4 ms·

Ask HN: Your very first e-mail address. When did you get it and why?

9 points by ryancodes 8y ago

bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago
Comcast - don't even remember the handle. It was provided when my family set up internet through them in the 2000s.
icedchai 8y ago
1992: it was a local ISP. In 1993, I got a UUCP feed to my BBS, including email and Usenet news.
mindcrime 8y ago
Hrrm... I think maybe it was my email when I was at UNC-W back in the 90's. I don't remember what it was now though. Maybe something like prhodes@sol.cms.uncwil.edu or something like that. My first personal email though, was mindcrime@nccoast.net. This would have been about 1996 or 1997 or so. Some things never change, huh?
paulrpotts 8y ago
My very first address was a BITNET address. This is pre-Internet: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET and my address, which I don't recall, was specified with a "bang" address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP#Bang_path https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP#Bang_path. I would have gotten this around 1986 while at the College of Wooster. Honestly, I don't think I used that address very often for e-mail. At least, I don't recall using it much, although the details are a little hazy in my memory now. I don't have an archive of anything I sent and received back then. My earliest archived e-mail messages start around the fall of 1990, when I got an account on the University of Michigan's mainframe, and I think that account used the modern scheme for Internet e-mail addresses.
- ryancodes 8y ago
  Wow, I hadn't heard about any of this before now... that's awesome.
4ensic 8y ago
Pxxxx@ix.netcom.com About 1992, it came with the dialup Netcruiser Internet service.
51lver 8y ago
1996, dad set up firstname@ email addresses for us on his new mail server. By 1999 I had to move to a new one (not firstname@ this time, but a unique name) due to spam.
chelmzy 8y ago
Hotmail to use MSN Messenger in the fourth grade. Circa 2004/2005.
fatnoah 8y ago
College in 1993 and then an address at my own domain, which I still use as my primary address, in 1997.
esseeayen 8y ago
First email was at a now defunct ISP called AsiaOnline, and was a combination of mine an my father's name (as he bought the modem haha)
beezischillin 8y ago
2003, I was about 10 years old, I didn't speak any English and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever to have my own e-mail address so I somehow registered for a Yahoo account. I still have it.
dronescanfly 8y ago
mr-hankey@provider.com mr hankey as the title of some southpark episode. Didn't want to give out my real name back then. Won't give my name to any mail provider today. pseudonyms forever :|
muzani 8y ago
Hotmail. I was about 8 years old I think. My mom wouldn't let me use my real name, so it was (partial real name) + elvis@hotmail.com Later on I made games and my dad said the name looked trollish. So I switched my main email to (real name)@gmail.com
Mister_X 8y ago
Hmm, I've only had two email addy's over the last 30+ years, pretty sure the first one was 1986 or '87 when I opened an account at portal.net, in Cupertino, not too many private isp's back then. I got it to keep up with my fellow caver friends and join the cavers mailing list, a private list for NSS members who were actively exploring caves all over the world. For my "computer", I couldn't see spending 3 to 4 k on a laptop, so I dropped $350 on a Brother Power Note and an rs232 modem, together they did everything I needed and wowed all my friends when I printed out a cave plot in the middle of the Mojave Desert on my tiny battery powered B&W printer. I used my first Password in 1977 at work (private telco interconnect in silicon valley), it was DEVO, yes, I was referred to as the company's resident punk rocker service technician.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
DrScump 8y ago
My first wasn't accessible from public Internet (defense contractor). My second started in 1986, well before we had domain addressing, so a sender had to know 1) our corporate hostname, 2) my username, and 3) a well-known host to route through (like uunet, pyramid, decwrl, etc.) The convention for publishing my address, therefore, was {pyramid|uunet|decwrl}!infmx!aland I was actually the first person in the company to put my email address on my business cards! I still have some from then.
JohnClark1337 8y ago
It was on Juno because that's what we used back then. The internet was a much different place.
vkaku 8y ago
My first email address was a Yahoo! address in 1997.

