e-mail provider recommendations?

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

"Brian St. Pierre" <brian at bstpierre.org> writes:
>
> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 7:41 AM, David Rysdam <david at rysdam.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:32:43 -0500, Joshua Judson Rosen <rozzin at geekspace.com> wrote:
> >> Maybe you guys can suggest other providers, or just provide
> >> some thoughts on the two I've listed above.
> >
> > I think a reasonably protective feature should be something like getting
> > their own domain name in the email address.
> 
> Yes to this! Changing service providers is still a hassle, but at
> least you don't have to change your address.
>
> However, I'm not sure how feasible this is for non-technical users.

The added hassle+expense of setting it up and maintaining it
seems (maybe) roughly analogous to that of getting/having
a PO box or post-redirection service to avoid having to file
address-change notices when you move. And I think my present
audience is people who don't do *that*. It seems like
the obvious next line of questions, though, is: is going through
a the digital version of changing your address a significantly-
greater ordeal than the `real life moving' version? And,
if it is..., then why is it?

And, actually..., I'd love to hear thoughts on that.
I'm having trouble answering it myself. I haven't changed
e-mail addresses in over a decade, though.

> There are a number of hoops you have to jump through to get it set up:
> buying the domain, finding a provider that supports hosting for a
> private domain, adding DNS entries for the email provider, etc. You
> could sign up through an all-in-one provider who can set everything up
> for you (looks like namecheap as a $3/yr plan), but then the
> non-technical user ends up sort of locked-in again: they *could*
> change, if they knew how...
> 
> If I was going to move away from GMail, I'd go self-hosted.

Is bstpierre.org actually GMail, then?

> It just feels like it would be a hassle to switch -- and I'm already
> running a suitable server, I just have to run apt-get and do a bunch
> of configuration.

-- 
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