Stupid banks.

There is a difference, most mail harvesting now appears to happen by scanning HTML pages. Thus an 'in clear' E-mail address posted on a publicly acccessible web page will be much more liable to get tons of junk mail sent to it than an address on a newsgroup.

There is another differentiation, it would appear that From: and Reply To: addresses in a newsgroup posting header are very unikely to be harvested whereas an E-Mail address in the posting itself (e.g. in the Sig) may get harvested.

That's why I don't have a valid E-Mail address visible in my posting but the From: address is valid (and gets very little spam).

Do they allow one to use a normal E-Mail program to send them mail? If not then that's no more use to me than being able to phone them.

wrote

You can't want to record it *that* much then, or you *would* bother.

I would *like* to record it, if they let me use E-Mail to them then I could record it with no effort at all. As it is I can't record it easily which I regard as a disadvantage of forms based messaging. That's all I was saying.

Without a hint of irony, snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk astounded uk.finance on 01 Jul

Heard of folders?

Without a hint of irony, snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk astounded uk.finance on 01 Jul

That just *reinforces* my point.

Web email forms are used partly due to stupidity on the part of the company, and partly because they are the simplest way to prevent spammers ripping an email address off the website.

A colleague in Germany was using PGP signed emails with his bank as long as 10 years ago. Why can't this happen in the UK?

Not really, I call them directories, why use an (inaccurate) analogue when the real word is better?

I also don't really see the relevance of your comment. If the stuff I'm searching is in different directories it makes the (automated by computer) job more difficult than otherwise.

Exactly! So it can be done by a business with a bit of sense.

Without a hint of irony, snipped-for-privacy@isbd.co.uk astounded uk.finance on 12 Jul

Whatever you call them, the terms are largely interchangeable and both correct terminology. The term 'folder' is more commonly used on GUI systems where directories are depicted by an icon resembling a folder.

Not at all. If your system cannot handle recursive searches then you need a better system. It also makes manual searching easier.

In any case, if you don't want the advice then just ignore it and get on with your life.

The terms may be interchangeable but folder is misleading. Who uses real folders in a multi-level fashion? Is it sensible to stack lots of folders on your desk top (real ones that is)?

'My system' (whatever that may be, I use several) can of course do recursive searches. However it is quicker and easier in every way if outgoing mail is held in one place. It eases searching and backups are simpler. I use directories (several levels of them) to save mail that I want to keep for reasons other than simple recording of outgoing mail.

Where did I ask for advice? My original posting was just saying that for me (and I suspect for many other people) it's *much* easier to record outgoing mail if I can use my E-Mail client of choice as opposed to having to fill in a Web form. Yes, one can record what one puts on a form, but it's more difficult and time consuming, thus it's less likely to get done. Recording mail sent the 'usual' way can be done automatically with no effort at all.