Free email for active members?

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
I've been tinkering with the idea of free email hosting for active members.

It would allow domain based email too.

Standard webmail, pop3, imap access. Hopefully at least one unique feature.

I think my biggest obstacle has been finding a cool domain name :)

If I did start a "free" service the webmail would be horde, that's the one I've supported the most.

Does that sound like an interesting idea to anyone?
 

foggy

Valued Member
Well, if you had a chance to read my post in your new "favorite email client" thread, you know I would be interested (since I like the new Horde [5.1.2]).

Questions:

1. How would you rate your intended maintenance of this service ? I.e. how much of a priority would you be giving it as far as managing problems, outages, other issues (just so users have an idea of what time frame to expect if/when problems arise) ?

2. Are you asking for users' suggestions for domain name possibilities or is this something you'd like to come up with on your own ? Or would you be taking a middle of the road option and submit domain names you've come up with to a user poll as to which they'd like ? (I imagine you'd mention this over at EMD as well. ??)

3. Re: the "unique feature": is this a feature you already have in mind (i.e. is it a surprise), or are you trying to come up with one at the moment ?

(Well, your site is named Email Questions after all, so there are a few for ya ! :rofl: Looking forward to the answers ! :))

Btw, I just noticed that "eqmail" is taken in the 'good' tlds, but eqmail.cc is available (unless someone snatches it up after reading this post :rolleyes:). Or are you determined to find an available '.com' for ease of use ?

:thanks:
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Yes, I started this discussion after reading your thoughts there.

It's a possibility that I've been kicking around for a while.

I need to figure out up front if it's something that I want to make money from (lots of free users w/ advertising), or just provide as a community service to active members, a sort of thank you for using EQ. I don't want the hassle of abuse problems that come with a free service which is probably most of what stopped me from moving forward int he past. At this point I'm leaning toward "thank you". Then again, there is no reason I can't do both.

1. Anything I do is "important" to me. As far as work goes my day job comes first, but it's not likely there would often be a trouble that needs immediate attention at both my day job and this email hosting at the same time. I have a reasonable amount of flexibility with my time. If the service got big enough I'd be able to hire "on call" help for when I'm on vacation, etc.

2. I'm accepting suggestions. The domain doesn't have to be EQ branded. I looked and foggy mail is gone :) Yes, I do prefer a .com, at least until such time that getting a domain in a new TLD such as .mail becomes a possibility.

3. I'll probably need help with that one too. Free domain based mail hosting for active users was the best I've come up with so far as a "feature".
 

foggy

Valued Member
Yes, I started this discussion after reading your thoughts there.

It's a possibility that I've been kicking around for a while.

I need to figure out up front if it's something that I want to make money from (lots of free users w/ advertising), or just provide as a community service to active members, a sort of thank you for using EQ. I don't want the hassle of abuse problems that come with a free service which is probably most of what stopped me from moving forward int he past. At this point I'm leaning toward "thank you". Then again, there is no reason I can't do both.

You answered the question I realized I forgot to ask ! I understand about the abuse issue with free services.

1. Anything I do is "important" to me. As far as work goes my day job comes first, but it's not likely there would often be a trouble that needs immediate attention at both my day job and this email hosting at the same time. I have a reasonable amount of flexibility with my time. If the service got big enough I'd be able to hire "on call" help for when I'm on vacation, etc.

Thanks for this info ! (And maybe put Big Dan's number on speed-dial, just in case.) ;)

2. I'm accepting suggestions. The domain doesn't have to be EQ branded. I looked and foggy mail is gone :)

:eek:

Yes, I do prefer a .com, at least until such time that getting a domain in a new TLD such as .mail becomes a possibility.

Ah. Good to know.

Now... do you prefer the name to have some indication of it being an email service (like inbox.com, openmail.cc, vfemail.net, or even GMX and EuMX do), or are you looking for something less obvious (like lavabit, etc.) ?

3. I'll probably need help with that one too. Free domain based mail hosting for active users was the best I've come up with so far as a "feature".

Free domain hosting IS an excellent feature ! :)
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
do you prefer the name to have some indication of it being an email service (like inbox.com, openmail.cc, vfemail.net, or even GMX and EuMX do), or are you looking for something less obvious (like lavabit, etc.) ?

Surprise me! :D
 

foggy

Valued Member
Well, how's this for a surprise... I tried about 8-10 options and they're all taken -- except bigdanmail. :D
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Yeah, it's tough coming up with a nice reasonably short .com name

I wonder if there is a Zimbra vs Horde/IMP preference for the actual platform that gets created.
 

foggy

Valued Member
In my case, no. I'd surely be happy with either. I use Horde with my free EuMX account and like it. I don't presently have Zimbra for any webmail (and only used the offline client briefly last year I believe), so if you used that one it would certainly be unique. So for me it's a win-win situation ! :D

(FWIW, I must say that over the years I have ever really warmed up to clients like SquirrelMail or Roundcube, but since you're apparently not planning on using those anyway.... no worries.) :)
 
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