[HN Gopher] Show HN: MiniMail - Disposable Email Service for Eve...
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       Show HN: MiniMail - Disposable Email Service for Everyone
        
       Author : zenull
       Score  : 54 points
       Date   : 2022-06-26 16:02 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (minimail.eu.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (minimail.eu.org)
        
       | SpikeDad wrote:
       | Just to remind folks Apple provides this service for all iOS
       | devices automatically.
        
         | mynameisvlad wrote:
         | Apple provides a _disposable email_? AFAIK it provides a
         | forwarding address, which is similar but distinct from what
         | this is.
        
           | scblzn wrote:
           | Afaik it's bit more complex than a forwarding address as it
           | allows replies from the user behind too (while still being
           | protected) [1][2]
           | 
           | [1] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/sign_in_with_ap
           | ple...
           | 
           | [2] https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/use-hide-my-email-
           | mlhl4...
        
         | rodric wrote:
         | Not quite true. Hide My Email is included in iCloud+, which is
         | a paid subscription service.
        
           | skellera wrote:
           | Free for services that use Sign in with Apple. Need iCloud+
           | for generating addresses outside of that.
           | 
           | Also, 99 cents a month for the cheapest plan isn't too bad
           | for everything it gives you. If you're in the iOS/Apple
           | ecosystem, it's a worthwhile purchase.
        
         | fffrantz wrote:
         | Duckduckgo [0] as well.
         | 
         | [0] https://duckduckgo.com/email/
        
           | ivberrOg wrote:
           | that leads to a prompt to install a browser addon (for me)..
           | this might be helpful https://duckduckgo.com/email/faq
        
       | rikkipitt wrote:
       | https://www.paced.email and https://www.vend.email are two
       | services that I developed that provide "disposable" email
       | addresses.
       | 
       | Paced Email is a productivity tool with the ability to add team
       | members, rules, etc and paces your mail into regular digests.
       | 
       | Vend Email is similar to Firefox Relay but has the added benefit
       | of email forwarder transferability to other users.
        
       | pandemicsoul wrote:
       | The biggest problem with these services is they never last. It's
       | easy to set up something like this, but there are so many of
       | these services and so few non-technical people understand the
       | need/purpose of them, they don't get the traction required to be
       | viable and disappear, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle for the
       | overall "disposable email" sector as folks realize that you can't
       | trust any of these services to stick around...
        
         | zinxq wrote:
         | To be fair, Mailinator https://www.mailinator.com has been
         | around since it's inception in 2003. It offers other services
         | now, but the "disposable email" part is still there as it was
         | from the start.
        
           | Rebelgecko wrote:
           | Similarly spamgourmet has been around since 2001 and other
           | than some brief outages (around the time the founder was
           | sadly struggling with a terminal illness and figuring out
           | succession plans) it's doing fine.
        
         | deadalus wrote:
         | https://boun.cr/ has been active for years and I use it
         | regularly on shady sites.
        
           | amelius wrote:
           | Do you have something similar for telephone numbers? (Often
           | required to receive verification codes in text messages).
        
             | jenscow wrote:
             | Search for "receive sms online"
             | 
             | Sorry for the "lmgtfy" type of answer, but I generally do
             | that search then pick a site at random.
        
               | thih9 wrote:
               | Whenever I try that, the number doesn't work. I either
               | get an error message that the number isn't valid, or the
               | text never arrives.
               | 
               | I think I tried with it with Twitter, Instagram and
               | Google (when they asked me for a phone number and I
               | didn't want to give my real one); this was about two
               | years ago. Does anyone have better results?
        
               | collegeburner wrote:
               | Google voice is the best option I found, however some
               | sites block it. Trying too many disposable numbers on
               | some sites makes your account banned (intstagram and
               | google do this I know).
               | 
               | People demand phone number because it's like a digital
               | SSN. Not private but damn hard to get more than a few of
               | them.
        
         | GekkePrutser wrote:
         | It's good too that they tend to change because they'll soon get
         | blocked for signups.
         | 
         | Like bugmenot accounts that only last a day or so.
        
           | zozbot234 wrote:
           | Services tend to be blocked when they get abused by spammers.
           | So if you want something like this to last, it would make
           | sense to heavily leverage either plain old CAPTCHA's or the
           | newer privacy-preserving "proofs of human presence".
        
         | gruez wrote:
         | The "disposable" in "disposable email" implies that you don't
         | intend on keeping the address around. Under that use case, the
         | service disappearing after a year or two doesn't cause any
         | issues, because you don't have anything persistent attached to
         | those emails in the first place. Besides, many (most?) other
         | email services prevent you from recovering an email address
         | (usually because a random address is assigned to you and
         | there's no way to pick/recover a previous address), so you're
         | already discouraged from using them for any persistent
         | services.
        
           | itake wrote:
           | The emails are disposable, not the service. This causes
           | issues b/c you're constantly having to find and change
           | providers.
        
             | milosmns wrote:
             | Eh, I don't know if that's really a problem. Query "10
             | minute mail" in Google gives hundreds of results within a
             | millisecond, so... you do this lookup once in 2 years and
             | you're done? Really don't feel like it's a big deal, at
             | least for me
        
         | wonderbore wrote:
         | They're disposable. The whole service is disposable. That's the
         | whole point.
         | 
         | This isn't a redirect to your existing email a-la-iCloud+ "Hide
         | My Email". You close the tab and the address is gone.
        
         | ruffrey wrote:
         | Mailsac had been around for 10 years.
        
       | tbrownaw wrote:
       | Sure, but how long until the sites that require an email to set
       | up a new account add this to their list of blocked providers (or
       | just switch to requiring a sms number like some of the bigger
       | sites already do)?
       | 
       | Or ar least I'm assuming that's a primary use case for something
       | like this.
        
       | vmoore wrote:
       | For those wondering about the domain it's a service called EU.org
       | which allows for free domain names (since 1996!)
       | 
       | https://nic.eu.org/
        
       | [deleted]
        
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       (page generated 2022-06-26 23:00 UTC)