Yahoo! Mail trashing Gmail invites

June 22, 2004 12:54 PM

Yahoo! Mail is trashing Gmail invites. Regular Gmail appears in the inbox, but invites are sorted to the spam folder.
posted by tranquileye (52 comments total)

And from what I experienced last night sending an invite, Hotmail users won't receive them at all.
posted by chickygrrl at 12:58 PM on June 22, 2004

Note to self: read article before commenting next time.
posted by chickygrrl at 1:01 PM on June 22, 2004

ingenious. i suppose a way to get around it would be to send the invite to yourself, and then give the person the URL to create the account.
posted by y0bhgu0d at 1:01 PM on June 22, 2004

Who would think that tons of messages that all look the same and sent to many different addresses would be classified as spam?
posted by smackfu at 1:02 PM on June 22, 2004

just tried the cut-n-paste trick noted in the article and it was received by my yahoo account just fine and dandy.
posted by jacobsee at 1:05 PM on June 22, 2004

Ah, but smackfu, you're forgetting that the recipient didn't ask to receive the invite--that's clearly not SPAM...

O. Right....
posted by andycoan at 1:06 PM on June 22, 2004

Who would think that tons of messages that all look the same and sent to many different addresses would be classified as spam?

And that has what to do with Gmail invites?
posted by badstone at 1:07 PM on June 22, 2004

I had no trouble getting my gmail invite, and my regular address is Hotmail.
posted by konolia at 1:15 PM on June 22, 2004

And from what I experienced last night sending an invite, Hotmail users won't receive them at all.

I got mine via Hotmail. Maybe this is a recent thing?

On Preview: What Konolia said.
posted by hughbot at 1:16 PM on June 22, 2004

I sent my sister an invite to her yahoo account on 6/15. She never got it. I cut and pasted it two days later, when I realized she never got it, and she got the second one just fine.
posted by jpoulos at 1:21 PM on June 22, 2004

I sent some to both hotmail and yahoo accounts and they seem to be working.

If yahoo and hotmail were in fact blocking them, then that crazy california senator that introduced the bill to ban gmail should rewrite it to ban yahoo and hotmail as well, since this type of event like blocking gmail invites would require filtering a message for content, then performing actions on it without a user's knowledge.
posted by mathowie at 1:22 PM on June 22, 2004

I just tried this moments ago with a hotmail account - no problems.
posted by crazy finger at 1:24 PM on June 22, 2004

Just before I posted, I tried sending invites to both Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail accounts. To Hotmail, no problem. At Yahoo! the invite was moved to the Bulk folder. Your mileage may vary.
posted by tranquileye at 1:27 PM on June 22, 2004

You can always just send someone the url, whether it's by email or messenger or whatever -- email the invite to yourself with some generic name, and then just give them the link.

On that note: gmail invite!
posted by reklaw at 1:28 PM on June 22, 2004

Yahoo stuck my invite into the spam folder. WHen I changed the three instances of the word "google" to "test" the message went into my normal folder.
This indicates to me that this message is not being filtered by a baysian filter. Other mail with the word google gets through just fine.
Looks like they are targeting these invites specifically, not via baysian filters, or other spam rules.
posted by bashos_frog at 1:29 PM on June 22, 2004

matt: It you pull your yahoo mail down with your normal pop3 mail client (as I do, with Evolution), you might not notice anything as yahoo sends the bulk mail along with the normal mail.
But if you are using the web interface, you might not think to check the bulk folder to find your message. This may be what they are counting on. And from the limited testing I've done - they are definitely filtering on content - not keywords, or originating address, or subject.
posted by bashos_frog at 1:35 PM on June 22, 2004

Hey, who is cwaltrip??

Bastard!! :)
posted by eas98 at 1:39 PM on June 22, 2004

That would be me.

Thanks, reklaw! :-)
posted by eyebeam at 1:45 PM on June 22, 2004

Could we agree that "invite" is a verb, and "invitation" is a noun?

Thank you.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 1:47 PM on June 22, 2004

Well, I might have gotten my invite and signed up, but now for over a day I have been unable to get into my Konolia site-I keep getting this server problem page that tells me to try back in 30 seconds. So much for flushing my hotmail account.
posted by konolia at 2:26 PM on June 22, 2004

I can confirm that this happened in my case—a gmail invite to my Yahoo mail (thanks maurice!) was routed to bulk mail, whence it disappeared soon after I read it. Fortunately, I don't get much spam at my yahoo address, and I was eagerly awaiting the invite, so I didn't miss it. (I naively thought that this was just Yahoo's filter being screwy/defective.)
posted by Zurishaddai at 2:41 PM on June 22, 2004

Should I feel bad that I have not been invited? Maybe someday I can finally ditch hotmail.
posted by john at 2:43 PM on June 22, 2004

Should I feel bad that I have not been invited?


Don't feel bad if you haven't been invited. I believe most of the new invites are given to current gmail users to send to friends. Ask someone with an account to give you an invite.

