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I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells

I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells you which address it was sent to.

dmarlow 7y ago
I used to do this, but I kept forgetting the "uniqueid" for the sites I used. I'd often resort to using my regular email for the forget password prompts and then would have to search my inbox to figure out the correct email (if using from another device where the creds aren't saved).
- inetknght 7y ago
  Today that problem is solved by the use of a password manager.
Splatter 7y ago
What's frustrating is that very many sites know of this method and simply trim the "+uniqueid" from a gmail.com address before inserting it into their database.
- jdm2212 7y ago
  That's a bummer. FWIW there are a fair number of non-gmail domains that are gmail-backed (e.g. a lot of universities' email systems) so it should still work with those consistently I hope.
  - rypskar 7y ago
    It don't need to be gmail-backed for + to work. I use it on my own domain without any problems and there is no gmail involved
    - __david__ 7y ago
      On my domain I made _ and . Also work the same as +, for annoying sites that somehow think + is an invalid character for email addresses.
- solution3982 7y ago
  >What's frustrating is that very many sites know of this method and simply trim the "+uniqueid" from a gmail.com address before inserting it into their database. Unfortunately, there is a mathematical theorem (greater idiot theorem) that makes it technically impossible to generate a new random string that becomes an inbox that goes to your inbox. How do I know that it's technically impossible? Because otherwise Gmail would have done it already, since this takes 20 minutes and fixes a glaring security issue that gives spammers access to your email that you didn't grant. I can't have an IQ 50 points higher than all Gmail engineers, so it must stand to reason that I'm the greater idiot. Hence there must be something preventing this obvious solution. QED.
  - hmate9 7y ago
    Wait, isn’t this exactly what Apple is doing with Sign in with Apple?
    - solution3982 7y ago
      yes. But that doesn't mean it's possible, or Gmail would be doing it too. they have PhD's and stuff. (or used to). so for sure it isn't possible for some reason, even if someone else is doing it. what other explanation can there be? why would they just have a glaring security hole like that, allowing anyone you try to give a trackable email to with + to just remove it with a regex? It doesn't make sense. there must be some reason it can't work.
      - maimeowmeow 7y ago
        Because there is a top tier spam filter that is powered by the ai, and cloud computers? qed qft
  - nothrabannosir 7y ago
    Outlook and Apple already offer this service, it’s not impossible. The + need not have been intended as a spam filter; I use it for bona fide filtering of separate clients’ projects.
  - deleted 7y ago
- input_sh 7y ago
  Pay for your email address to solve the problem. On my email provider, I can create a catchall alias: *@example.com will end up in my johndoe@example.com mailbox. So, instead of doing johndoe+hn@example.com, I can do hn@example.com.
  - systemcluster 7y ago
    If your email provider does not offer a catchall alias option, this is also achievable with an email forwarder (e.g. mailgun), provided you are ok with giving another service provider access to the content of your received mails.
    - mavhc 7y ago
      If only it were possible to encrypt emails, oh well
    - manigandham 7y ago
      Technically most email is not encrypted so every single mail server in the middle also has access.
  - CharlesColeman 7y ago
    > So, instead of doing johndoe+hn@example.com, I can do hn@example.com. Fastmail has an interesting variation of this that supports multiple users on the same domain: hn@johndoe.example.com. My wife and I both use that feature heavily on our domain.
guessmyname 7y ago
I used to do this, but it is troublesome some times because some websites use libraries that strip or replace the plus sign and the final email ends up being an address that you don’t have access to. Most of the time this is not a problem because you can create the account again with the correct email, but I have lost a few good usernames in some popular websites because I pulled this trick on them, Gravatar is one of these websites and the simplest one to explain. I wanted a specific username that was available; I signed up with an email that looks like username+gravatar@gmail.com and the operation went through, then when I tried to log in, the website kept saying that the email was incorrect. I tried to reset the account using the username instead, which would force them to send a reset link to the email associated to this account, but the emails never arrive. I gave up that and other good usernames in many websites because of the inappropriate handling of email addresses by some popular web libraries. Also, the same way you learnt this “trick” other programmers discovered it too and implemented a stripping algorithm to remove the unique ID during the registration process, so it is not very useful nowadays unless the website is very obscure and their developers either are rookies or do not have time to prevent this.
- mikorym 7y ago
  > are rookies or do not have time Reputable websites don't have an incentive to strip out the ID. It is only websites like "sold out" dating websites or otherwise nefarious websites that have that incentive in the first place. So, name+id@domain.com is still useful for filtering and indexing, and in fact if a website does strip out the ID you should ask yourself why would they need to do that.
- masonic 7y ago
  Any many just fail, assuming '+' is an invalid character
- Twisell 7y ago
  I was once at the receiving end of business talk clearly addressed to someone else on my gmail account. At first I believed it was some scam but it soon got clear that my account was accidentally siphoning mail from someone using this supposedly clever scheme...
newnewpdro 7y ago
Unfortunately, being part of the standard, it's become fairly common to strip this from email addresses. It's more effective to have an entire domain at your disposal and just invent $vendor-specific-thing@mydomain.com whenever an email address is needed. On the server end all you need is a catchall to handle it, and you can blackhole whatever addresses become spam magnets (while also knowing which vendor's responsible).
- __david__ 7y ago
  It is not part of any standard. + is a valid email address character and is not special in any way.
  - newnewpdro 7y ago
    It's specified in RFC5233 [0], by "standard" I meant codified in RFC form, like everything else we treat as open internet "standards". [0] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233
    - pseudalopex 7y ago
      RFC 5223 uses + as an example. It doesn't even specify whether the detail part comes before or after the user part.
    - hdfbdtbcdg 7y ago
      > On email systems that allow for 'subaddressing' or 'detailed addressing' (e.g., "ken+sieve@example.org"), This rfc merely acknowledges that some systems do this. It doesn't say the must or even should.
dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago
This used to work a decade ago when spammers were clueless.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
albertgoeswoof 7y ago
This is ok but many sites strip the plus now (usually the most nefarious ones). Plus you’re linking your identity back to your gmail account which is probably not what you want to do on a dating site or in general online. I wrote about this here: https://idbloc.co/blog/background/2019/04/14/keep-your-address-secret.html https://idbloc.co/blog/background/2019/04/14/keep-your-addre... and it’s one of the main reasons https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co exists

