# How many email address do you have - and use? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935 "2010-09-07T16:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/21 "2010-09-07T22:14:00Z")
1. Home and work. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/22 "2010-09-07T22:16:00Z")
I am currently at 27 email addresses; one for each website I own and run plus one Yahoo account for anonymous stuff. ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/23 "2010-09-07T22:30:44Z")
Two. One personal one that I use for friends and freelance business purposes. The other a yahoo account that I use to order stuff and as the email address of record for registration on most websites. If it starts accumulating too much spam or other annoying stuff, I delete it and open a new one. Or sometimes just to change the name. I’ve had this one since 2007 though. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/24 "2010-09-07T22:34:44Z")
One at work, one with a name that makes no sense for financial stuff and one for everyday use with my real name. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/25 "2010-09-07T22:53:56Z")
1. Main account: most personal email, bank, businesses, etc. 2. Anonymous account in the name of twickster 3. “Business” account for freelancing, job-hunting, etc. 4. SDMB account (got a dedicated gmail account when I became a mod) 5. Work account 6. _teemings_ account ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/26 "2010-09-07T23:24:21Z")
If you get a paid (premium, plus, etc) account with yahoo (can upgrade existing one), they let you created a second root id that is used to create an unlimited number of disposable ids. For example, if the primary user name is [sillyboy@yahoo.com](mailto:sillyboy@yahoo.com), you can create a second root id that’s let’s say “junk\_id”. What you do then is create disposable addresses based on the root - like [junk\_id-666@yahoo.com](mailto:junk_id-666@yahoo.com) or [junk\_id-somewebsite@yahoo.com](mailto:junk_id-somewebsite@yahoo.com) what I do is create a disposable id for every site I visit from the root id. That let’s me track who’s selling my info and let’s me kill id’s that attract too much spam. It’s a fantastic feature. The only downside is that if you SEND mail from a root id and the other person looks at the email headers, they can find the primary id (in this case [sillyboy@yahoo.com](mailto:sillyboy@yahoo.com)) That happened to me once when dealing with a Chinese company and ended up get tons of spam sent to my primary id. You can get around this by using email spoofers that let you put in whatever “from” address you want. Here’s one that I use - [http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/](http://www.sendanonymousemail.net/) So I have well over a hundred disposable ids for yahoo. Then I have about 8 ids from another service that I got many years ago and which get filled with spam every few months. Plus I have about a dozen gmail accounts ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Stilettos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/fbc32d/32.png) [@Red\_Stilettos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Stilettos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/27 "2010-09-07T23:36:03Z")
I have three: 1. gmail account for personal stuff including listservs and purchases. 2. work email 3. work email from my adjuncting gig I just realized it’s actually 4, because I have two gmail accounts. One with my maiden (and current name) and one with my married name. Both go to the same inbox, though. I have at least 4 others that I don’t use but still accept mail. Oops. Just added a 5th: a student account that forwards to my work address. I think that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/28 "2010-09-08T01:09:28Z")
One at work, and one personal. ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/29 "2010-09-08T05:54:54Z")
Wow, I assumed most people had just one or two address. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/30 "2010-09-08T06:13:34Z")
I recently got a second account, so I’m not sharing my real name with everyone I ever talk to. I use Gmail to check it and my main account. Also, did you know that, if you change your email on the Dope, you can’t reply until you’ve confirmed the new email? Kinda annoying with Gmail’s delay at checking external mail, even if you try to do it manually. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/31 "2010-09-08T11:33:32Z")
4 if you don’t count aliases. By alias I mean different formats that land in the same inbox such as: [kferr@companyname.com](mailto:kferr@companyname.com) [kferr@divisionname.com](mailto:kferr@divisionname.com) [first.last@companyname.com](mailto:first.last@companyname.com) [last.first@companyname.com](mailto:last.first@companyname.com) All of those land in my work mailbox but only one gets used for outgoing mail. I think they finally settled on [first.last@companyname.com](mailto:first.last@companyname.com) as the least confusing. After that I’ve got one gmail/googlemail, one operamail, and one fsmail which is now yahoo I think. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/32 "2010-09-08T13:46:51Z")
1. One at uni, one personal and one for registering for sites and communicating with internet friends. ---
**Author:** ![LegsAkimbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@LegsAkimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegsAkimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/33 "2010-09-08T13:58:28Z")
They are starting to accumulate and getting more specialized. Key ones, as like so many others, are the personal one and the one for ordering stuff. But ordering stuff never stops at the confirmation, they want to send you their newsletter and ads and whatnot, so I created more of those with levels of how much I have to see the confirmation of the order. Mostly I have many, MANY filters in the separate email checker so a lot of junk that the spam filter doesn’t catch still gets deleted before I ever see it. I’m in the 5-7 group now. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/34 "2010-09-08T14:05:07Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > I am currently at 27 email addresses; one for each website I own and run plus one Yahoo account for anonymous stuff. This thread got me thinking and I actually went and counted. Not sure if it matters, but I run almost a dozen websites and each one has generic emails like news@, info@, trade@, wholesale@, myname@, my-administrator’s-name@, noc@, abuse@, etc. Now I am the only one who checks all these emails but it does add up to well over a hundred. On my computer, I have 27 of them channel to my mail program so there are only 27 that I read on any given day. But it is still too many and too confusing! ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/35 "2010-09-08T14:11:27Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > 1 personal Gmail account for everyday email from people I know. > 1 personal Hotmail account for commercial/junk email. > 2 work email addresses. This, except only 1 work email address. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/36 "2010-09-08T17:23:47Z")
4 One Hotmail account for everyday correspondence. One Yahoo account for correspondence related to my book (conversations with readers, my publisher, etc.). One Yahoo account for spam (e.g., websites that expect an e-mail address to be entered to acheive some benefit). One Yahoo account for communication with Blizzard (publisher of World of Warcraft), who for some reason wouldn’t accept my spam address when I first signed up. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f08c70/32.png) [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Brother_Walker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/37 "2010-09-10T04:15:19Z")
I almost said 4 but stuck with three. A comcast email, but I never check it or give it out. A professional firstlast yahoo one, for resumes and real life stuff. A spam yahoo, for whenever web pages ask for sign up email. A personal yahoo email, just for friends and family. I have asked them not to use it when somebody asks “to sign up your friends” websites. I’ve had these last three for over 15 years, so I don’t want to change them. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/38 "2010-09-10T09:28:39Z")
One for work. One for personal use. One hotmail for general use. One hotmail for farcebook use. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/39 "2010-09-10T14:26:10Z")
I have four. One from work, one from school, one personal, and one to sign up for stuff on the internet because I know some of them are going to spam the hell out of me. ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935/40 "2010-09-10T15:12:40Z")
1 for work 1 gmail with my proper name 1 with my ISP 1 legacy address that I keep open because my mum can’t work out how to use any other email address [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-email-address-do-you-have-and-use/552935.md?page=3)