Like Tony said, I stopped doing this because so many places wouldn't accept the +. And it won't help if someone is trying this manually, as they'll see the plus sign.

Besides, it really is the password issue that's the real danger. Since the Gawker attacks, I've seen zero increase in spam that's reached my inbox. I haven't had any, actually.

I also meant to check back with this thread, so thanks, Tom. Since all this went down, I've taken LastPass's "Security Challenge." It basically looks at all my passwords and grades their security, while also identifying if you're using the same password on multiple sites. I've been going through, one by one, and changing my passwords. It's a bit daunting and takes a long time, but it's like a game to see if you can increase your score and move up the ranks (it compares your score with other LastPass users).