Page Table of Contents
There is additional information in the eve forum thread here: http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=665867
So what's this all about? It's not 'just another e-mail address'.
IM Service Features
Mail Service Features
The address is useful. It's a nice easy to remember e-mail address to use for dealing with other EVE players, without having to give out your normal address. And because everyone's e-mail address is tied to their in-game character name, people can be confident that it's really you e-mailing them. If you only ever use the e-mail account that's fine, but the e-mail was just quick and easy for me to include as a bonus.
The interesting thing is the Jabber (aka XMPP) Server. It's an Instant Message server. Unlike MSN or AIM anyone (with some basic technical skills) can set one up and people using different servers can communicate by just using user_name@eve-mail.net or user_name@gmail.com (for G-Talk) addresses. This one is on a rented server in a hosting center, so it shouldn't ever be down.
The most compelling feature of Jabber is the ability to setup shared contact lists (or 'groups'). For this server it's handled through a bot (the user named "The Postmaster"). Just tell The Postmaster to add you to a group and then (after you reconnect) your contact list will automatically show a new group with all of the existing members of that group (and they'll see you after a reconnect too). No more adding each member of your corp or alliance one address at a time. No more trying to remember who PJohnson3874@MSN.com is in game. And if your corp director provides an API key, you can have all of your corp mates automatically added to their own 'locked' group with only your corp members.
You can also setup ad hoc or permanent chat channels with permissions much like IRC. A place to chat while the server is down, or just when you're at work or school and can't play.
You can also easily broadcast messages to your entire corporation group. Which is a great way to alert anyone who is available that an event is coming up, a POS is under siege, or that you've just won the BIG Lottery.
"The Postmaster" bot handles group management (you tell it what groups you want to be in), and has a few API-powered features (you can ask it your skill time remaining and account balance), with more features being added over time generally by request.
Speaking of adding features. If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. For the e-mail accounts, jabber server, or just useful commands for the bot.
Anyone is welcome to add an account for the minimum transfer of 0.10 ISK. If you'd like to test out the corp tools send an e-mail to "The Postmaster", or join the in-game channel and we'll get it set up (it will be automated eventually).
There is currently no recurring fee. This may change in the future, but will never be a significant amount and you will be able to submit any number of payments in a single transaction.
To create an account send any amount of ISK to the in-game corp eve-mail.net. Be sure to include a reason, as the text of the reason will be your account password.
You can right-click this link to 'give money' if you're in game now.
Your user name is your in game character name with two changes. Any spaces are converted to a _ (underscore) and any ' (apostrophe) are converted to a . (period).
Accounts are created hourly, as soon as the EVE API cache refreshes.
Simply send another deposit with a different reason to change your password.
Your login name is your FULL E-MAIL ADDRESS (user_name@eve-mail.net).
Basic webmail is available at http://eve-mail.net/mail/.
Incoming and outgoing mail server for IMAP and POP3 are all mail.eve-mail.net.
SSL is optional (certificate is self-signed, warnings will ensue).
Some clients will just ask for your full address (user_name@eve-mail.net), others may ask for your screen name (user_name), domain (eve-mail.net), and server (eve-mail.net) separately.
Ports are default and SSL is again optional.
There are a huge variety of clients, many of which support AIM/MSN/Yahoo/etc protocols as well (multi-protocol clients denoted with a *).
Windows: Trillian Pro*, Pidgin*, Spark, Psi, more...
Mac: iChat*, Adium*, Psi, more...
Unix: Pidgin*, Spark, Psi, more...
You can mail "The Postmaster" (at eve-mail.net) with questions, suggestions, comments, issues, etc. I (Lake) am virtually always on the IM server. I'm not always available but feel free to leave a message and I'll get back to you if I can. Despite the title of this section of the page don't worry about bothering me, I'll just ignore you if I'm busy. I've started the E-M.N in game channel as a support tool. I'm not sure if it will catch on, but it's worth a shot.