Why is there an xxx at the start of my email address?

Too many emails from ProZ.com have bounced back and your email address has been marked as invalid. Your secondary email address is being used.

Because users sometimes change email addresses without changing their settings, ProZ.com needs to check in an automated way to see when emails start "bouncing" back to its servers.

When the system 'sees' bounces, it "marks" the (usually bad) emails by appending an "xxx " prefix to them, which tells the mailing program "don't even try sending to this one". In cases where a user has entered both primary and secondary emails, the system promotes the secondary address and from then on, attempts to mail to that one. Note that the system will *not* make a point of going back and restoring the old order if your secondary address gets better - if you want it back, you have to do it yourself.

The KudoZ asking page, and other pages, check for a valid email address format before allowing anyone to ask. If you try to ask a question, and you have an "xxx " at the start of your email, the system will tell you your email address is bad.

Then there is the notification in the login box. When an email has bounced, notice is given to the user there.