How do i participate in group discussion without making my e mail address available?

Question

in groups that i belong to it states that my email address will be posted in my reply. i want to avoid that as i get too much junk mail that way, but have information i wish to contribute.

thanks

Answer 1

It sounds like the owner does not allow members to hide their email addresses.  If the group owner does not allow this, there is no way to keep your email address from showing when you post a REPLY to other messages on the group.  Please note this applies only to REPLY's, not NEW messages.

If you post a NEW message, only a "truncated" email address will show - that means only "yourname@..." will show and NOT "[e-mail]"  .  If that message gets replied to by you or anyone else, then your full address will show regardless.  

If you do not want this to happen with your contributions, find another group to join that allows members to hide their email addresses.

Answer 2

A Group Owner can set up a Group that allows members to hide their email address if they wish. There are penalties for such a set-up, however, so some Group Owners do not allow this.

If the Group you join does not allow members to hide their eddresses, or you choose not to hide your email address in a Group that allows it, your eddress will be available to any Group member who receives  messages via email or via digest, every time you post a reply AND every time you start a new Topic.

If you are really concerned about your privacy and cannot convince the Owner of your Group to allow members to hide their email address, try to find and join Groups that allow this. Such Groups will give you a hide-my-email box to tick when you join via the web interface.