Buddhist e-mail server/service

Stephen

Brian said this is OK, so here goes... EDIT: BodhiBox.com is now up and running and registrations are open for new accounts per the site info. This free e-mail service for Buddhists of all flavors is powered by Google Mail (Gmail), so it has all of the same great features. 7GB+ of storage space, spam filters, WebMail/POP/IMAP access, contact list management, etc. etc.; there are, to my knowledge, no other e-mail services (free or otherwise) that are intended for Buddhists. BTW "Bodhi" as in wisdom/enlightenment, and "Box" as in mailbox/e-mail box.

A thought just popped into my head a little while ago, and after mulling it over for a bit, I thought I'd see what everyone thinks.

I did a cursory look on the web but didn't find any "Buddhist" e-mail services. Are there any? Would anyone be interested in one? What I mean is you'd get your own @whatever.com account (free of course) and it would have both WebMail and POP3 (for Eudora, Thunderbird, Windows Mail etc.) access.

I've had two different e-mail servers in the past, both offering free service, albeit limited to several hundred to several thousand users. I *could* set one up, if enough people are interested. The only problem might be that I'd have no idea what to call it. Too many other things on my mind to spend a great deal of time on a domain to use...

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

fivebells

Why? What does Buddhism have to do with telecommunications?

Stephen

I wasn't making a statement about Buddhism having anything necessarily to "do" with telecommunications, fivebells. The question is whether anyone would be interested in an e-mail service (imagine something like yourname@BuddhaMail.com, except that domain is not available; something like that...).

Telecommunications are a facet of our technological age that is all-pervasive for anyone who would be tech-savvy enough to be on an internet forum.

If you're not interested, that's okay, but let's not make this some sort of argument/debate about Buddhism and telecommunications.

fivebells

I certainly don't want to argue about Buddhism and telecommunications. It's just that when you consider a project like this, which is going to add up to a fair bit of work in the end, you want to make sure there's a good reason for doing it. It's not clear to me what that reason would be, in this case.

Stephen

It's actually not a lot of work at all, so the only reason required (for me) is whether or not people would be interested in it.

Stephen

I figure, what the hell, it's not expensive, so I went ahead and registered a domain to use to set up free e-mail for anyone who wants it. I'll be partnering with Google Mail for this one, so it's basically a novelty gmail.com account; instead of @gmail.com, you'll get @BodhiBox.com instead.

So, it'll have all the great features that all Google Mail accounts have, including a load of storage space, WebMail/POP3/IMAP access, filtering and spam protection, etc.

It'll take a few days for everything to get set up properly and I'll have to add accounts by hand as they're requested (unless I make someone else an admin that can add/change/delete accounts as well).

It's the least I can do, since it's not difficult, not expensive, and people will enjoy having a Buddhist-oriented e-mail service. If someone sees an @BodhiBox.com account, they'll know that person is either a Buddhist or at the very least interested enough in Buddhism to use such an account.

Later...

Stephen

Amazingly though the actual site itself (which is just information on how to get an account and a link to the actual mail log-in page) is not up, the e-mail portion of it *IS* now running. I even sent an e-mail from my gmail.com account to my BodhiBox.com account to make sure.

You can preview the site at http://preview11.awardspace.com/bodhibox.com/ for now, and yes, I am now accepting registrations... so if you want an account just let me know. The instructions are hardly worth reading.

EDIT: The mail server's page for logging in once you have an account is http://mail.BodhiBox.com, and that too is working now.

Miranda

Wow, I'm impressed That's a creative idea, and I'd like to check it out tomorrow.

Peace!

Stephen

Fully operational now. I slapped a big fat EDIT on the initial post of this thread. Since it's new, you can even get your first name if you want (i.e. "Stephen" for me, so I took it).

Stephen

Just had another inspiration. Anyone who gets an account can also request a free subdomain... that is, you could have http://username.BodhiBox.com redirect to your own personal website. Actually it doesn't have to be the same as your e-mail address username, but if you'd like it to be something like a "bio" of you it'd be useful in that way.

Stephen

Just wanted to drop in and say all the kinks have been worked out and it's a-go, 100% operational. I have a few accounts set up already, some of which are people from DhammaWheel.com, but for the most part any username you'd desire is still available.

The "intro" page is http://www.BodhiBox.com, which is just there to explain what the service is and how to get an account (which is free, no strings attached).

The "login" page is at http://mail.BodhiBox.com if you use webmail, otherwise you can set it up to use any e-mail client that uses POP or IMAP, such as Windows Mail, Eudora, Thunderbird, etc.

I'm thinking about throwing together a Windows program using Visual C# that'll be an offline study tool with online capability, and I'll probably throw it up on BodhiBox as a free download. That may take me a while though; still brushing up on my Visual C#.