Is it a good idea to give members email addresses?
 

I'm wondering about giving trusted members email addresses as in whoever@exampleforum.com as pop3 accounts they can access from their regular email.

Is this a bad idea? How would one implement this? Would they need to know any sensitive information that could put my site at risk?

people registered on your site with their usual email, why would they need a new one ?!

that kind of email thing may be important for companies in need of an global identity... nothing more...

if you need it, do a search here for "vbms"

I'm planning to signup for Gmail and/or Live email for mine ;)

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/index.html

https://domains.live.com/

If i would offer such a service, then i would only do it for staff.

You must also realise that their emails can be seen as "official" emails from your domain. This could be abused.

Oooh! Thanks Marco I hadn't thought of that... but given the nature of the apps, would you really could get in a legal problem? :confused: but yes some people can impersonate the company :eek:

I have to rethink that!

Don't see why anyone should do this outside of staff, unless they can compete with gmail. Which they can't.

If this is important or not to you will depend on the site/company. But i do see this as a risk.

Imagine a mass of spam flowing from your servers mail service.

I know this probably sounds kinda stupid, but I remember seeing a modification here which did exactly what the first poster in the topic wanted...so maybe anyone who installed that could give feedback on things like whether it got abused?

But the idea was 'sign up' for Google email for Companies, where they manage everything, but Nexialys is right, to sign up in the board users must have/use an email... Mmmh... quite a conundrum

I had it installed once but it was for staff only. That way everything to do with the forum is on the board. :)

Potentially a horrible idea.

1. Most users will never actually use it and it'll just waste your time setting it up.
2. Potential for disaster is high . They could use this as a means of spamming which could cost you a small fortune in costs.
3. The could easily trick other members into thinking they are some how an offical at the forum and get them to release sensitive information.

9/10 the risks far outweigh any benefit of doing such a thing for your members.

Absolutely not!

They could ruin your websites reputation. There are just too many problems that could arise. I suggest only giving to trusted staff members.