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I’m traveling today, which means this Friday Happy Hour was definitely the most hastily thrown together of the series. But good parties don’t necessarily require great planning. We’ll see how it goes.
Today’s topic is multiple email accounts. While trying to get back in touch with an old friend, I sent several emails to what I thought was his address. No Fatal Errors came back telling me this account didn’t exist. So, I rightfully assumed he was ducking me. The jerk.
Eventually he replied back, via Gmail, to say his Yahoo! account is “now just for spam.” I have no idea how many email addresses the average person has. (If you know, or want to do some quick Googling, that’d be fantastic.) According to our focus group of one (me), the average person has 7.
• Hotmail. I signed up for a Hotmail account just as my college address expired. After a year, my spam-to-email ratio was roughly 3:1. I moved on, but keep the address for emails I don’t really want to receive. If you ask for my email address and get this one, you should rightfully be offended.
• Yahoo! Mail. This is my primary address. I have years of my life in my Yahoo! Mail archive. If you comment on this post, that comment is sent to this address. (Fascinating, I know.)
• Gmail. I’ve got Gmail, but I don’t care for their lumping together of emails by “conversation.” Some threads are like 80 messages long. I can’t scroll through all that. But if Google is taking over the world, I want to be on the right side.
I have three other work email addresses, including mentalfloss.com, plus an @alumni.duke.edu forwarding address. But let’s hear from you guys. How do you measure up to this faux national average? How many email addresses do you maintain? And, you know, why?
Comments (46)
Comment
Ummm, four, I think. One is for private mail family and close friends only), one for “online chatting”, mailgroups and ordering stuff, one is old and being phased out due to too much spam, the other because I needed it for access to a particular site.
posted by Cyndi on 8-24-2007 at 10:32 am
At one point I had over a dozen. I’ve managed to weed through them and close some. I’m down to three that I check regularly and three that I’m phasing out. I hope to get down to just two, work and home.
posted by Ssquach on 8-24-2007 at 10:35 am
I’ve had the same Aol email since 2002, when my family finally got the interweb and Aim was hot stuff at school. They’ve since changed me over to an Aim domain (even though I hadn’t used the service in years). I can still recieve emails from both in the same inbox. All my friends/family have this email.
The only other email I’ve ever created is a more professional first initial, last name combination one. I decided I needed it when college-related sites were asking for an email. It’s where I get all my e-brochures and such, and it keeps them from flooding my personal inbox.
posted by scoobnut on 8-24-2007 at 10:37 am
I only have 2. One for work and one for personal. The most I’ve ever had were 3, 2 for work and one personal.
posted by sarah on 8-24-2007 at 10:42 am
I have a hotmail account, but it’s so difficult to manage, I never used it. It may be dead by now. My Yahoo account is the oldest, for personal use, but the spam filter isn’t working, so it’s a chore just to check. I use two gmail accounts, one for everyday business and one just to receive material from content services. If your conversations on gmail get too large to manage, you can always compose a new message instead of replying.
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-24-2007 at 10:56 am
I maintain four email addresses. I abandoned hotmail long ago and imgaine it is some kind of feral internet zone where spam emails fight to the death, feeding off the weak. Of the four current addresses, two are personal - I’m transitioning. I have one for the household stuff and online shopping and I have my work acct. So, I think I’m happy with three for now. Having the separation allows me to avoid specific parts of my life with which I do not want to deal.
posted by Adam on 8-24-2007 at 10:57 am
I have 5 email addresses. 1 for general email, 1 for family etc, 1 yahoo for newslewtters etc. and 1 for work (this is the one I would most like to get rid of!!)
posted by JaneM on 8-24-2007 at 10:57 am
Nice and simple… I use 3. One is a school account (which I have to use, as all official mail comes through that) but I have it forwarded to my gmail. One is a work account, but I only check it while I’m at work, and I don’t give it out accept to work associates. Everything else… gmail.
I have a hotmail account open somewhere in the abyss, but no one uses it any more.
posted by Melissa on 8-24-2007 at 11:17 am
Well, like many, there are some that have been phased out due to too much junk mail, but I maintain three, one Hotmail account which is used for personal things, one work email, and a Yahoo account for some newsletters and orders. Oh, I have a second yahoo, but that only happened when Flickr merged with them and I wanted to keep my account. I think thats it. Hmm. Yes. Though it really is a chore sometimes…Oh well…Have to keep those inboxes at zero.
posted by Lisa G. on 8-24-2007 at 11:25 am
I have 6. I hate it. It’s so hard to get rid of one though. I find that I have so many online accounts, and to get rid of, for example, my yahoo-spam account requires remembering so many user names and passwords in order to change addresses that it’s hopeless.
