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Comment by dododo | Hacker News Reader

correction to tip #2: the plus trick (username+foo@example.org) works with many mail systems not just gmail (as stated). its origins predate gmail.

correction to tip #4: iPhone's append "Sent from my iPhone" not "Sent from iPhone". i'd notice the missing "my". "Sent from my mobile." is just fine and probably a better approach.

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> correction to tip #2: the plus trick (username+foo@example.org) works with many mail systems not just gmail (as stated). its origins predate gmail.

Obligatory note: this doesn't work with all signup forms, unfortunately.

I created an email address a long time ago that was something like readrfc822@ just for these sites.

Anyone who validates email addresses by doing anything other than sending you an email is doing it wrong.

In some email systems like postfix, you can change what the + character is (like . or _ or even numbers) So you could have username_football@example.com

Underscore is not a valid character in user names. Use - instead.

You're confusing "usernames" and "email addresses". Underscores are fine in the local part of an email address. The following are also valid:

O'Reilly@example.com

"Foo@Bar"@example.com

Indeed. Sorry about this. I was confusing local part with domain name. Here is a blog note providing a detailed information on this.

http://haacked.com/archive/2007/08/21/i-knew-how-to-validate...

gmail allows you to put periods anywhere in your email address, so you can use that as a fallback. If a site's email validator pukes on youremail+mightbespam@gmail.com, you can use youremai.l@gmail.com or y.o.u.r.e.m.a.il@gmail.com or whatever combination you want to use.

I don't like the iPhone signature. It's blatantly dishonest.

So, how long till spammers remove the + and following characters or strip all the . out of a gmail address?

If you're concerned, use a "+" suffixed address as your "main" address and consider email to your "bare" address to be spam too. Though this might be difficult if your "bare" address is already well-established with a lot of your contacts.

The '+' addresses just allow you to trace the who spilled the beans about your email address. Chances are that if NewEgg.com sells an email list to a spammer (or their customer database is hacked), that the spammer won't give two shits about stripping out the '+' part of the email addresses. It's no skin off the spammer's back if you now know that NewEgg.com leaked your email.

I've been doing the iPhone sig on my primary email for 2 years now - oddly enough I think I heard Kevin say it some other time and I picked it up then.

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