9 points by ryancodes 8y ago

bitxbitxbitcoin 8y ago

Comcast - don't even remember the handle. It was provided when my family set up internet through them in the 2000s.

icedchai 8y ago

1992: it was a local ISP. In 1993, I got a UUCP feed to my BBS, including email and Usenet news.

mindcrime 8y ago

Hrrm... I think maybe it was my email when I was at UNC-W back in the 90's. I don't remember what it was now though. Maybe something like prhodes@sol.cms.uncwil.edu or something like that. My first personal email though, was mindcrime@nccoast.net. This would have been about 1996 or 1997 or so. Some things never change, huh?

paulrpotts 8y ago

My very first address was a BITNET address. This is pre-Internet: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BITNET and my address, which I don't recall, was specified with a "bang" address: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP#Bang_path https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UUCP#Bang_path. I would have gotten this around 1986 while at the College of Wooster. Honestly, I don't think I used that address very often for e-mail. At least, I don't recall using it much, although the details are a little hazy in my memory now. I don't have an archive of anything I sent and received back then. My earliest archived e-mail messages start around the fall of 1990, when I got an account on the University of Michigan's mainframe, and I think that account used the modern scheme for Internet e-mail addresses.

ryancodes 8y ago
Wow, I hadn't heard about any of this before now... that's awesome.

4ensic 8y ago

Pxxxx@ix.netcom.com About 1992, it came with the dialup Netcruiser Internet service.

51lver 8y ago

1996, dad set up firstname@ email addresses for us on his new mail server. By 1999 I had to move to a new one (not firstname@ this time, but a unique name) due to spam.

chelmzy 8y ago

Hotmail to use MSN Messenger in the fourth grade. Circa 2004/2005.

fatnoah 8y ago

College in 1993 and then an address at my own domain, which I still use as my primary address, in 1997.

esseeayen 8y ago

First email was at a now defunct ISP called AsiaOnline, and was a combination of mine an my father's name (as he bought the modem haha)

beezischillin 8y ago

2003, I was about 10 years old, I didn't speak any English and I just thought it was the coolest thing ever to have my own e-mail address so I somehow registered for a Yahoo account. I still have it.

dronescanfly 8y ago

mr-hankey@provider.com mr hankey as the title of some southpark episode. Didn't want to give out my real name back then. Won't give my name to any mail provider today. pseudonyms forever :|

muzani 8y ago

Hotmail. I was about 8 years old I think. My mom wouldn't let me use my real name, so it was (partial real name) + elvis@hotmail.com Later on I made games and my dad said the name looked trollish. So I switched my main email to (real name)@gmail.com

Mister_X 8y ago

Hmm, I've only had two email addy's over the last 30+ years, pretty sure the first one was 1986 or '87 when I opened an account at portal.net, in Cupertino, not too many private isp's back then. I got it to keep up with my fellow caver friends and join the cavers mailing list, a private list for NSS members who were actively exploring caves all over the world. For my "computer", I couldn't see spending 3 to 4 k on a laptop, so I dropped $350 on a Brother Power Note and an rs232 modem, together they did everything I needed and wowed all my friends when I printed out a cave plot in the middle of the Mojave Desert on my tiny battery powered B&W printer. I used my first Password in 1977 at work (private telco interconnect in silicon valley), it was DEVO, yes, I was referred to as the company's resident punk rocker service technician.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

DrScump 8y ago

My first wasn't accessible from public Internet (defense contractor). My second started in 1986, well before we had domain addressing, so a sender had to know 1) our corporate hostname, 2) my username, and 3) a well-known host to route through (like uunet, pyramid, decwrl, etc.) The convention for publishing my address, therefore, was {pyramid|uunet|decwrl}!infmx!aland I was actually the first person in the company to put my email address on my business cards! I still have some from then.

JohnClark1337 8y ago

It was on Juno because that's what we used back then. The internet was a much different place.

vkaku 8y ago

My first email address was a Yahoo! address in 1997.