I do the same thing with a gmail address -- just do myemail+uniqueid@gmail.com, because gmail drops everything after the + for routing the email but still tells you which address it was sent to.

dmarlow 7y ago

I used to do this, but I kept forgetting the "uniqueid" for the sites I used. I'd often resort to using my regular email for the forget password prompts and then would have to search my inbox to figure out the correct email (if using from another device where the creds aren't saved).

inetknght 7y ago
Today that problem is solved by the use of a password manager.

Splatter 7y ago

What's frustrating is that very many sites know of this method and simply trim the "+uniqueid" from a gmail.com address before inserting it into their database.

jdm2212 7y ago
That's a bummer. FWIW there are a fair number of non-gmail domains that are gmail-backed (e.g. a lot of universities' email systems) so it should still work with those consistently I hope.
- rypskar 7y ago
  It don't need to be gmail-backed for + to work. I use it on my own domain without any problems and there is no gmail involved
  - __david__ 7y ago
    On my domain I made _ and . Also work the same as +, for annoying sites that somehow think + is an invalid character for email addresses.
solution3982 7y ago
>What's frustrating is that very many sites know of this method and simply trim the "+uniqueid" from a gmail.com address before inserting it into their database. Unfortunately, there is a mathematical theorem (greater idiot theorem) that makes it technically impossible to generate a new random string that becomes an inbox that goes to your inbox. How do I know that it's technically impossible? Because otherwise Gmail would have done it already, since this takes 20 minutes and fixes a glaring security issue that gives spammers access to your email that you didn't grant. I can't have an IQ 50 points higher than all Gmail engineers, so it must stand to reason that I'm the greater idiot. Hence there must be something preventing this obvious solution. QED.
- hmate9 7y ago
  Wait, isn’t this exactly what Apple is doing with Sign in with Apple?
  - solution3982 7y ago
    yes. But that doesn't mean it's possible, or Gmail would be doing it too. they have PhD's and stuff. (or used to). so for sure it isn't possible for some reason, even if someone else is doing it. what other explanation can there be? why would they just have a glaring security hole like that, allowing anyone you try to give a trackable email to with + to just remove it with a regex? It doesn't make sense. there must be some reason it can't work.
    - maimeowmeow 7y ago
      Because there is a top tier spam filter that is powered by the ai, and cloud computers? qed qft
- nothrabannosir 7y ago
  Outlook and Apple already offer this service, it’s not impossible. The + need not have been intended as a spam filter; I use it for bona fide filtering of separate clients’ projects.
- deleted 7y ago
input_sh 7y ago
Pay for your email address to solve the problem. On my email provider, I can create a catchall alias: *@example.com will end up in my johndoe@example.com mailbox. So, instead of doing johndoe+hn@example.com, I can do hn@example.com.
- systemcluster 7y ago
  If your email provider does not offer a catchall alias option, this is also achievable with an email forwarder (e.g. mailgun), provided you are ok with giving another service provider access to the content of your received mails.
  - mavhc 7y ago
    If only it were possible to encrypt emails, oh well
  - manigandham 7y ago
    Technically most email is not encrypted so every single mail server in the middle also has access.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago
  > So, instead of doing johndoe+hn@example.com, I can do hn@example.com. Fastmail has an interesting variation of this that supports multiple users on the same domain: hn@johndoe.example.com. My wife and I both use that feature heavily on our domain.

