# How many (active) email accounts do you have and how do you use them? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824 "2009-03-26T01:58:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dryfreeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@Dryfreeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dryfreeze)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/21 "2009-03-26T16:08:34Z")
I pretty much only use 5. Have more, but really I would not consider them active. 1. Current employer 2. Everyday Gmail 3. Spam Gmail 4. US Army 5. College All but 2 of these go into my everyday Gmail which is linked to my T-mo G1. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/22 "2009-03-26T17:17:51Z")
I have: (active) 1. Personal. Only for friends, family, and professional writing contacts. 2. Gmail. Some family, fandom, conventions. 3. Work. Work-related e-mail. 4. Yahoo. To anyone wanting to send me stuff. Not just spam, but if my neighborhood dentists wants an e-mail account. 5. Spamgourmet. This forwards to my Yahoo account, but it lets me limit the number of messages I get from any source. If I want to get an e-mail, I can give my spamgourmet address and get only a set number of e-mails from that source. (inactive) 6. AIM. They give you an e-mail address when you sign up. I never check it. 7. Alumni. My college gives this out free for life. I check it every 3-4 months. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/23 "2009-03-26T17:43:58Z")
1. 1 for work and 2 yahoo accounts. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/24 "2009-03-26T17:54:57Z")
I have a work account and two personal ones. The main personal account is used for most of our family stuff. My husband also has one that he uses for some non-business groups he is involved in (soccer, scouts, church, etc.) I set up an extra one at home to use mainly for my personal business, such as job hunting, but it rarely gets used unless I’m on an active search. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/25 "2009-03-26T20:05:08Z")
General-purpose gmail account. My first web-based e-mail that gets any actual use – I’ve had it since gmail’s beta-testing, and it’s my “main” email address. “larrymudd@” My work e-mail account. As the network admin, I gave myself the luxury of a secondary SMTP address that’s [firstnamelastname@ourdomain.com](mailto:firstnamelastname@ourdomain.com) (as opposed to the conventional [firstinitiallastname@ourdomain.com](mailto:firstinitiallastname@ourdomain.com)[) and set up a rule to sort anything addressed to this address to a “Personal e-mail” folder in my Outlook. I use this address anywhere I’d like something more serious looking than a pseudonymous web-based e-mail account. I have a hotmail address that’s a spam-catcher, for registration-required type things. Barely used, often has to be logged into for reactivation before using. I hate hotmail and feel dirty using it. I also have a myrealname@mybuddy’[sdotcom.com](http://sdotcom.com) POP account that dates from c. 1997. There’s really no point in having this, I don’t even remember the last time I checked it. I do check in from time to time to confirm that it’s still there, and to mass delete a few years of spam. (Hey, if my friend is going to keep the thing sitting there, I can at least clear a few hundred megs of crap off his server once in a while.) ---
**Author:** ![Elyanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5ac83/32.png) [@Elyanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elyanna)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/26 "2009-03-26T20:21:24Z")
I have four that I can remember. I rarely use any of them for anything besides signing up for stuff. 1. myname on hotmail – use for group projects at school and spam. 2. anickname on hotmail – spamdump 3. myname on gmail – not really used. sometimes I forget I have it. 4. my school account – school spam and facebook sign-up email. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/27 "2009-03-26T23:22:36Z")
One, really, at Gmail. I don’t count the one at work, because that’s 100% work only. Flickr requires you to have a Yahoo account, so I have Yahoo email, but I don’t think that’s used for anything but that account (and I still have Flickr send me mail at Gmail). I only have the one, non-professional email in real use, because I haven’t needed to look for a job anytime recently, and if I’m getting emails from work at my personal email, I must not be at work, and therefore they can deal. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/28 "2009-03-27T00:10:45Z")
One strictly for personal use. One for when I have to give out my addy on the internet, and occasionally for scambaiting. One for scambaiting, and occasionally when I have to give out my addy on the internet. One that’s entirely for scambaiting. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/29 "2009-03-27T01:13:49Z")
2 GMail (one for internet purchases and another for Google services.) 1 Yahoo (US) (for Yahoo Messenger since 1995.) 1 Yahoo (Japan) (for Yahoo Japan Messenger) 1 Hotmail (for MSN Messenger since 1995) 1 ISP account 5 domain accounts (e-mail addresses associated with my website) 1 Excite (old account for net purchases.) ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/30 "2009-03-27T02:26:50Z")
One personal one, one from school, and one hotmail for random stuff. I have another personal one from a former ISP which hasn’t received a penny from me in years but for some reason the account still works. I get emails from a radio station in Toronto, which I once signed up for to get ticket pre-sales to a concert. I don’t know why I don’t just delete the account; it has been useful when my main personal one wasn’t working for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/31 "2009-03-27T04:33:03Z")
One hotmail account that used to be my main, until it got too clogged with spam (mostly from colleges). Still used for stuff that’s likely to spam me. One gmail account that’s now my main account. Two college accounts, one from the college I’m taking PSEO classes from, one from the college I’m going to next year and I’m taking a CIS course from this year. These are both forwarded to the gmail account. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/32 "2009-03-27T16:01:17Z")
I have a spamtrap account on Yahoo. I have an email at the Taekwondo school. I have a personal email for family, friends and selected contacts. I also have a redirecting email to my personal account through Bigfoot. When it starts getting spammed to badly, I simply change the account name and notify those who need to know. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/33 "2009-03-27T19:16:11Z")
Even talking about this makes me want to burst into tears. I have a couple dozen, and I receive between 650 and 1200 emails daily, most of which is spam. I’m gonna go cry now. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824/34 "2009-03-27T20:49:43Z")
1 Gmail account for things where I expect a lot of spam (usenet, various signups). 1 Gmail account for everything else. 1 Yahoo account for flickr. 1 Yahoo account I had been using the same way as the first Gmail account above, but I keep it because somehow it got free POP email access. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-active-email-accounts-do-you-have-and-how-do-you-use-them/490824.md?page=1)