question about email address

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The info on posting correctly says not to use a fake email because it harms the system. However, I notice that MANY people do.

Is the warning obsolete?

I would prefer not to get replies in my email, but I have given a real email address as requested.

Please advise.

-- Rose (open_rose@hotmail.com), February 08, 2002

Answers

You can use either a fake one or a real one, but if you don't want responses, just click on the NO button when it asks if you want to be notiifed of responses. This comes up when you ask a new question.

-- Melissa in SE Ohio (me@home.net), February 08, 2002.

If you use a real one be prepared to get put on some spammer's list at some point.

Spammers use automated programs that crawl around the web looking for email addresses, then automatically add them to the spammer's databases.

The best solution I've found is to use an email alias, or a throwaway account instead of your real email address. woah@mission4me.com is an email alias that directs any mail sent to it to my actual address. If I start getting too much spam from that alias, I can simply throw it away and get a new one, without having to actually get a new email address.

A throwaway account is a web based email address at hotmail or yahoo or similar. If you use one of these, you'll have to check it for responses, but it insulates your real email address.

If you put an incorrect email address in the post, it won't necessarily harm the system, but will simply cause a bounce for anyone who tries to send you a message. If you do that, make sure you set email responses to "no".

-- chuck in md (woah@mission4me.com), February 08, 2002.


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