Howto delete one of my used and no more wanted adresses

[snowyowl]

some of my adresses I don't want anymore. I can't find howto delet them.

bye, snowyowl

[SysKoll]

You cannot delete your email addresses. You can only hide them from the list.

Once an address is in the greasy paws of a spammers, deleting it would only make it reappear the next time it's spammed....

[Guest]

Granted, but there is another condition in which deleting an existing disposable makes perfect sense:

The disposable [used or not] HAS NOT fallen into spammers' hands.

Examples:

[Preface]
I will preface this by pointing out that I issue a different disposable to each and every one of my contacts; no two contacts get the same disposable. My forwarding address is known to no one but me. One of the values of spamgourmet is the ability to fabricate one of those unique disposables in the field, using only pencil and paper, without any computer assistance at all. To fabricate disposables, I use an identifying name or description and the date of issue.

[Example 1]
My nephew has organizational 'issues'. A year ago, I gave him 'nameanddatelastyear...', and he deleted it after using it only once. When he asked for 'my address' again 6 months later, I was not near a computer and could not remember the original disposable, so I made up 'hisnameandlaterdate...'. He managed to delete not only this second disposable, but a third and fourth as well. After I finish writing the script that will post his precious g-mail address [he hands it out completely unprotected] on 100,000 penis enlargement pill bulletin boards, it would be very convenient to be able to delete the many disposables I gave him. They will never be spammed, since they now exist nowhere.

[Example 2]
I have had occasion to create several masked disposables [using the link at spamgourmet], only to discover that I will not need to use some or all of the masked disposables after all. Since they have never been issued to anyone, these disposables will never be spammed.

[Conclusion]
Deletion of the above types of disposables [and, presumably, other types which this author has not encountered] would be a convenience for the users; additionally, it would be, in the aggregate, some small savings of storage space for spamgourmet, since the unused disposables themselves and the 'this address was never used' notations would all be gone from the server.

In the worst case scenario, a deleted disposable would get spammed and recreated. So what? Now the user would know that that disposable really was used, and he would set its count to zero and hide it.

[SysKoll]

I understand the issue perfectly. However, some users will be confused when an address they have "deleted" reappears instantly because it's in every spammer's database.

This failure mode is very expansive for us, because a recreated address would also come with a fresh counter and a number of emails will then have to be forwarded.

What we could do automatically is this: periodically scan our tables for disposables that are (1) hidden, and (2) have not received any email in 6 months. All you'd have to do is hide the address in advanced mode.

What do you think?

[snowyowl]

SysKoll,

I can understand both sides. Your solution is more like a workaround from users view, but it's okay.
Now I understood, that deleting old adresses by user request will have some negative side effects I not thougt about.

bye, snowyowl

[Guest of 1:27am above]

This failure mode is very expansive for us,

I get it, it's actually cheaper for you to store the unused disposables and notes than it is for you to [potentially] have some more emails to forward. OK, 'nuff said, I'll never ask for this again.

...periodically scan our tables for disposables that are (1) hidden, and (2) have not received any email in 6 months...

Sounds fine to me, but if it's any trouble at all to do this, don't bother. The welfare of the service is more important than anything else.

If you DO decide to do this scanning, I hope the disposable need not be 'hidden' during the entire six months, since users are likely to reset this timer if they go through their hidden disposables while doing housecleaning on their accounts.

I can also imagine someone hiding disposables with LOW activity which they do not actually want to delete.

So...

If you decide to do this, make a check box or something so the user can 'submit' his deletion 'request' to your software. If the software agrees that there has been no activity for six months, or after waiting six months, or whatever, THEN your software will 'approve' the deletion, and the disposable is gone.

If you want to bother...