Getting your preferred user name - and regretting it

[Nybo]

I was one of those people who relatively early got invited to Gmail. That gave me the chance of having my preferred user name: my not very common first name. Not really important, of course, but nice and practical. Also a bit of a vanity thing, perhaps.

For several months I was happy for that account. I did not use it that much, but it was nice to have for the things that I used it for.

But then strange things began to happen. Things that I had personally never experienced before, presumably because I have always had email addresses that were not easily confused with others.

What happened was that I began receiving email that was not for me. Little by little it became evident that at least one person (and presumably more) had made exactly the mistake that I never would have made myself because I know that it would be an invitation to typos or misreadings: He had chosen a username that was very close to the one that he wanted to have but could not get.

Haven't I warned anybody about the problem? Oh yes, the first three or four people. I got a kind answer from one of them. She had mistyped the address. I got an arrogant answer from someone else. One person did not answer. And there was a sender address that I could not write to.

Then I gave up. Every new misfiring sender simply gets filtered and directed to the bin and that's it. It's amazing to see some of those things that are sent to me. Some of it is confidential. And one evening someone spent more than an hour sending loads of pictures from a mobile phone. Luckily I spotted the problem after a few minutes and created a filter.

Anybody else getting loads of crap with wrong email address?

[bill]

I get that all the time in Japan. I used to hang onto some of my old [e-mail] addresses from ISPs and mobile phone vendors, but the spam was unbearable. I finally realized the prestige factor in my own mind wasn't getting me free drinks at the local or any other tangible benefits...I gave most of them up.

However, if they'd had Bayesian spam filters back then I might have a few of those trophies left. <sigh>

[Lyndsay]

Years ago I really wanted tahiti_treat as my hotmail address, but it was taken. After checking repeatedly, it became available one day. So I registered. I started gettings tons of emails from different guys talking to this, apparently very hot, chick.

But I never bothered replying. No point, I'd never keep up.

I never did use the account, other than as a spam filter.

[Tapolyai]

Couldn't you just send one of your "invitations to gmail" to yourself at an other address? Then you can create a brand new gmail account.

Free e-mail accounts are throw aways and I use them like chewing gum. Get all the flavor out, then spit it in the nearest trash can.