Email experiments – Starting Simply
Many of your experiments will be using e-mails for feedback, data collection and communication. Thus it is essential that you create a brand new group of e-mails for each new experiment, so that the data from any one experiment doesn’t leak into and pollute data collection in the others. And you certainly don’t use your ‘normal’ e-mail address, because if you are successful in your experiments that could attract large numbers of messages, which would disrupt your everyday use of e-mails.
Here we show you how to set up a brand new (and free) e-mail address for some of the more popular hosts. Since you will be setting up a number of different e-mail accounts and you want to avoid confusion, you must keep a journal of each login name, e-mail address, when it was created, all associated security information, and on which experiments you are using it etc.
Steps to setup a Google Mail email account.
1. Go to web page: www.gmail.com
2. Click on ‘Sign up for Google Mail’
3. Type in any ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’, ‘Desired Login Name’ – since you don’t have to use your real name, just type in something that differentiates this e-mail address consistently among all the others you have created. Use something like ‘experiment294’. The Login name should be between 6 and 30 characters. Click the ‘check availability’ button to see whether or not it is being used by someone else – if it is then try a new login name. Your e-mail address will then be created as experiment294@gmail.com.
This is necessary because you shouldn’t have any consistent/coherent procedure for inventing the e-mail names themselves, as this could be predictable by spammers and could distort the number of spam e-mails coming your way.
4. Choose a password – it must be greater than 8 characters, and it is best to contain alphabetic and numeric characters. Make it quite complicated, and use the same one for each new e-mail you produce: for example ‘12bnXS1jKg’.
5. Re-enter the same password to check that it is correct.
6. Make a note of the First Name, Last Name, Desired Login Name, and password in your journal.
7. Tick the box if you want the computer you’re using to remember the password.
8. You can the procedure both with and without Web History enabled, and see if it makes any difference to the spam you receive.
9. Choose a security question, say ‘your first phone number.’ Enter any numerical 12-digit sequence ‘121343565787’, and use the same security question and answer with each e-mail you are creating. Note this in your journal.
10. Leave the secondary e-mail address blank.
11. Click on the country where you are located.
12. Complete the CAPTCHA Challenge Word verification by reading the distorted words in the panel and type them into the space provided.
13. Click I accept, and your e-mail account will be created.
Steps to setup a Hotmail (Microsoft) email account.
1. Go to web page: www.hotmail.com
2. Click on ‘Sign up’.
3. Type in ‘Windows Live ID’ and select ‘Hotmail.com’ as the domain name. Use something like ‘experiment224’ which differentiates this e-mail address consistently among all the others you have created. This is necessary because you shouldn’t have any consistent/coherent procedure for inventing the e-mail names themselves, as this could be predictable by spammers and could distort the number of spam e-mails coming your way.
The Windows Live ID should be between 6 and 30 characters. Click the ‘check availability’ button to see whether or not it is being used by someone else – if it is then try a new Windows Live ID. Your e-mail address will then be created as experiment224@hotmail.com.
4. Choose a password – it must be greater than 8 characters, and it is best to contain alphabetic and numeric characters. Make it quite complicated, and use the same one for each new e-mail you produce: for example ‘12bnXS1jKg’.
5. Re-enter the same password to check that it is correct.
6. Enter any ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’ – since you don’t have to use your real name, just type in something.
7. Do not fill your alternate email address, instead select a security question.
8. Choose a security question, say ‘your mother’s birth place’. Enter name of any city.
9. Make a note of the First Name, Last Name, Windows Live ID, password, security question and answer in your journal.
10. Select the country, state and a random postcode where you are located.
11. Select your gender.
12. Enter a random birth year between 1950 to 1990.
13. Complete the CAPTCHA Challenge Word verification by reading the distorted words in the panel and type them into the space provided.
14. Click I accept, and your e-mail account will be created.
Steps to setup a Yahoo! Mail account.
1. Go to web page: http://mail.yahoo.com
2. Click on ‘Sign up’.
3. Type in any ‘First Name’, ‘Last Name’, ‘Gender’, ‘Birthdate’, ‘Location’ and ‘Postcode’ – since you don’t have to use your real name and other details, just type in something.
4. Type in ‘Yahoo! ID and email’ and select ‘yahoo.com’ as the domain name. Select a Yahoo! ID that differentiates this e-mail address consistently among all the others you have created. Use something like ‘experiment394’. The Yahoo! ID should be between 6 and 30 characters. Click the ‘Check’ button to see whether or not it is being used by someone else – if it is then try a new Yahoo! ID. Your e-mail address will then be created as experiment394@yahoo.com.
This is necessary because you shouldn’t have any consistent/coherent procedure for inventing the e-mail names themselves, as this could be predictable by spammers and could distort the number of spam e-mails coming your way.
5. Choose a password – it must be greater than 8 characters, and it is best to contain alphabetic and numeric characters. Make it quite complicated, and use the same one for each new e-mail you produce: for example ‘12bnXS1jKg’.
6. Re-enter the same password to check that it is correct.
7. Make a note of the First Name, Last Name, Yahoo ID, and password in your journal.
8. Leave the Alternate email address field blank.
9. Choose a security question, say ‘your main frequent flier number.’ Enter any numerical 12-digit sequence ‘121343565787’, and use the same security question and answer with each e-mail you are creating. Note this in your journal.
10. Complete the CAPTCHA Challenge Word verification by reading the distorted words in the panel and type them into the space provided.
11. Click the ‘Do you Agree?’ Checkbox, and then press ‘Create My account’ button and your e-mail account will be created.
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