Mailinator.com is an interesting free service on the web that lets you become a virtually anonymous email recipient. It can be useful for signing up for forums (such as The Streetwise Security Zone). And - guess what? - somebody did.

Basically, mailinator lets you create your own email account that has no security or privacy. All email sent to it can be picked up by subscribing to an RSS feed or by going to the mailinator.com website and typing in the email address.

Why would anyone want to do this? To avoid getting spam from sites they just want to sign up for, but don't ever intend to get email from.

I'm not sure this is the best idea for somebody joining the SWSZ because a large part of the value I plan to deliver is based on useful and practical email bulletins. If you use mailinator, any email you receive will be deleted within a few hours, by design, because they don't hold email in their inboxes for very long.

But, I've decided to let people sign up anonymously using mailinator, for now. So, if you see any objectionable material from any user, please send me a Private Message, and I will check into it.

In the meantime, just be aware that because I don't have any way to verify the authenticity of mailinator.com applicants at this point, I will be on the lookout for any hanky-panky from people with these email accounts. Not to insult or offend you - but I just want to be sure the community isn't disrupted by people who have no accountability. So, let's see how it goes, and as long as you stick to the rules, we'll get a long fine. Fair enough?

Welcome aboard,

Scott