May monthly poll

For the month of May we thought it would be interesting to know what the date of the oldest e-mail you've saved in your inbox? Feel free to tell us about the e-mail, why you're keeping it, etc.

All past monthly polls and results can also be found on the Computer Hope poll page.

I'm a lightweight in this department.  Between switching ISP's and losing a bunch of stuff that was on my backup device  I can only go back to '05.

Feel free to tell us about the e-mail, why you're keeping it, etc.

I found an email from DJST dated 9 Jun 2000. It contains the key for my Texturizer editor which I bought back in the day for $20 USD.

I kept it because I knew someday, someone, would have a poll about this and I wanted to have a ready answer. 

2002 for my Hotmail inbox. I have some older ones (back to 1999) archived in Outlook, but since they're technically not in my inbox, I guess they don't count.

2006 for my Gmail, I tend to clean out most stuff though.

[Malware Removal Specialist]

Feel free to tell us about the e-mail, why you're keeping it, etc.

2006 in my Yahoo mail. The subject is "a picture for you"

My oldest is January of '05. Looks like we're all pack rats when it comes to e-mail.

I'm using less than 10% of Hotmail's limit and have all my mail since 2002 when I opened that account. My Outlook (Gmail) account gets cleaned and archived regularly, oldest thing in there is Feb '08.

Wow that's pretty crazy you've got all your mail saved quaxo. So what is the first e-mail you've got in 2002?

I currently have 575 items in my inbox.  There are a lot of things I want to keep.  But there are many more that I just wanted to keep for a little while, but haven't gotten around to reevaluating and purging.  Keeping up with it is a full-time job.

Wow that's pretty crazy you've got all your mail saved quaxo. So what is the first e-mail you've got in 2002?

The one in the screen shot, January 18, 2002.

I have many folders in Outlook Express, to organize my email.  So, if I include folders other than Inbox, I believe the oldest email I have is dated 3/18/1999.  It's a message from my son who was living in another state at the time.  It's in a folder setup just for mail from him.  I tend to keep some email for a long time, which I why I setup folders so that it doesn't all accumulate in my Inbox.

My oldest one is from 2006, that's when I set up Thunderbird for my gmail account.

Actually I cheated, cause I have no mail in my inbox, all the mail I recieve is directly moved into folders, or deleted.
And than if it's a folder not for family or friends, I have set a retention policy for them (like newsletters and such). And about once a month, I log in on the web, and clean that out.

I have kept my e-mail so long becaise I have Yahoo Mail with unlimited storage, and find no need to delete emails

1998. I sent my Dad an E-mail from Formentera, a small desert island off the coast of Spain and sent myself a copy. I told him about the *censored* beaches and a beautiful blonde woman from Holland ( She resembled Meg Ryan [ before her botox reconstruction]) who had a very interesting array of piercings that looked like a golden zipper. Use your imagination..

and how I observed a very ingenious fellow who had a water proof camera, a snorkel, goggles and photographed the naked women swimmers, at a depth of about 10 feet. God, I searched everywhere for a waterproof camera but they were sold out. 

[Moderator]

2006... my very first inbox is something I no longer have.

If I could remember my first email address, I bet I could tell you what it was.

Speaking of email... I really need to call Microsoft and complain. My email hasnt been working right, ever since the notice: "Were updating your account!" came up... My account quite literally can not be updated.

I started saving them when I figured out how to have them in chronological order rather than alphabetical order

My oldest Email would be an year old.

2006.

[Global Moderator]

Gmail 3907 total messages, 2668 unread

Hotmail 2203 total messages, 1998 unread

How can you read that many? o.O
In my Hotmail i have 6207
6034 unread..

[R.I.P.]

Fri, 8 Sep 2006 11:17:51 -0700 (EDT)

This is an e-mail where I had a windows 98 SE disk I didn't use anymore.

A college student posted on a forum for help, they could not get there old
laptop reinstalled and needed it real bad for college.

So,I got the mailing address and sent it to them free of charge because
I like to see young people succeed.

My reward was the "Thank You E-mail" and it works!!!

[Moderator]

How can you read that many? o.O
In my Hotmail i have 6207
6034 unread..

Don't you mean " How can you unread that many ".....

 

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

Because this is a newer computer, my saved e-mails only go back to the end of 2007.  But I have old e-mails saved offline (in AOL backup files) from all the way back into the 90's.

My oldest email is back in 2001.
It was an emial i had sent for my now ex-girlfriend. I saved a copy and had it sent to myself.
 the break up letter i still have from her to. its dated June 3,2007

[Moderator]

12099 read emails..

My oldest is from last year: my policy is not to delete emails (Just in case I get sued or need to prove someone right\wrong, etc.) anymore, and I have over 3200 email messages, most accumalted in the past 3 months since we got the new Computy-doodle!

[Mod & Malware Specialist]

If you have to worry about getting sued, you just might want to take some time to straighten out your priorities.

Oldest message in my Hotmail was received Mon 7/03/00 7:11 AM.  I started that Hotmail account before Micro$oft bought them out.  Older messages would be in my Penn State email. 

When i signed up for hotmail in 2004...
as you can see i dont use it much any more, mainly just for junk. 1694 inbox xD the junk filters are so awful compared to Gmail...

[Moderator]

Aww... I REALLY want the new Hotmail. They cant upgrade my account, so, I am stuck with the traditional one.

I dont really check my mail but around a few months

lol i got email older than 2002 archived but as not in inbox cant really say so 2002 for me  oldest mail i got  is belive it or not form 85 from quantimlink LOL yeah that old....

it was reg key for a progrma for comodore 64 system lol