Re: how do I get a flippin' gmail account?

The directions were perfectly explicit. I had to make a few tries for my username,
as the first three I picked had been taken. The directions for the password
were a minimum of six characters, and a request that the password be
"memorable." There were no directions that requested a combination of letters
and numbers, nor any obscure links to "password requirements." I chose the
password kadohs, a term meaning "medicine" in Teonaht. That's six characters.
Wouldn't let me in. I tried kadohs1, wouldn't let me in, that's seven
characters. I tried pebble, wouldn't let me in. I was following the directions.
I got very frustrated. I shut it down altogether, and linked on someone else's
invite (sorry, I could only do one!), and got in again, and then I picked a
password sort of like "f*cktheladdieseveryone" and that let me in! No spaces,
all letters (no obscenities or asterisks), and now I'm a gmailer!!

But sheesh. I've never had such trouble. I think it's a glitch either with my
operating system or the gmailer system. Now the fun begins! ;)

Sally

  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark J. Reed 
  To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU 
  Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 9:35 AM
  Subject: Re: how do I get a flippin' gmail account?


  On 4/23/05, Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
    It was a problem with the password, I think.  

  So I was right! :)
   



    Just as they want you to have an original username they want you to have an original password.

 Well, not quite. You have to have an original username so that they know who
to deliver the email to; if there were two fred@gmail.com's, that'd be a
problem. But I sincerely doubt that they care about the uniqueness of the
password.

 What they probably care about is the crackability of the password. If it's
just letters, even if they're spelling Teonaht instead of English, it's much
more crackable than if it also has other things like numbers and punctuation,
or at least spaces. It's probably the fact that you picked a phrase rather than
a single word that let you in finally.

 I'm sure there's a link on the page where you pick your password telling you
what is and is not acceptable...


  NO THERE WAS NOT.  THERE WERE LINKS TO TERMS OF AGREEMENT AND PRIVACY RULES

  -- 
  Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>