I'm a businessperson...but I'm also a consumer. I use email a great deal, and have a variety of spam filters to try and keep junk out of my inbox.
Over the course of the past month, I've noted a great influx of spam messages coming from .info domains and decided to use one of my control panel tools to block all messages from senders with ".info" in their address.
Truth is, these messages may have been coming for years, but not in the quantity I'm now experiencing.
It's this increase in quantity which has led me to your forum's doorstep, by using the search terms, "lot of spam from .info addresses" sans quote marks, at Google.
I'm attempting to resurrect this topic, to assure the people who have suggested that some of the former authors who expressed disdain for .info domains were (negatively) prejudiced, need to strongly consider reevaluating their positions.
For my part, I'm done allowing .info spammers access to my email box. As such, this is also going to make it harder for any legitimate businessperson who has .info domains to conduct business with me, efficiently.
A prejudice does exist...and while the connotation of the word is not desirable, one definiton of the word simply means to pre-judge. For my part, I know full well that there may be some people who utilize .info domains that run fine businesses or other services.
Be that as it may, I've seen enough widespread abuse by those with--or hiding behind--.info domains, that it just doesn't matter to me if eliminating that whole species knocks out communications from the "good guys", too.
There was only one other thing I needed to consider...and that was whether it was likely that I might ever lose a client who began corresponding with me from a .info domain...thus making it so I would not ever know the person existed. (Remember...I'm blocking email from all .info domains.)
Fact is, over sixteen years of ecommerce, I have never once received client correspondence from a .info domain. I've gotten client email from a very few .net and .org addresses...but none from .info or .biz. So, the decision to kill the whole species was pretty easy for me. (And I think it would be pretty easy for others, too.)
As such, I would certainly think that--if it hasn't already happened--that people who favor .info for TLDs should seriously think about, at the very least, making sure that any correspondence they send is done from a .com , .net or .org address.
Keep something else in mind, in closing. I was motivated enough by the junk I've been getting to take the time to register for this forum, and post this long-winded message. I wish you all well...
