5 ms·

I'm not sure how so. I just give someone an email address (x122@example.com) and they just use it, and everything to "example.com" (or, my domain in practice)

by lcall 7y ago

I'm not sure how so. I just give someone an email address (x122@example.com) and they just use it, and everything to "example.com" (or, my domain in practice) always comes to me. I've never yet had to tell a person (other than some online automated system (edit: rarely there but happened and i was glad I could)) to change the address they use for me. Works well especially when businesses require one. Then if they spam me too much later, I just can auto-delete email to that address at either my email client or using the web tools of pair.com who hosts the domain. But, did I misunderstand you?

AlchemistCamp 7y ago
In many cases an email address is used as a primary ID. Blog comments, gravatar images, and many social apps are this way. When you intro one contact to another, which email address do you use? Even for businesses it can be a pain. Fortunately, few of my own customers follow your protocol, but I've had a couple of very paranoid German users who signed up for my service under a numbered email address and then later emailed me from another address asking for help... and I had no idea who they were or ability to help them. If your concern is just spam, it's trivial to block an offending address. Why do you need to fracture your address? It seems like you're creating a massive headache both for yourself and for those who want to deal with you. For a point of reference, I've been pretty active on the web since its early days and at least after PG's "Plan for spam" essay, I've never had a serious issue. The worst problem has been somebody who has the same name as me and a similar email address. His elderly friends consistently email me by accident trying to reach him. Other than that, it's been fine. Recruiters have been mildly annoying, but even they don't send more than a couple of emails per week.
- lcall 7y ago
  For some, I automatically change my "from" address using a rule in mutt, that change it based on the recipient. One could keep a list there I guess. For social media etc., it hasn't come up for me, but for those or multi-contacts sharing it, I would have to choose a shared email I guess, or use a main "business" one. (I don't personally use FB, or those sites that have you log in using contact from another site. Fortunately my activities have been able to work around those.) I do keep a log in my personal organizer of what # comes next, and what address I have used w/ whom (with my notes for each org I talk to, alonside the contact names, physical address, conversation logs in case I need to quote who said what when, etc). Then I try to use the same email address w/ them when I reply (a few keystrokes I learned, in mutt; this has not been often enough to be a pain, so far, but I can see how it could grow to a nuisance if I were doing that all day long). Maybe one could extract the email addresses from that list and use a bulk email every 3 years to say "here is my new address" or something, if that address started getting too much spam. I haven't done that to know if it is practical from a social standpoint: maybe not. Arguably at some level, it could be all more trouble than it is worth. It's become habit for me now. I guess I get annoyed when someone requires my email then abuses it, or I start getting spam of a type that I know their PC was compromised. At least once I got some really offensive spam from an address I had used only at an online site whose services I appreciated, but whose IT I couldn't trust much, because they claimed they had notified all customers who were compromised in a reported breach, but they never notified me. That knowledge might not have benefited me enough to justify all this work, but I was really glad to block that email address in future. Once I skipped my usual careful process and instantly regretted it (fortunately that spam has since petered out). Or, I can now auto-delete emails from public mailing lists I haven't used in many years but spammers still do. I also have one "throwaway" address I re-use for all businesses where I don't care if we lose track of each other, and I can change it later if needed. That might be the sweet spot for some. edit: Having my own domains lets me do it however I want, and change over time.
  - AlchemistCamp 7y ago
    This is fascinating. Thanks for all the details you've shared! I'm definitely pretty low key about this kind of thing and it's interesting to see how others think.
    - lcall 7y ago
      Thanks and you're welcome. I put many things I think a lot about (not email stuff but things really important to me...) at my web site (in my profile).
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    - lcall 7y ago
      (ps: if anyone looks at my site: it is intermittently slow for me lately and the hosting support can't reproduce it. If you see that slowness, and want to say what region you are from (perhaps emailing me using contact info on the site's page footers, won't put you on a list), that might provide diagnostic input. No big deal but thanks if so.)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- lcall 7y ago
  You said: "If your concern is just spam, it's trivial to block an offending address. Why do you need to fracture your address? It seems like you're creating a massive headache both for yourself and for those who want to deal with you." ...and the reason is spammers keep changing (or faking) their "from" information. Also, maybe I should look up that "Plan for Spam" essay you mentioned.
- lcall 7y ago
  (Now I'm wondering about making a mutt rule that always replies "from" the address to which others sent me a message. If it works, that would reduce effort more. Maybe later.) edit: corrections

