live and work on a MiFi portable Verizon card. so yahoo is my 'real' ISP. and it's spammed like you wouldn't believe. gmail is my 'secret' account that only a few people know about. so it sounds like you don't like Mail for any online email. your reasoning makes perfect sense to me. thanks, babowa

Nov 16, 2012 11:15 PM in response to f16smoke

You can cut down on the Yahoo spam IF you do this immediately after establishing a new account: go through several layers until you get to Settings/Preferences and (if I remember correctly) Marketing Preferences. By default, there is an entire page all ON by default - Yahoo sells your email address to all these spammers. But, you do have to do this right away - I think they sell your address within the first 10 minutes, LOL, and it only works when you set up a new account.

Nov 17, 2012 3:38 AM in response to babowa

my Yahoo account has been hacked into several times and my contacts stolen, so I don't want my Mail email address associated with any online account because I'd rather keep that one spam free


I'm not following the reasoning there. There's nothing about Mail that "connects" accounts or causes them to start to become "spammy." Just because your Yahoo account gets a lot of spam and gets hacked a lot does not mean that using that account with Mail would transfer those problems to your other accounts. That would not happen.


Of course, if you simply don't want to have to deal with all the spam in Mail, that would be a legit reason not to access your Yahoo account from Mail.

Nov 17, 2012 7:35 AM in response to f16smoke

Why Mail?


Convenience & Experience.


(1) Once set up properly, you can view all of your accounts in one location without having to put in the password. It's much faster to open mail than to open each web mail at a time. You don't have to wait for a homepage to load, then wait for the web mail site to load, then put in the password to see your web mail... etc.


(2) You get the benefit of a nice user interface. Mail GUI is probably better than many web mail GUIs. An when your use multiple web mails, you only have to learn one GUI.



BTW, I have just one email that I use for everything: gmail. I never get spam.

Nov 17, 2012 8:08 AM in response to v-22

I have just one email that I use for everything: gmail. I never get spam.



Than you've been extraordinarily lucky especially considering Google's terms and policies which give them the right to pretty much collect every bit of info from you (including "telephony log information") and use it (which will, I surmise, include selling your information). Here is their privacy policy:


http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/


https://mail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/terms.html

Nov 17, 2012 8:10 AM in response to f16smoke

I couldn't edit my post so I'm replying again.


If you are worried about downloading attachments onto your Mac, use the following settings in Mail to prevent that:


(1) Preferences > Viewing > display remote images in HTML messages: Unchecked. I recommend this one.


(2) Preferences > Accounts > Advanced > Keep copies of messages for offline viewing: All messages, but omit attachments.

Nov 17, 2012 8:19 AM in response to f16smoke

f16smoke wrote:


my yahoo email was spam-free for years. then i went to one site to check on something, and they sold it. now i delete 50-70 spam mails a day.


I am not here to defend Yahoo, but their spam filter is about a thousand percent better than it used to be. Mark those messages as spam and they will be left on Yahoo's servers.


... i simply don't want all that stuff getting spread around my Imac and Air. who knows what mac viruses and other weird stuff is embedded in it.


Neither would I, but your Mail accounts cannot affect one another any more than your Mail account could affect my Mail account.


There are no "Mac viruses" so that is not a concern either.

Nov 17, 2012 8:38 AM in response to babowa


I have just one email that I use for everything: gmail. I never get spam.



Than you've been extraordinarily lucky especially considering Google's terms and policies which give them the right to pretty much collect every bit of info from you (including "telephony log information") and use it (which will, I surmise, include selling your information).


Well, I guess it doesn't hurt that I am very pro-active about my privacy.


In Safari, I use ClickToFlash. Also, I reset Safari before and after using anything important: email, bank accounts. History is the enemy.


In Gmail and various other accounts, I opt out of Sharing Information / Personalized Ads as much as possible. Due to Google's privacy policies, the only other google products I use are Search and Maps.


I am very cautious about who I give my information to. I never give more information than necessary. I am very skeptical about additional services offered for free beyond the basic service that I use.


I guess all that doesn't hurt.

Why Mail?

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