A civic initiative to make it easy to delete obsolete emails
TicTag is a civic initiative born from a simple observation: our inboxes are overflowing with emails that no longer serve any purpose, yet they keep consuming energy, server after server, year after year.
To offer a free, open, and universal standard so that every email can "say" how long it remains useful — and allow anyone to clean up their inbox easily, without effort.
No app to install. No account to create. Just a tag — TicTag1Y, TicTag3Y, TicTag5Y — slipped into the body of the message. As simple as a hashtag. As powerful as a collective gesture.
The idea was launched by Gaylord Niobey, and grew out of several parallel lives.
That of a user who has spent way too much time emptying his inboxes — but who does it, because he knows that behind every lingering message, there is a server running.
That of a digital professional who knows the reality of e-commerce: we cannot do without these single-use emails. But we can decide how long they survive.
That of a local elected official who saw first-hand how data accumulates and how digital storage costs the community — in money, energy, and complexity — with no simple solution for deleting what has become obsolete.
And that of a young father who would like to leave a planet in good shape for his children — (Energy is too precious to be wasted storing a password reset email from 2014 forever.)
From all of this came an obvious realisation: there was no simple, universal, and free way to bulk-delete obsolete emails.
TicTag is the answer.
TicTag is a digital commons. Spread the word, adopt the tags, get in touch.