What is the proper email etiquette to reply to a person?

What are the rules of etiquette for exchanging email addresses?

• I've always taken it for granted that an email address isn't as coveted as a person's home telephone number. But sometimes, when I've asked to exchange email addresses with a new aquaintence I've either been given excuses (my account is down) or have been told simply "I don't give that out to people I've just met." But more often than not, no one has had a problem exchanging an email address with me. But I wonder what the current trend is and what rules of etiquette dictate when it is acceptable to ask for or offer your address and when it is not.

• Answer:

  I have two levels of email... this yahoo one, which I use for business transactions, listservs, and "just met" folks, and a personal one for people I consider friends. It's not that I don't trust people w/ my personal email, so much as it is that I want to go into that email box reasonably assured that the messages will be from someone I want to respond to quickly. (I check my personal account constantly, whereas I only access the yahoo one once a day, if that.) I'm not sure there are "general" rules of etiquette about exchanging email addresses yet, because people are still figuring out the best way to use the technology for them. Some people don't like exchanging emails because they check their email infrequently and don't want to feel that they "should" be checking it more often, for example. So... I can't really speak to current trends, just my own experience. I ask people I know relatively well for their email addresses; w/ relative strangers I still usually use phone numbers. Because I think the barrier is lower with email... any idiot or spambot can fire off multiple emails, but people will rarely continue to call you if you've made it clear that you're not interested in talking to them. This is an interesting question, and it'll be cool to see what others think.