---
title: "Some GMail tips"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/18/some-gmail-tips.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/18/some-gmail-tips.html"
published: "2004-06-18T21:40:00"
updated: "2004-06-18T21:40:00"
tags: ["Off Topic"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "I don't normally suggest ways to “cheat” a system, but some people seem to really want some more extra GMail invites to share with stuff that matters to them. So here's the deal: You finally got invited to GMail. You…"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# Some GMail tips

By Roy Osherove June 18, 2004 In [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

**Historical article** · Originally published June 18, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

I don't normally suggest ways to “cheat” a system, but some people seem to really want some more extra GMail invites to [share with stuff that matters to them.](http://dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com/archives/004177.shtml) So here's the deal: You finally got invited to GMail. You invited two friends already, you have one invite left. You want to share it with a good cause but one is just not enough. What do you do?

You invite **yourself**. You then create a new GMail account from that invitation. One day later you get 3 GMail invites available to you to share with good causes. Want some more ? invite yourself a few times more. Multiply the number of new accounts by three and see where that gets you. Obviously this should come with a warning: don't abuse the system for bad causes. But heck, this was so easy to figure out I just had to share, especially for those seeking out to do good. Until Google finishes the popularity contest or figure out this loophole - I guess it's ok to use it.

Another GMail tip: You can't send in ZIP files. na-ah. However - you **can** send in RAR files.

## More in Off Topic

[All posts in Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

- Jun 20, 2004

    ### [Reminder: Israeli Blogger\\Geek Dinner this thursday evening](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/20/reminder-israeli-bloggergeek-dinner-this-thursday-evening.html)

- Jun 18, 2004

    ### [Israelis at Redmond](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/18/israelis-at-redmond.html)

- Jun 17, 2004

    ### [Meet me and Ohad at Computex?](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/17/meet-me-and-ohad-at-computex.html)

- Jun 17, 2004

    ### [\[ot\] Devil Duckie](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/6/17/ot-devil-duckie.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

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### Contact

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### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/