I figure that by the time I’m 80, I’ll have at least 100.
posted by Susan O on 8-24-2007 at 11:30 am
I’ve got about 6 different e-mail accounts, plus about 3 or 4 pseudonyms for one of the accounts. It’s insane, really. They’re all for different groups of people who I communicate with and want to keep separate– one for my church, one for work, one for friends, one for spam, one for shopping, one for my Web site, one for my blog, and on and on and on. A couple are just dead now, but…has anyone figured out how to “close” an e-mail account?
posted by Kristen on 8-24-2007 at 11:41 am
A lycos.com account for spam.
5 Gmail accounts
1. Personal
2. Business
3. Spam
4. Storage
5. Newsletters/Fun stuff
posted by Nathan G on 8-24-2007 at 11:42 am
i have 3.
i have gmail, cause of course, i mean, that’s what the good people at google want us to have (and they are so wise and all knowing). and because i like how they suggest random links off to the side. i used to find this ‘big brother-ish’ but now it’s just fun to send my other ‘gmailers’ random words in an otherwise ‘normal’ email just to see what links gmail will suggest. (examples include, but aren’t at all limited to: backgammon, ludacris, nipples, and backwash. type those stringed together to see what pops up. fun. spanks gmail!)
i also have 2 others. one for professional stuff… which is never used as i am a stay at home mom. i hope to be a writer soon enough (published anyway, so it’s handy dandy and waiting. and waiting. and waiting.)
and then there’s yahoo, which i’ve had fo-eva’s. i use it to send my newsletter to to check my links and such.
holla,
ames
btw-loooooving mental floss. i’ve been looking for something like you all my whole life. cause i think you like fractals. and so do i. and most people don’t know what that is. oh, and i like liverpool football. so i have the magazine. a-frikkin-mazing. thanks.
posted by amywithlemon on 8-24-2007 at 11:45 am
I’m in the same boat, had a yahoo address for years, then it turned to spam. So, I then created a second yahoo address, just added a “too” to my old one, now that one seems to get ALL my spam. Can’t win. Oh well.
posted by Sheribaby on 8-24-2007 at 11:52 am
2 children, 2 dogs, 2 cars, 2 email accounts. All catagories can be divided into the Darkside and the Force.
posted by elizabutt on 8-24-2007 at 11:57 am
I have three-
* personal, through my ISP
* school/work
* hotmail, to give anyone I suspect might send me junk
posted by another Kristen on 8-24-2007 at 12:00 pm
I have five - although two forward to other accounts so that I only check 3 inboxes. Of the five, two are school/work accounts. I have a yahoo account which is my junk box. Then I have two gmail accounts - one for friends and family and the other an alias which doesn’t include my full name.
posted by BeckyJ on 8-24-2007 at 12:07 pm
I have 4 which I use. 1 for work, 1 for NSFW correspondence, 1 for friends and family, and 1 for junk mail. The junk mail one regularly gets 4,000+ emails a month.
I too used to have a hotmail account that just got too junky to use. I also had a yahoo account that got deleted back when they were deleting you if you didn’t log on in 90 days.
posted by Dusty on 8-24-2007 at 12:36 pm
I’ve gone through 7 email addresses in my life, 2 of which I currently use.
First I had AOL, then I got Juno because some friends had it, but I didn’t use it for long. When I went to college I received an SU address, which I immediately set to forward to my newly created Yahoo account.
At some point I tired of my Yahoo handle (I was probably getting too much spam, too) so I created a new one and and abandoned the old one. Which I used until, maybe two years ago? When I got Gmail. Which is ADORE. Yahoo was abandoned shortly thereafter. And of course, there is a my work email, which I use exclusively for work.
posted by Sara on 8-24-2007 at 12:57 pm
I technically have 6 email address:
1. Work email at the bldg I work in
2. Work email for the company I work for
3. School email
4. Yahoo-Longest most beloved email
5. Email for a business that my hubby and I own…used for our employees
6. A .net email my hubby created…used only for the most important of actions. This one is pretty spam free.
posted by Stephanie on 8-24-2007 at 1:02 pm
I have one hotmail account that I’ve had since I stumbled upon the Internet around 1996 or so. I have two yahoo accounts–one for ordering things online, one for my resume and job-related things (first initial, last name thing). I have one assigned to me for work and one general one that I’m in charge of maintaining at work.
One of these days, I’ll maybe get an invite for Gmail and add that to my menagerie of email accounts.
posted by Tomas on 8-24-2007 at 1:22 pm
too many.
I have:
1 for family, that was intended to be my “important” email. it’s made up of my name, and I do my damndest to keep it spam free.
