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-1 cannot reproduce (possessing a gmail account without dots, I cannot create a similarly-named gmail account with dots in).

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I indicated that in the post. However any existing account combination like this will route mail to both accounts presumably. I can certainly say that email intended for an account without the '.' will route to the account with the '.'

After the edit, point 2 and point 3 are directly contradictory.

Once someone has created j.smith@gmail, jsmith@gmail can no longer be created -- because they are the same account. It's not possible for you to have j.smith@gmail and someone else to have jsmith@gmail.

I get other peoples' mail all the time. It's not because gmail is misdelivering mail with dots in account names. It's because someone has another letter in their account that somebody left out (jjsmith, jpsmith, jsmith1, etc.) It's the sender, not gmail, who is directing the mail to the wrong inbox.

No, the list of instructions at the start of the post indicates that you can create an account like miles.standish@gmail.com even if there is already an account like milesstandish@gmail.com.

If that is not what you mean, you should edit it to make it clearer.

Done.

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