Ask HN: When did you lose control of your inbox?

  • I didn't.

    Or rather I took back control. I have now 2 email addresses - one for humans, one for the rest.

    And I systematically unsubscribe from every email I don't want to receive (gosh I miss Europe for that), I delete everything that I have no reason to keep, and I archive anything that needs to be kept.

    It demands a lot of effort at the beginning. But now my inbox is useful again.

  • Year 2000. Ended in a support role (think SRE 20 years ago).

    Whe had a shared email account for the whole support group.

    We received about 100-150 emails daily from people and automates processes...

    ... And nobody was allowed to archive or move mails to folders.

    Almost 20 years later I simply don't trust email for important stuff. If I have to email something important I want to talk with the person, too.

  • When they wrestled that mail-server from under my desk in my apartment.

    (No they didn't; it's an imaginary future doomsday scenario).

  • When I stopped using a combined inbox for life and work.

  • When subscribed on different mailing lists...