10MinuteMail Update

I’ve just launched a few minor changes to 10MinuteMail which will hopefully improve the user experience.

– I’ve moved the explanatory text off of the home page to an About page.
The old index page was way too text heavy, and was frankly badly written (I didn’t use a copyeditor and once it had been translated into multiple languages changing it would be difficult). Most of my visitors are returning users, and they already know what the purpose of the site is. The rest can use the About page if they can’t figure it out. The new index page gets you right to the action, no clicks needed.

– I’ve removed the “copy address to clipboard” link, and replaced it with a pre-selected address.
The old JavaScript and Flash based clipboard manipulation code has been blocked by most modern browsers due to security concerns, so it wasn’t very useful. The new setup makes it easy to just hit the Copy command and you have the address on your clipboard. No mouse work needed.

– I’ve swapped out the e-mail domain.
Changing the e-mail domain keeps the spam coming into the server more reasonable.

– I’ve added a few links to the bottom of the page.
These aren’t ads, they are links that I want to share. Mostly they will be projects of mine, or my friends, or good causes. Check them out!

Ideally it should mean less mouse clicks, less time on the site, and make it easier for people to make use of the service.

What is your opinion on the changes?


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24 responses to “10MinuteMail Update”

  1. I click the ads Avatar

    Great service, keep it up. Easy to use site

  2. Fisch Avatar
    Fisch

    The new design is great, like your service.
    Thank you very much.

  3. Mario Avatar
    Mario

    I like this changes especially because that “copy to clipboard” thing didnt work. You wrote it good, we want as few clicks as possible. With this change, I go to 10minutemail and hit ctrl+v. Thats all, really nice. Keep up the good work, best regards,
    Mario, Croatia.

  4. Max Avatar
    Max

    I like the old one click copy to clipboard method,
    It seem’s this demo works on that method:
    http://bowser.macminicolo.net/~jhuckaby/zeroclipboard/

    1. Devon Avatar

      @Max: you’re right! That does seem to still work, while the method I was using did not. I may add that in next release. Thanks for the pointer!

      For reference the project’s home page is: http://code.google.com/p/zeroclipboard/

      Devon

    2. Devon Avatar

      Max,

      I’ve just updated 10MinuteMail with the ZeroClipboard tool. Check it out! I hope you like it.

      Devon

      1. Max Avatar
        Max

        Wow~~ Great~~ Sooo quick you did it~~

        1. Devon Avatar

          No problem! Thank you for pointing me to a tool that still worked with the current browsers.

  5. James Knight Avatar
    James Knight

    Hi,
    Brilliant service, I use it almost every day. But some webmasters are really obsessive about blocking these domains. As an idea, would it be possible so that any subdomain like @51951.bsnow.net also works? This would foil those sites that try and block registrations based on simple domain blocking.
    Also is there a way to manually get a NEW address with this new system?
    James :-)

    1. Devon Avatar

      @James: thank you very much. I’m glad that you like it. If I switched to using subdomains, the webmasters would just block any address ending in bsnow.net, so I don’t think there’d much help from that.

      There was a “get a new address” feature, but people were abusing it to spam forums, so I turned it off. Sorry.

  6. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    Great service Devon. Thank you for providing it. The new UI changes are great!

    1. Devon Avatar

      Thank you Mark!

  7. Marcus Avatar
    Marcus

    Changes were so good I donated. :D

    1. Devon Avatar

      Thank you very much! I really appreciate it!

  8. Gerhard Killesreiter Avatar

    I just blocked 14 spam accounts abusing bsnow.net and put the domain in my list of blocked mail domains. Could you offer an RSS feed where I can be alerted to new domains that you might use?

    1. Devon Avatar

      Gerhard,

      I’m sorry to hear about the spam accounts. Do you see more spam accounts using 10MinuteMail versus the other temporary e-mail services, or gmail/ymail accounts? If so, I wonder why.

      While I’m conflicted about it, as it also serves to decrease the usefulness of the site to legitimate non-spam people who are simply trying to avoid being spammed, my main goal has been to decrease spam (primarily e-mail, but forum spam is no good either), so I’ve created a simple RSS feed for you:

      feed://10minutemail.com/rss.xml

      1. Gerhard Killesreiter Avatar

        Hi Devon,

        thanks for cooperation!

        No, gmail.com is the king of the spam accounts: http://association.drupal.org/node/328

        I so wish I could block gmail, but unfortunately…

        However, for gmail the spammers have to go through some extra hoops to get an account. With 10minutemail and similar services, they can probably script account creation on drupal.org.

        Unfortunately, we are having quite a few profile spammers on d.o who try to profit from the relatively high page rank of the site (http://association.drupal.org/node/330), so I am forced to employ measures that are somewhat extreme.

        Cheers,
        Gerhard

        1. Devon Avatar

          Gerhard,

          you’re welcome! I didn’t realize you were associated with drupal, I guess I should have clicked on your name. While I haven’t used drupal myself, I’ve heard wonderful things about it.

          I’m glad to know 10MinuteMail isn’t a serious offender for forum spam. Good luck on combatting spam of all types!

          Devon

  9. Dianne Atkins Avatar
    Dianne Atkins

    This is probably a REALLY STUPID question, but, is there any way to get back to my old 10minute mail address? A confirmation was coming in but it didn’t come in the time allotted.

    Thanks, Dianne

    1. Devon Avatar

      Dianne,

      there isn’t:( I’d recommend trying again, and if the mail doesn’t arrive in time, use the “Give me 10 more minutes” link to get more time.

      Devon

      1. Joerg Avatar

        Hi Devon,

        “Give me 10 more minutes” is a great and really appreciated feature. However, it seems to be a slight misnomer, at least in the German translation: There it reads “Um 10 Minuten verlängern!”, literally “extend by 10 minutes” as from 4 to 14. But it doesn’t really extend the adress’ life time by 10 minutes, instead it resets the countdown back to 10 minutes. When you go over it another time, could you change it to “Auf 10 Minuten verlängern!”, “Countdown auf 10 Minuten zurücksetzen!”, or something similar, which expresses exactly what the service does?

        I know I’m niggling, but I appreciate the service so much, that I like to see it in utmost perfection.

        Cheers, Joerg

        1. Devon Avatar

          Thanks! The change will be rolled out next time I push a new kit. Thanks!!

  10. Cenk ?lker ?zanl? Avatar

    Hi Devon,

    I really appreciate your work,keep up the good work.Could you tell about how your system is working.Which mta are you using,do you use any anti-spam/antivirus solution?I need more info about a system like yours,could you provide some more?

    1. Devon Avatar

      I use Postfix as my MTA. I use a set of Postfix anti-spam measures such as real time block lists, MX record checking, etc… I don’t use any additional anti-spam/anti-virus system for 10 Minute Mail, however I can recommend SpamAssassin and ClamAV for those two roles and use them for my personal e-mail server.

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