Like many folks I have an @yahoo.com e-mail account. Unlike many of the folks I know who have such an account I’m pretty good about going in and clearing out my spam folder. It may just be the OCD in me but my friend K.’s approach (“What? They’ll get deleted eventually.”) gives me hives.
I did an experiment last month, though, just to see how many unsolicited messages this fairly active, fairly public address would collect in a month.
487 ± 4 (This accounts for the three messages in the box dated March 26, 2038)
That’s not many by most standards. Two jobs ago I was responsible for the webmaster@ e-mail box for my company. We collected that many messages in a day. Of course, we were also a huge non-profit and thus more of a target than my one little Yahoo! address which is clearly registered to a private individual.
There’s something unnaturally satisfying, though, about following that link that says “Empty” beside the Bulk Folder.