1 for online friends. I have an email address basically for various chat forums I go to. Also if I need a log-in address for something I’ll actually use (and therefore don’t mind the occasional email ad). If I place orders online, I use this email. This email address is more humorous, doesn’t have my name in the address, and isn’t something I’d want to put on a resume.
1 for spam. This is purely for websites I don’t care about, but that require an email address. it’s my junk mail account, and gets nothing but spam.
1 for work, which is run through the company server. This one I’m the most careful about, for obvious reasons.
1 for consulting. I’ve started a consulting firm, and while it’s still @gmail.com, it’s the name of my company, since it seems more professional when corresponding.
posted by Jenny on 8-24-2007 at 2:02 pm
Let’s see…
5 Hotmail accounts.
1 Yahoo account.
1 AOL account.
1 Gmail account.
Ya, I think that’s it. Wow. I have 8 email accounts… I think it’s time I start cutting back..
posted by Lindsay G. on 8-24-2007 at 2:09 pm
1. Hotmail for spam
2. Personal
3. business
4. GMail (that I don’t use)
5. Yahoo (that I don’t use)
mostly I just keep an eye on the first 3..that’s all I can keep track of…I also have comments fields to respond to and IM that I chat thru…too much correspondence…I’m a hermit in real life…
posted by donner on 8-24-2007 at 2:11 pm
I currently have 3, but they’re all filtered and run through the same 1, so I don’t know if that counts.
I have my old college address for resumes and job searching stuff, but everything forwards to gmail, which I absolutely love. I also automatically get a school district one wherever I happen to be working, for internal stuff and parent communication.
I’ve had several others in the past though, an ISP-linked one in high school like the rest of my family, other school districts, and I had a joint yahoo account with someone else for wedding registries and family stuff, but that’s over now.
posted by Katie on 8-24-2007 at 2:21 pm
I have 2.
My first email address was my Yahoo!
My new email address is my G-Mail, because my cousin wanted me to try it.
I only check my G-Mail now.
posted by Tanner on 8-24-2007 at 2:22 pm
I have um, a few? I used to have 2 Hotmail accounts, but they both went to email heaven because they were too damned hard to de-spamify.
I have a Yahoo account so I can play games and stuff.
I have a Gmail account that I love love love. Yes, grouping by conversation is weird (and goes to shit once someone changes the subject line) but that’s why God invented “search.” I love it. LOVE. I hate deleting things, and with the pretty much unlimited Gmail space, I don’t have to. I *heart* Gmail. Google needs to send my broke, Gmail-lovin’ ass a check.
I also have one through my website, but I don’t ever use it and in fact, I don’t even know how to access it. I think it goes to my Gmail anyway.
posted by Rachel on 8-24-2007 at 5:22 pm
I have five currently. One from my high school that I’ve had for more than a decade so I can’t ever quit using it, one yahoo, one g-mail, one from my undergraduate institution, and one from my grad school. I imagine that my undergrad e-mail account will disappear in six months or so. I don’t even want to think about how many I’ll end up with by the time I’m 30.
posted by Amanda on 8-24-2007 at 5:31 pm
I keep thinking I have only two. No - three - a new one. But when you really get down to it. I have …… wait…. hmmmm…… six.
SIX? No WAY.
Gmail = regular. Yahoo = spam. One through my business domain name. That should be enough, understandable, PRAGMATIC.
I have three out there that I do not maintain. I don’t know how to close them. Anything sent to them is forwarded to my gmail. Do they even count?
Wow. Six. I’m about average.
posted by Aubrey on 8-24-2007 at 6:42 pm
I am, admittedly, very obsessed about being organized, so to that extent, I have (I think, only) 10 accounts. I recently got rid of one. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, I forgot the categories I had made up for each account, so the ‘organization’ went by the wayside. So, this leaves me with two ‘main’ accounts and the rest get little to no activity–except for spam. I really should close a few of the accounts, but it goes against my nature–I would be too worried that I would miss an interesting email if I closed even one of the accounts. Oh, well…
posted by cmk on 8-24-2007 at 6:46 pm
Let’s see, I’ve got…
1 business
1 personal
2 gmail
1 Yahoo
1 spymac.com
1 myrealbox
1 hotmail
So I guess that makes me a little above average (or would that be below?) My hosting service for my family website/personal blog allows unlimited email addresses, so I guess I could have as many as I wanted, but seven is too many already.
One thing I do with my gmail account that hasn’t been mentioned earlier; gmail can be used to collect the mail from up to six other accounts. I have it set up to pull in mail from several other accounts so that I don’t have to bother checking so many to stay on top of them. Plus Google’s spam filtering is top-notch; nary a false positive in the last 6 months (that I’ve found anyway). All incoming mail goes through their spam filter.
