[dmd]

I really really want to do this but am stuck on Gmail because of their spam filtering.

Is there ANY other provider that does spam filtering that actually works? I tried Fastmail, but I receive so much spam (>600 per day vs. ~20 non-spam per day) that only Gmail's spam filtering is good enough. I've tried others (like Fastmail) and typically ~50/day get through their spam filters, vs. at Gmail where on a typical day 1-2 get through.

(Why do I get so much spam? Because I've been using the same email address, never hiding it at all even on Usenet, for 25 years.)

I would pay a lot of money - like I'd be willing to pay 4x what Fastmail charges - to get off Gmail, but apparently nobody else can do spam filtering.

[mbirth]

Get a domain. Then get an email provider that allows unlimited aliases (I'm using German UberSpace).

Then start setting up unique email addresses for each service, e.g. [e-mail] . The "abcd" part should be random for each service so it's impossible to guess your other email addresses.

I also use yearly throwaway addresses, e.g. [e-mail], for when I need an email address without having the means to create a new alias first. (I then change that later.)

Should spam starting to appear, you'll know exactly which service "got hacked" (i.e. sold your email address) and can just disable that alias and create one with different random letters. Also when deleting an account somewhere, just also delete the alias and you won't get any mails about signing up again.

It takes a bit of discipline but it gives you lots of control over your inbox.

[kettleballroll]

I've done the same, but apparently no one ever sells my email. Did your effort ever pay off?

[mbirth]

Yes, various times. Mostly LinkedIn and a few other services that vanished but seemingly sold their userdata. And 2 or 3 times I've got spam before the company announced that they got hacked.

[cube00]

Paid off for me. Very satisfying busting a company selling my address and bringing to their privacy officer's attention as to why I'll never be a customer of theirs again.

[nerdzero]

I've been doing this for years and have had maybe 4 addresses compromised out of a couple hundred.

[malka]

same here. I was expecting a lot more re-selling of my email adress to be honest.

[moreira]

I'm sure you're aware, but if not, Fastmail trains a spam filter based on your email[0], and after you train it, it -does- get better. It just takes time. I haven't had my address for as long as you (only 15 years or so), but I have been just as nonchalant about sharing it openly. I get plenty of spam, but it's all sorted automatically now, and I don't miss Gmail.

[0]: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278142

[dmd]

Yeah, well aware. It's not the inputs, it's the algorithm, it seems.

[zaphodq42]

Fastmail's spam filter is great if you are willing to put some minor effort. Read this: https://www.fastmail.help/hc/en-us/articles/1500000278142-Im...

Fastmail works great for me. I do not miss any emails as junk nor do i get any junk in my inbox because of using the methods explained in the link above.

Controlling your own email address is the way to go. It takes consistent effort to migrate but worth it when it is done.

[jjav]

> (Why do I get so much spam? Because I've been using the same email address, never hiding it at all even on Usenet, for 25 years.)

I've had my same email for about as long as you (maybe 1-2 years more), never hiding it at all including Usenet.

> I really really want to do this but am stuck on Gmail because of their spam filtering.

gmail spam filtering isn't very good. Lots of false positives which is far worse than the occasional false negative. I have a gmail-hosted account for work and it's very annoying.

I host my own email infrastructure and spam isn't a problem. With a bayesian filter trained on my content, I rarely see any spam. Maybe like 1-2 per month? I don't keep track, it's very rare. And no false positives ever.

[ajb]

You can use Gmail with your own domain, and download all the email via IMAP/POP, or forward it all to another account. That way you get the functionality but not the dependency. This is the safest way to set up any cloud email account, even if you decide to move from Gmail to a different one.

[dmd]

I already do that - my domain is actually hosted at Dreamhost, and then mail is forwarded to Gmail.

[Froedlich]

> but apparently nobody else can do spam filtering. . I've experienced the opposite; I had to abandon one paid mail host because they turned their spam filtering up to "Thunderstruck!" I was getting about every third message on mailing lists, and other mail seemed to be about 50/50. They had drunk the Kool-Aid from whoever sold them the software, and claimed they couldn't whitelist or turn it off per-account, and I should be grateful that half of my legitimate mail was going into the bit bucket.

[kettleballroll]

I always assumed spam filtering is a solved problem, imnevernhad any issues with eg protonmail once I've trained it on a significant body (eg all my current spam). Im curious, how many positive/negative samples have you used/how much time have you given the system to adapt?

[dmd]

The last time I gave it a serious try, back in 2019, I gave it ~120000 non-spam samples (several years of real emails) and ~25000 spam samples (1 month of spam).

After that it was getting about 5% false-positive (so 1 in 20 real emails went to spam) and about 3% false-negative. For me, 3% false negative means 25 spams to inbox a day.

Gmail gives me about 0.5% false positive (1 in 200) and 0.01% false negatives.