giving away free email addresses

Hi all,

I'm new to DreamHost and want to know how I can give away free email addresses for one of my domains.

Can I just set up some kind of script to automatically do it, or am I stuck setting them up by hand?

Any recommendations would be great.

Thanks!

You're stuck setting them up by hand. There's no easy way to emulate a panel activity with a script.

And I hope you trust the people who are getting these email addresses, because you can have your account terminated for spamming.

-Scott

Ok, thanks for the fast reply.

sdayman's point is a very significant one to consider. If you're a savvy programmer you can figure out a way to script the process of creating email accounts, but you still need to be cognizant of Dreamhost's TOS.

Just poke around the forums and you'll see horror stories of people who have had their accounts suspended because their paying clients sent a promotional email to opt-in users. I know it sounds absurd and I initially questioned it myself, but multiple people have made this same claim.

It might make some people feel as if it's an unjust act, but that won't change the state of affairs. The account you're doing business with, for an exceedingly low cost, might no longer be yours. I've never heard of any sort of enforceable legal rights being violated by these actions, so you're likely to be out in the cold regardless of any potential outrage.

It would be wise to exercise discretion when doing anything that is frowned upon by the TOS.

In reply to:

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Any recommendations would be great.

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Setup your domain's mail to be handled by Google to protect yourself from any spammers that may (read: will) abuse your charitous nature.

Import any current mail accounts in list format using Google Apps management, taking note of the procedure it uses.

Create a script that uses the Google interface to add new email addresses on-the-fly, or alternatively, a script that saves requests in list format that you will import manually on a timely basis into Google.

Note: Google accounts aren't "unlimited".