I don't use gmail, but used to use <prefix><dash>username (prefix-username@) with qmail - and at some point had to have email at a site that used Exim with standard setup - that allowed <prefix><plus>username (prefix+user@) -- but not with a dash (it is possible to configure Exim to do this - but with qmail it is standard).
That's how I discovered that a lot of sites erroneously filter out + from the username part.
Now host my own email with Exim - but rather than use a prefix, I've just set up Exim to route all users at all subdomains to my inbox, so I can use adresses like:
site@s.example.com (s for spam). So far I that have worked fine.
Very, very annoying... This is what a friend of mine always sends to those who choose to filter valid characters from email addresses... https://gist.github.com/EHLOVader/4531693
A worse system (read: hack) is to put variable amounts of dots in your email address when you sign up for something, because Gmail strips dots from your account name when delivering your mail. It requires you to remember or write down who got what amount of dots though.
For most, I use sneak+tag@mydomain (Google Apps), but for those, they all get bucketed into my special noncompliant@mydomain email to guard against the eventuality of one of them selling me out.
I don't use gmail, but used to use <prefix><dash>username (prefix-username@) with qmail - and at some point had to have email at a site that used Exim with standard setup - that allowed <prefix><plus>username (prefix+user@) -- but not with a dash (it is possible to configure Exim to do this - but with qmail it is standard).
That's how I discovered that a lot of sites erroneously filter out + from the username part.
Now host my own email with Exim - but rather than use a prefix, I've just set up Exim to route all users at all subdomains to my inbox, so I can use adresses like:
site@s.example.com (s for spam). So far I that have worked fine.