by lcall 7y ago

AlchemistCamp 7y ago

In many cases an email address is used as a primary ID. Blog comments, gravatar images, and many social apps are this way. When you intro one contact to another, which email address do you use? Even for businesses it can be a pain. Fortunately, few of my own customers follow your protocol, but I've had a couple of very paranoid German users who signed up for my service under a numbered email address and then later emailed me from another address asking for help... and I had no idea who they were or ability to help them. If your concern is just spam, it's trivial to block an offending address. Why do you need to fracture your address? It seems like you're creating a massive headache both for yourself and for those who want to deal with you. For a point of reference, I've been pretty active on the web since its early days and at least after PG's "Plan for spam" essay, I've never had a serious issue. The worst problem has been somebody who has the same name as me and a similar email address. His elderly friends consistently email me by accident trying to reach him. Other than that, it's been fine. Recruiters have been mildly annoying, but even they don't send more than a couple of emails per week.

lcall 7y ago
For some, I automatically change my "from" address using a rule in mutt, that change it based on the recipient. One could keep a list there I guess. For social media etc., it hasn't come up for me, but for those or multi-contacts sharing it, I would have to choose a shared email I guess, or use a main "business" one. (I don't personally use FB, or those sites that have you log in using contact from another site. Fortunately my activities have been able to work around those.) I do keep a log in my personal organizer of what # comes next, and what address I have used w/ whom (with my notes for each org I talk to, alonside the contact names, physical address, conversation logs in case I need to quote who said what when, etc). Then I try to use the same email address w/ them when I reply (a few keystrokes I learned, in mutt; this has not been often enough to be a pain, so far, but I can see how it could grow to a nuisance if I were doing that all day long). Maybe one could extract the email addresses from that list and use a bulk email every 3 years to say "here is my new address" or something, if that address started getting too much spam. I haven't done that to know if it is practical from a social standpoint: maybe not. Arguably at some level, it could be all more trouble than it is worth. It's become habit for me now. I guess I get annoyed when someone requires my email then abuses it, or I start getting spam of a type that I know their PC was compromised. At least once I got some really offensive spam from an address I had used only at an online site whose services I appreciated, but whose IT I couldn't trust much, because they claimed they had notified all customers who were compromised in a reported breach, but they never notified me. That knowledge might not have benefited me enough to justify all this work, but I was really glad to block that email address in future. Once I skipped my usual careful process and instantly regretted it (fortunately that spam has since petered out). Or, I can now auto-delete emails from public mailing lists I haven't used in many years but spammers still do. I also have one "throwaway" address I re-use for all businesses where I don't care if we lose track of each other, and I can change it later if needed. That might be the sweet spot for some. edit: Having my own domains lets me do it however I want, and change over time.
- AlchemistCamp 7y ago
  This is fascinating. Thanks for all the details you've shared! I'm definitely pretty low key about this kind of thing and it's interesting to see how others think.
  - lcall 7y ago
    Thanks and you're welcome. I put many things I think a lot about (not email stuff but things really important to me...) at my web site (in my profile).
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - lcall 7y ago
    (ps: if anyone looks at my site: it is intermittently slow for me lately and the hosting support can't reproduce it. If you see that slowness, and want to say what region you are from (perhaps emailing me using contact info on the site's page footers, won't put you on a list), that might provide diagnostic input. No big deal but thanks if so.)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
lcall 7y ago
You said: "If your concern is just spam, it's trivial to block an offending address. Why do you need to fracture your address? It seems like you're creating a massive headache both for yourself and for those who want to deal with you." ...and the reason is spammers keep changing (or faking) their "from" information. Also, maybe I should look up that "Plan for Spam" essay you mentioned.
lcall 7y ago
(Now I'm wondering about making a mutt rule that always replies "from" the address to which others sent me a message. If it works, that would reduce effort more. Maybe later.) edit: corrections