slash dot dash dot dash dot com

I was going to write about something else, until a series of unfortunate events led me to write about this.

I've lost count of the number of email addresses I have... one for work, one for home, a Hotmail one that I had to sign up for to get something, a Google one that I had to sign up for to get something, ones that come with the domains that I have.....

Out of control I say. I feel like an email cleptomaniac. You sign up for stuff and you never know which email you used to sign up. You go and sign up to places like Argos that you only go once in a blue moon, so the next time you go back to the site you spend the first 10 minutes trying to work out what you signed up as. Figuring if it was your work account is easy... you just need to ask a few simple questions... would the mail get stuck in the "Spam Collecter"? Do I want people at work to know that I've signed up to "Train Spotter Monthly"? After you've eliminated the work account, it's s down hill ride; checking loads of accounts for the Saviour "account confirmation" email, or typing lots of email addresses into the Log In page just to be told "Account Not Found".

... and don't get me started on the passwords! "We need to have different passwords for different stuff so that people don't get hold of them", my other half says. This is the same person that can't get into our Nectar account online because he can't remember the password and the email reminder goes to his work account... he left work 12 months ago. He's also forgotten the PIN for his card and has had to register us to do gas bills online more than twice because he forgot the details.

There must be some way that all these random email accounts can be stuck together in one.

Problem is, have you ever seen a button on Hotmail that says "Click here to get rif of your account"? As I've not come accross this handy button yet, all my old accounts get abandoned.

Once you decide to abandon an account it seems to sit there dormant like the books you keep from school and put in the attic because you "might want them some day". That's the problem... one day you just start thinking "wonder if anything is still going to that account?".

Next thing you know, you're on the Log In page putting in random passwords till you find the right one to open Pandora's Box. What you find is tonnes of Viagra adverts and spam emails that have sat there since last Christmas that you just have to read, forwarding the good ones to everyone at work.

Once you've got your way into one account, you're hooked. The rest of the night is then spent trying to remember all your old email addresses.

Admit it, you're making a list and you're off to check them, aren't you?