Also, for the true Gmail junkies, if you exceed your allotted 2892MB you can buy a storage upgrade, up to 250GB. Kind of expensive, but it’s there if you need it!
posted by Dave on 8-24-2007 at 7:50 pm
I have four work emails and two personal, and lord only knows how many i had in the past that i just stopped checking.
posted by Leah on 8-24-2007 at 8:58 pm
erm… lets see.
I have five but only 4 are functional.
1. AOL (my primary)
2. AOL (for close family and friends)
3. Yahoo (for spam)
4. AIM (currently not in use)
5. Gmail (non-functional)
My friend Maddy has about 8.
posted by Allegra on 8-24-2007 at 9:01 pm
Anyone know of a free email site that is not run by companies that bow down to communist murderers? MSN, Google etc all do. Would like to quit using MSN myself.
posted by Sam on 8-24-2007 at 9:12 pm
I have six e-mail accounts.
4 yahoo accounts
1 gmail account
1 work account
I would like to phase out two of the yahoo accounts, but there is so much stored in them that I do not want to lose, and it’d be tough to forward all of the e-mails to another account.
I like gmail the best, personally!
posted by Mischelle on 8-24-2007 at 11:06 pm
I made the decision to stick with hotmail three years ago, and actually paid (gasp!) for it. I started the account in 1996, and even though it has my maiden name it is the best way for old friends to keep in touch.
Don’t give up on hotmail! I use that account for all on-line shopping, and have only the spam that I want to see. The rest is nicely filtered or blocked. (Sam, communist murderers?)
So besides that account, two work accounts that are alternately forwarded to each other and two joint family accounts (yahoo and mac).
posted by julie on 8-25-2007 at 12:16 am
i have 6. one gmail, two from graduate school, one forwarding address from undergraduate, one work, and one old hotmail.
posted by 123 on 8-25-2007 at 12:17 pm
I have 2 that I use a .mac account and a gmail account. but the gmail is only or sending things with attachments
posted by Rachel on 8-25-2007 at 8:11 pm
When I first got on the net I had one, which somehow turned into three, and I’ve had three ever since, although if you added together all the ones I’ve had over the years it’s probably something ridiculous. Like maybe 18. See, I fade out about two a year; the high turnover rate is due primarily to the INSANE amounts of spam the internet likes to hurl at me.
posted by Aemi on 8-25-2007 at 9:13 pm
I agree with Julie. I’ve had the Hotmail account since long before Microshaft gobbled it up, and kept it watered throughout the spam years. Now, it’s my main ‘web’ email, and gets little spam (Bill Gates has a way of doing something right, occasionally!)
Then, the Corporate email, and the personal email, both of which lack the anonymity the Web sometimes requires.
posted by Serr8d on 8-26-2007 at 7:46 am
I have 8. An alumni account, current school account, hotmail account for professional correspondance, hotmail account for friends and family, hotmail account for ebay transactions, and a hotmail account for all other e-shopping mailing lists, etc. I also have a gmail account and a yahoo account that I’m not using at present.
posted by Liz on 8-26-2007 at 9:56 am
Two. Just two. One work, one personal. Why would anyone need more? I guess I could have alumni accounts from the 3 universities from which I graduated, or get some private ones, but again I ask: Why?
posted by chris on 8-27-2007 at 7:21 am
Elizabut has a dog that is on the Darkside?? I didn’t think dogs went there. Kids, I understand. I have 2 myself. But dogs?
posted by chris on 8-27-2007 at 7:24 am
I have 4… One for work, Yahoo for groups and info storage, Hotmail (oldest) that gets checked most often, and a more professionally named Hotmail account for job and school applications.
posted by Tru on 8-27-2007 at 7:45 am
I’m old, I only have 2
1 for regular usage and 1 for an old girlfriend for us to keep up
posted by Medic on 8-27-2007 at 8:38 am
I have 7. 2 I check frequently, both Yahoo. One is for professional-ish stuff the other is personal. I have had the personal one for a whopping 10+ years. (basically since I was a teenager at the beginning of the internet boom) We moved a lot when I was a kid, so I’ve maintained that one in case someone wanted to try and contact me. 4 are various work addresses, 3 old jobs, 1 of which I quit 3 years ago, and for some reason still have access to the account. And 1 final defunct (I’m sure) hotmail account. I have yet to get a gmail account, despite the fact that everyone else in the world has one. I really like my original yahoo account, I mean it is a chronicle of my life for the past decade. Quite interesting actually.
posted by greenstrawberries on 9-18-2007 at 4:24 am