guessmyname 7y ago

I used to do this, but it is troublesome some times because some websites use libraries that strip or replace the plus sign and the final email ends up being an address that you don’t have access to. Most of the time this is not a problem because you can create the account again with the correct email, but I have lost a few good usernames in some popular websites because I pulled this trick on them, Gravatar is one of these websites and the simplest one to explain. I wanted a specific username that was available; I signed up with an email that looks like username+gravatar@gmail.com and the operation went through, then when I tried to log in, the website kept saying that the email was incorrect. I tried to reset the account using the username instead, which would force them to send a reset link to the email associated to this account, but the emails never arrive. I gave up that and other good usernames in many websites because of the inappropriate handling of email addresses by some popular web libraries. Also, the same way you learnt this “trick” other programmers discovered it too and implemented a stripping algorithm to remove the unique ID during the registration process, so it is not very useful nowadays unless the website is very obscure and their developers either are rookies or do not have time to prevent this.

mikorym 7y ago
> are rookies or do not have time Reputable websites don't have an incentive to strip out the ID. It is only websites like "sold out" dating websites or otherwise nefarious websites that have that incentive in the first place. So, name+id@domain.com is still useful for filtering and indexing, and in fact if a website does strip out the ID you should ask yourself why would they need to do that.
masonic 7y ago
Any many just fail, assuming '+' is an invalid character
Twisell 7y ago
I was once at the receiving end of business talk clearly addressed to someone else on my gmail account. At first I believed it was some scam but it soon got clear that my account was accidentally siphoning mail from someone using this supposedly clever scheme...

newnewpdro 7y ago

Unfortunately, being part of the standard, it's become fairly common to strip this from email addresses. It's more effective to have an entire domain at your disposal and just invent $vendor-specific-thing@mydomain.com whenever an email address is needed. On the server end all you need is a catchall to handle it, and you can blackhole whatever addresses become spam magnets (while also knowing which vendor's responsible).

__david__ 7y ago
It is not part of any standard. + is a valid email address character and is not special in any way.
- newnewpdro 7y ago
  It's specified in RFC5233 [0], by "standard" I meant codified in RFC form, like everything else we treat as open internet "standards". [0] https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5233
  - pseudalopex 7y ago
    RFC 5223 uses + as an example. It doesn't even specify whether the detail part comes before or after the user part.
  - hdfbdtbcdg 7y ago
    > On email systems that allow for 'subaddressing' or 'detailed addressing' (e.g., "ken+sieve@example.org"), This rfc merely acknowledges that some systems do this. It doesn't say the must or even should.

dvfjsdhgfv 7y ago

This used to work a decade ago when spammers were clueless.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

albertgoeswoof 7y ago

This is ok but many sites strip the plus now (usually the most nefarious ones). Plus you’re linking your identity back to your gmail account which is probably not what you want to do on a dating site or in general online. I wrote about this here: https://idbloc.co/blog/background/2019/04/14/keep-your-address-secret.html https://idbloc.co/blog/background/2019/04/14/keep-your-addre... and it’s one of the main reasons https://idbloc.co https://idbloc.co exists