Why an Anonymous Gmail Account?
In building a Daily Kos group, it is very helpful to avoid using group kosmail entirely. For many reasons, the Daily Kos group mail system does not work well. In my experience, many group members never find group kosmails at all, so their participation in groups is suppressed, a lot like voter suppression.
As a Blog Administrator of many Daily Kos groups, I know what I’m talking about. If you’ve never had to use group kosmail, count yourself among the lucky. If you have used group kosmail, you could be applauding, but maybe you are a little worried about how to get an anonymous account. I’ll walk you through the steps, below, but first:
A big Thank You to the Daily Kos Tech Team
Thank you!
(I don’t think y’all get thanked enough.)
Think Ahead:
Before you begin the process of clicking here and there, think about what you want your anonymous name to be. Do you want it to be very similar in form to your Daily Kos name? I hope so. For instance, I chose my gmail account to look like my Daily Kos name (2thanks.dkos@gmail.com). You could do that too with your Daily Kos name. I hope you will pick a name similar to your Daily Kos username, because that will make keeping track of who you are easier for me and every other member of Daily Kos or Daily Kos group you share it with.
Choosing a Password:
Next, decide on a password that you will be able to remember. I recommend picking a password based on the first letters of an easy sentence, with slight alteration of letters. For instance, write a sentence like “I need a good anonymous account because I want to support the group Community Fundraisers.” Write that down in your saving place. Select only the initial letters, to achieve the memorable-for-you combination InagaabIwtstgCF.
Strong passwords of course consist of upper and lower case as well as numerals and special keyboard symbols. You already have upper and lower case letters, so you need a numeral and a symbol key. You could change the T of “to” to a 2 and change the second I to a capital 8 or “*” simply by moving your finger up one key from capital I to * (on the QWERTY keyboard). Now you have a strong password that is easy to remember. “Inagaab*w2stgCF” — By the way, that’s not my password. ;o)
Clicking and Typing:
Go to the Google sign-up page, but do not enter your real name, previous account names, cell phone numbers, or email addresses. Once back in time, I signed up for an anonymous Gmail account and gave them my self-named Gmail account as a backup email, and Google extracted my real name and included my real name in my so-called anonymous emails. (Ouch!)
The following method of getting an anonymous email account is probably not going to prevent certain institutions from finding out who you are and reading your messages, and I bet you know what I’m talking about, but this method will keep you anonymous for casual users.
The Google robot is not smart enough to figure out that you are using a made-up name. Or maybe it just does not care. With the following method, you must remember your password, write down your password, tattoo yourself with your password, name your child the same as your password, or whatever, because you will not give Google an account-recovery email address. Therefore, Google will not be able to send you a rescue email.
See also Avilyn’s note, below.
Here’s how I got my anonymous Gmail account
I went to the gmail account sign-up page and found the frame on the right.
I duplicate the graphic here, for readers with visual issues:
Bolded words represent labels associated with the boxes, and regular-font words represent what I inserted in the boxes to get my username of 2thanks.dkos@gmail.com:
Name
First Last
2thanks dkos
Choose your username
@gmail.com
(Type)
2thanks.dkos
for
2thanks.dkos@gmail.com
(Google inserts @gmail.com automatically)
Create a password
Something2479memorable
Confirm your password
Something2479memorable
Birthday
Month Day Year
(whatever)
Gender
I am…
(Whatever)
Mobile phone
Leave Blank!
Your current email address
Leave blank!
Prove you are not a robot.
(Respond to the prompt, press Next Step, and continue the steps.)
DO NOT FORGET YOUR PASSWORD! Google will be unable to email you a password, since you did not give them an email address.
Send an email from this account to another of your email addresses to verify that your name is NOT included automatically by your friendly neighborhood Google.
If you have any problems, please let me know. I used this method about 6 years ago and then again about a year ago for my communitytranscriptsproject.dk@gmail.com address. If it does not work, please let me know that too.
A note from Avilyn: Change your Gmail name
If you do specify a back-up email and they extract your name from that, you can change the name your anonymous GMail sends as:
- Go to Settings → “Accounts and Import”.
- On that screen is an option for “Send mail as” which shows your currently displayed info, and allows you to edit it.
So the email I use for DK/Twitter, for example, is Avilyn238 at GMail, and while it originally pulled in my real name, I was able to change it so that my display name is just “Avilyn” when I send emails.
Thank you, Avilyn!
Political Note
I know some people avoid using Gmail for political reasons. That’s fine, don’t. The process of obtaining an anonymous email address is probably quite similar in email programs from other providers.
Republishing this story on Daily Kos — “Add to Blog”
I plan to republish this story to many Daily Kos groups whose members could benefit from these instructions. (Thank goodness I was able to create 3 macros to speed the Republishing process.)
If you think your group or groups might benefit from these instructions, please feel free to Republish this story to your group(s).
Final Notes
These instructions evolved through many comments, messages, and a Daily Kos story I posted in May of 2016, in which Avilyn left her comment. As I review these instructions, I see that they could be further tinkered with, but I believe that they are acceptable unto the day.
If Gmail has changed their procedure or you note other issues herein, please let me know by kosmail or email, and I’ll make adjustments.
Power with, not power over,
2thanks
Update: Added top-image: A group of felines.