The Most Exclusive Email Address

I finally received one of those coveted Gmail invites.

After setting up the account and playing with it a while, I've concluded that it's a far, far better thing than the other free email services.

So I don't want anything to ruin it. To keep the spam out, I won't give my Gmail address to any commercial enterprises or sign up for any of those free newsletters. I won't post my Gmail address on my blog or leave it with a comment in someone else's blog -- spambots might pick it up or maybe one of those blog-reading wackos will pick it up and torment me with all-cap emails drawing connections where none exist. I won't give it to anyone who'd pass it along to a web-based greeting card company, an online photo gallery or a news clipping forwarder or any of the other internet collection points for penis enlargement spammers. I also have to keep my Gmail address from anyone stupid enough to open one of those Trojan horse emails or who is likely to have spyware active on his or her machine.

Basically, if I want to keep my Gmail account free of spam and other odious forms of internet communication, I'll have to keep it to myself. After thinking the matter through, I've decided that's a price I'm willing to pay.