Why Gmail accounts are invalid...

Hello,

I couldn't find a more appropriate place to post this question, so I hope this is okay.

I just registered here today to ask for help, and I am wondering:
Why are Gmail accounts considered to be invalid email addresses for use on this board?

*****

Hi EtchaSketch

Some of the reasons can be found here: http://www.gmail-is-too-creepy.com

Thank you, Vino Rosso.

Seems like I've run across that write-up before. I appreciate the refresher.

Are there other reasons that might help folks like me understand how gmail affects folks like you?

I'm considering steering away from it. I don't like how any email I compose and send from my local email client doesn't simply pass through Gmail's servers - it gets saved. Though that might be handy for some users, it seems creepy to me.

It has to do with a lot of spam issues on the forums.

Thanks for the link!

Are there any suggestions for free e-mail servers (that aren't completely bogged down with spam)?

Yahoo and Live Mail (hotmail) are both good, free emails.

Thank you! I've got quite a bit of e-mail switching to do.

I use gmx.com as an extra email. This is free gives webmail and pop3 access.

Thank you all for your input and suggestions.

gmx.com sounds interesting... thanks!

I know this thread hasn't been posted in for 7 months, but it's still on the first page of this forum so please bear with me here.

I have had my Gmail account since September 2004. I still have emails from that time (September 2004). Sure, some people may not want/need to keep emails lurking around forever. Personally I find it enjoyable to go back and reminisce over the conversations I've had with friends and family in the past.

Gmail being "creepy" has absolutely nothing to do with whether it is a valid email account. Now Axephilic did say that it had to do with spam issues on the forum. If anyone would care to elaborate I'd be interested to hear. If there are bots which were specifically creating accounts at Gmail, creating accounts on this site, activating the accounts through Gmail for this site, and then posting causing problems, then I can understand the need for spam prevention.

It does sound like a bit of a stretch to me though.

I have had my Gmail account for 5 years (4 years, 10 months, 1 week based on the oldest email I have saved (which is not from the day the Gmail account was created)). Discriminating against my right to register for this forum based on my email provider of choice is absolutely absurd. As I said, I can appreciate spam prevention so if you tell me that is the reason then I will say nothing further.

The point of it is that Gmail is one of the most popular email clients available and no matter the cause there is no justification in turning away members based on where they go to check their emails.

I am not staff member on this forums, but I've been staff member on other forums for 3.5 years now, and I can tell you about my experience.
After banning spammer email domains from this list (http://www.stopforumspam.com/spamdomainsandips), there was a massive drop of spam posts, especially concerning adult content spam.
However if I look at the spam posted after banning those email domains, 90% of the spammers and spam bots have a gmail.com email address.
Certainly there are legit members like you who use a Gmail account, but sadly it's also used by a huge number of spammers and spambots.
Btw, there are meanwhile forums that do not accept any free email accounts like Hotmail, Gmail etc. due to the spam problem.

Coming from a Web user stance, not a Forum Admin, I've used a "Hotmail" account since 2004 and have saved hundreds of Emails I subscribe to for further reference. Same with a Yahoo account. I get spam, as much as with Gmail, but Gmail detects it unlike the other two providers, from my personal experience, how indeed would I suggest other user's experiences ?

This is just my statement, not a thrust at the perceptions of Forum owners, Admins, and any other Web Forum staff.

Gmail filters out spam better than any other Email provider I've used. It is of no consequence to anyone but myself, I could never go back to Hotmail (Live) , or Yahoo Email providers.
In fact as pop3 clients can be redirected to a Gmail account, to take advantage of the better services I have done that. All my Email goes through to Gmail, from Hotmail, and Yahoo.
It kind of blows the banning of Gmail accounts into oblivion as the account I'm registered with here is forwarded to my Gmail account.
On disclosing this it may help this Forum if they're not aware such can be done.
Also, that for a single user Gmail does provide excellent spam security, as opposed to spam to Forums.

@Fripp
It's not so much to stop forum members being spammed. It's to stop the forum being spammed.

I think you have got an e-mail account and a forum muddled up. While e-mail accounts may have automatic spam filters, forums only spam filters are the administrators banning members as and when they start posting spam(generally anyway I imagine you can get some funky forums with link filters etc). By stopping free mail accounts which are commonly used as spambots they reduce their workload considerably. If the forum that Mystery used to work at were to stop accepting gmail accounts the administrators would have spent 90% less time banning bots. i.e. instead of spending 10 minutes banning bots you only spend 1 minute. Leaving you with an extra 9 minutes to browse the forums

I understand you are justifying the use of a gmail account and there is nothing wrong with that I myself have a gmail account that I prefer to hotmail for the exact same reasons, however I am just trying to explain why it is an issue for forums. I hope you can see that we do not believe gmail to be better or worse than any other free mail provider but unfortunately it just gets used by lots of spammers.

The simple answer is that G-Mail causes us problems so we don't allow them. We have neither the time nor the intention to get into a long debate about it. End of discussion.

What anyone else's experiences are with that provider are irrelevant.

If you don't want to register because of that, then that is your prerogative. There are other forums that may not have this restriction, please feel free to use them.