BYE: My first impressions

If you recall my recent review of the new HEY email service, you'll remember that I wasn't convinced that it was the right email tool for me. Maybe you felt the same way? Maybe not. But if you didn't feel like HEY was the next big thing, BYE might just be the right email service for you! Clearly inspired by HEY, BYE promises to be "the first email service to automatically respond with an insult, and then delete every email sent to you." I think I'm in love. Read all about it here

Joking aside -- I am struck by another comparison with HEY. That still, this is stuff you can just as easily do with Gmail. How do I know? A couple of years ago, my wife published a particular op-ed in the Washington Post and this is exactly what we ended up having to do just afterward. We configured a Gmail account to auto-reply with a "go away" message and delete everything. We had to. Stop and think about what kind of angry emails you might get in response to political speech. And then double the abuse to account for how jerks treat women online. That mailbox was wholly radioactive -- we could feel the heat all the way from the next room, even with the laptop closed.

Huh, you know, the more I think about it, maybe we do need an email service like BYE.