Missing the point

I think a lot of commentors are missing the point, regardless of whether it is provided for free or not, they are providing as service and publishing service metrics. Maybe the users aren't paying, but someone is and the use for free by the people that sign up is how the revenue is generated, so they need to provide the service as offered, which includes SPAM filtering.

For those that said "Manage your address", etc... Do this experiment: Sign up for a new account, use a weird address, ala: dsfkjhefrefjbe222@hotmail.com or whatever. Log out and don't tell anyone the address and don't send a message from this account. Log back in after about 2 weeks and you will have a ton of spam. This is a problem, they are offering a service, making representations of levels of service and then failing to provide the services.

BTW, you can play with the SPAM filter settings in the above example and you will still get SPAM. So, how does SPAM get to a nonsensical email address that is never used? Hotmail is hacked man! The spammers have insiders and they have viruses and trojans and what-have-you all over the environment.

I sympathize with those that have accounts that feel they can't switch as sooo many people have their old address, well, it's a lot of work, but its worth the switch. Find a better free service, or better yet, pay someone to host your mail and tell your contacts that you have a new address.

Regards,

--Pete