TotalFarkers have even set up a website so they can easily donate and get gmail invites. (you must be a TotalFarker though...)
posted by jeblis at 2:50 PM on June 22, 2004

I can hook you up.
posted by tomorama at 2:52 PM on June 22, 2004

jeblis: Mefi has done more-or-less the same thing. Tons of invites there.
posted by reklaw at 2:54 PM on June 22, 2004

Oh, and mr_crash_davis: if you go look up invite in a dictionary, it'll probably say something like "informal noun: an invitation". I think this battle was lost quite a while ago (have you never had a 'party invite', 'wedding invite', etc.?)
posted by reklaw at 2:57 PM on June 22, 2004

That would be neato.
posted by john at 3:20 PM on June 22, 2004

email me
posted by tomorama at 3:23 PM on June 22, 2004

invite here!

tell me if that worked, I'm trying to post the url that leads to the invite.
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:24 PM on June 22, 2004

Ack! I just realized why doing that is not such a brilliant idea. I wish to give the invite to a mefite, but anyone can pick up that invite. Oh, well, I have one left to anyone who emails me. I'm living without a home connection these days, but I check my email daily, so don't fret if I don't respond quickly.
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:28 PM on June 22, 2004

first come first served.....
on your mefi honor - please just take one.
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-99abdecc0a-18bfc37173
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-99abdecc0a-caf5413110
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-99abdecc0a-5c7c4af388
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-99abdecc0a-126e63d6f8
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 3:32 PM on June 22, 2004

"...have you never had a 'party invite', 'wedding invite', etc.?"

No, because I have no friends.

Thanks for reminding me.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:34 PM on June 22, 2004

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-8d3c3392d-acf24059f2
http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-8d3c3392d-196e712ca8
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 3:34 PM on June 22, 2004

I'm out of invites.
posted by elwoodwiles at 3:39 PM on June 22, 2004

blast! all used up. oh wait, i already have one. i just get excited easily.
posted by bob sarabia at 3:39 PM on June 22, 2004

Tryptophan-5ht, thanks much for the link.
posted by h00dini at 3:43 PM on June 22, 2004

np
posted by Tryptophan-5ht at 3:45 PM on June 22, 2004

ehh, my mac Mail junk filter thought it was spam too, and it's been trained on real spam. i say the invites are just spammy.
posted by rhyax at 3:56 PM on June 22, 2004

I sent a gmail invite to a yahoo account. Got through no problem, straight to the inbox. It was yahoo.co.uk, though.

I still have a few, if there's anyone who still wants 'em.
posted by Blue Stone at 5:47 PM on June 22, 2004

/. went apesh*t for a while a few days ago with conspiracy theories about hotmail and gmail. Turns out that this sort of thing is a natural consequence of spam filters that have to make decisions.

The days are gone when you coudl send someone an email and expect that it will actually make it to their inbox. Between bad spam filters, overly paranois sysadmins and out of control and over zealous blacklisting organizations email is no longer reliable.
posted by soulhuntre at 5:49 PM on June 22, 2004

I'm all out of invites now.
posted by Blue Stone at 7:10 PM on June 22, 2004

"WebmasterWorld member Robert Skelton reported his ISP is blocking Gmail emails "due to potential privacy and confidentiallity considerations." "

This is a very interesting position to take since email goes over the internet in plaintext. So really the ISP should be blocking all email incoming and outgoing.
posted by MrLint at 7:26 PM on June 22, 2004

What other avenues does one have to get an invite these days? Other than begging or ebay? I feel like I'm out of the loop without one.
posted by Decypher at 9:56 PM on June 22, 2004

Decypher, check your email (including the spam folder)>
posted by thatwhichfalls at 10:32 PM on June 22, 2004

Thanks to those of you who posted invites. And damn you to hell, all of you who used up 100% of the invites before I got to them.
posted by mosch at 11:29 PM on June 22, 2004

Will someone explain to me why I'd want a gmail account? There's nothing wrong with my ISP's mail servers.
posted by salmacis at 2:40 AM on June 23, 2004

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-164650bdad-d120587082

http://gmail.google.com/gmail/a-164650bdad-db8680e4a3

Two from me. first come, first serve.
posted by vacapinta at 3:02 AM on June 23, 2004

Thank you thatwhichfalls. Much appreciation.

FYI - The invite landed in my bulk folder. (I had spamguard on)
posted by Decypher at 4:08 AM on June 23, 2004

Um, much easier way - plus it gets sent to the right person, so you can see whether or not it's being filtered:

Send the invite to the person you wish to give the account to.

If they do not receive it, check your sent-mail folder - GMail saves invites as sent mail. You can cut and paste the URL from there, and it saves you that step if it does go through. :)
posted by u.n. owen at 10:37 AM on June 23, 2004

Salmacis, I can't tell you why everybody else wants one, but I want one because all the cool kids have one. If I had a Gmail address, I could be cool too. I have a 100 meg Yahoo address ([e-mail]) and a little five meg address ([e-mail]) that I've never filled up, but I won't be really cool until I can send mail to all my friends from my Gmail account. If somebody sent me an invite, I'd be really grateful. And cool.
posted by faceonmars at 8:51 AM on June 24, 2004

faceonmars, check your email (that's my last invite btw).
posted by thatwhichfalls at 8:57 AM on June 24, 2004

Yahoo! I've got Gmail! Thanks, thatwhichfalls!
posted by faceonmars at 9:22 AM on June 25, 2004